Torture
Is how I would describe my experience watching a local high school production of Cabaret.
I found the production extrememly offensive for several reasons:
1. As a parent, I was appalled at the dress of the cabaret girls. I mean, come on, I know they're cabaret girls, but for God's sake these are HIGH SCHOOL girls. I was shocked at their costumes with their butt cheeks hanging out and wiggling their butts at the audience. YIKES. Frankly, I found it to be quite disgusting and I am no prude.
2. I don't recall being a huge fan of the musical. I saw it once on video and didn't buy the soundtrack (I still have all my old musicals on CD). But I also don't recall Nazi's being glamorized in the movie. It seemed bizzare to me at the ending when the emcee comes out on stage and does the closing act, in which he salutes hitler and fr*ckin' huge swastikas (5 of them) on giant 6-foot banners drop down from the top of the stage, people start to applaud. WTF? Where the hell does one even get swastika banners that big in the first place??? Not only that, but if you were clueless about what REALLY happened to the Jews in Germany, there was no indication in the musical that the Nazis were BAD PEOPLE. All they show is a brick being thrown through a window and the old Jewish man leaving town. Seemed to convey that Berlin was a great place to be in and that if you were Jewish your troubles were minor. Nazi's were just a political party, like the Republicans.
3. By the time the musical ended I had a migraine. Besides the bad directing of the scenes to portray Nazis as "not that bad," something has got to be done about the sound in the auditorium. It was horrid. The people speaking/singing were barely audible or too loud. The mike on the lead female faded in and out throughout an entire scene (including her singing number) and I could barely understand them. Oh, and the singing was quite atrocious (granted they were high school students), except for the girl who played the German house frau.
Okay, I know I'm being way too harsh. I realize that these are high school kids and I applaud their efforts. I really blame the director of the musical. I just don't remember being so offended and disturbed at seeing any production. I love musicals. There was a time when this theatre used to be sold out, you had to park across the street from the school, and they used to hire police officers to direct traffic when it was through. We bought out tickets there that night and got row G. We could have sat in the front row if we wanted. It was pretty pathetic compared to how it was when I was a much younger person.
My mood: glad for the weekend, even though I have to work this afternoon.