The Berlin Stories and Goodbye to Berlin

The Berlin Stories and Goodbye to Berlin (almost but not quite yet)

The title of this blog is Marc’s Berlin Diaries,  an intentional but slightly off allusion to the Christopher Isherwood works The Berlin Stories and Goodbye to Berlin, usually published together in recent decades and from which the play and film “Cabaret” was adapted.  The play, “I am a Camera” was an earlier, non-musical adaptation.  Walter Kerr, the renowned theater critic reviewed “I am a Camera” with three words, “Me, No Leica.”

So I thought it no small coincidence when I saw on a poster advertising das musical “Cabaret.”  Better than that was I happened on to the Berliner Ensemble’s production of the Robert Wilson production of Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Three Penny Opera which surely was in some part an inspiration for the musical Cabaret.  They were the only two theatrical productions I went to.  I wasn’t disappointed.

First Cabaret

“Life is a Cabaret my friends.”  Or maybe it’s not.   I did enjoy the performance very much. Except for three of the songs being sung in English (go figure), it was all in German. The venue, Tipi am Kanzleramt,  was an actual cabaret under a permanent circus-style tent.   In the front is an outside bar (and an interior one) on the edge of the Tiergarten with a view across the Spree of the new government administration building. (according to Google Translate “kanzlerampt” means “chancellery.”)  Seeing Cabaret was also a logical extension of having seen The Three Penny Opera (in which the only English I recognized was “Scotland Yard” – since it was adapted from the English “Beggar’s Opera,” I not totally surprised).  Three Penny Opera was a stronger performance, Broadway quality from cast to orchestra, sets, choreography, but Cabaret is worth seeing and it is having a long run. If you know the dark and jaded story set in and the music, you don’t have to know German to enjoy. The leads were great and so was the supporting cast. A man played the tallest chorus girl.  It wasn’t notable and he was tied with one of the other three for most beautiful (at least until I realized he was a man was really a man 0 actually even then he was beautiful but . . .  (think “Kinky Boots” if you’ve seen it). The band was wonderful. It was quite risqué. A woman with her husband and two grandchildren left with the grandchildren after a pretty raunchy scene feigning some scandalous sex.  I note that her husband stayed until the show was over.

Here is my YouTube posting of the curtain call

http://www.tipi-am-kanzleramt.de/en/programme/overview/cabaret-musical-berlin.html

But the Best was The Three Penny Opera

At the Berliner Ensemble, Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, founded by Berthold Brecht

“An artistic destiny fulfilled, visionary director Robert Wilson joins the world-renowned Berliner Ensemble in a bold production of Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Three Penny Opera – a seminal work of 20th-century music theater.  Wilson’s production recasts the story of Peachum, Polly, and Macheath in a bewitching setting informed equally by the striking designs of German Expressionist cinema and the shattering, seductive world of Weimar-era cabaret.”

I called the theater and asked if it was playing.  The good news was that it was.  The bad news was it was sold out.  I responded by asking please let me know if there was a ticket available.  They contacted me.  I took the ticket.  The seat was on the third and last row of the second balcony but higher than the third balcony. I think it’s possible there are no seats in that classic opera-house that were not good.  I saw a performance of Three Penny Opera by the Berliner Ensemble in a grand theater located at Berthold Brecht Platz 1.  A bronze sculpture of Brecht is in a plaza across from the theater.  The theater company was established by  Brecht.  I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I have no German (the bissel Yiddish I know isn’t helping). Of course it helped that I knew most of the music and the story (and there’s an English synopsis handed out),  My guess is when it premiered in 1928 it caused a sensation and since the house was sold out tonight (and all three performances) it sure has legs.  The production I saw was the creation of American director Robert Wilson, which he did in 2007 .  The sets and lighting were astounding, echos of Bauhaus, Art Deco, clean lines with neon that was switched of and on, just very stylized as was the acting.

One can see that it inspired Cabaret and even Edith Piaf and perhaps Pee Wee Herman although it is possible that that particular character was in spired by Paul Ruebens/Pee Wee Herman.  The sets were amazing, part bauhaus, art deco, many clean lines that sometimes were switched on to neon.  The actors were terrific.   A woman who played McHeath (a/k/a Mack the knife),

After writing the above, I did an internet search and read the October 5, 2011 review by Ben Brantly in the NYT of the performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (oh, I had such a glorious time last year living in South Williamsburg in Brooklyn) by the Berliner Ensemble (including Stefan Kurt, the woman who played MacHeath).  Our impressions were very similar, including the parallels to Cabaret (Cabaret being influenced by Three Penny Opera, but Robert Wilson perhaps influenced by Cabaret and Joel Gray) although his were more articulate and informed.  But then that’s why the NYT employs him and not me.  Unlike,  Walter Kerr and “I Am A Camera, “  He Leica.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/theater/reviews/threepenny-opera-with-berliner-ensemble-at-bam-review.html?_r=0