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Sharon Shao, center, plays Sally Bowles in Oakland Theater Project\u2019s \u2018Cabaret.\u201d (Ben Krantz Studio via Bay City News)\u00a0<\/p>\nOakland Theater Project\u2019s revival of the 1966 Tony-winning musical \u201cCabaret,\u201d which opened Sunday in Oakland, is\u00a0faithful to both the original by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff and the 1972 Bob Fosse film in many respects. Yet it has its own definitive spirit and signature.<\/p>\n
Inside the German cabaret known as the Kit Kat Club, the scene is merry and decadent, and Nazism is on the march. Details\u00a0don\u2019t need to be drummed in, but the setting holds a mirror up to our time as the show offers its parable about what happens when individuals fail to stand up for what is right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Emcee, portrayed by Deanal\u00eds Arocho Resto, lays things down at the outset, with a warm and inviting \u201cWillkommen\u201d that\u2019s already a little curdled at the center. <\/p>\n
The most striking feature of director-choreographer Erika Chong Shuch\u2019s production is the active ensemble. Songs that might be soloed are sung in riotous color by the company; the actors are on the move from the time the black box theater opens (boogeying to a soundtrack of 20th century pop hits) to the finale.\u00a0
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The dancing is not Fosse style: it\u2019s unique, joyous movement\u00a0that lifts the show and brings every detail home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sharon Shao as the willful, fun-loving Sally Bowles\u00a0possesses not an ounce of decadence. She inhabits the Kit Kat Club hoping for a place in the sun. Her love for bisexual would-be American novelist Clifford Bradshaw is so real that she dreams of a traditional marriage even if for just a nanosecond.\u00a0 Her rendition of the title song is luscious\u2014and a little wicked.\u00a0
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Sharon Shao, center, plays Sally Bowles in Oakland Theater Project\u2019s \u2018Cabaret.\u201d (Ben Krantz Studio via Bay City News)\u00a0<\/p>\n
And who wouldn\u2019t fall for James Mercer II, a most humane, warm,\u00a0wholly fleshed-out Clifford Bradshaw? The two have unmistakable chemistry.\u00a0
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Beth Wilmurt as innkeeper Fraulein Schneider and guitar-strumming Joshua Pollock as Herr Schultz, the tenant who falls in love with her, are winsome as lonely elders who allow themselves to hope but end up in despair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not much is seen about the destruction of the Jewish Schultz\u2019s greengrocer\u2019s\u00a0store, which bears on the pair\u2019s decision to go it alone, and, if there is a shortfall in the show, it\u2019s that the tonal shift from happier times to less happy times could be more toxic and more explicit, with more boots on the ground or Nazi flags flying.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the song \u201cTomorrow Belongs to Me\u201d chills, only small details such as the swastika on the arm of Ernst Ludwig (the super-agile\u00a0Megan Trout) and\u00a0tenant Fraulein Kost\u2019s (Ije Success) assent are the only indication of the impending takeover.\u00a0\u00a0
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Ashley Renee\u2019s costumes, sequined, feathered and worn, and the two suitcases that hold all of Sally\u2019s and Clifford\u2019s possessions and serve as their furniture speak to the times.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The actors handle Kander\u2019s jazzy, Kurt Weill-tinged score superbly.\u00a0Standout songs are the collaboratively snaky\u00a0\u201cMein Herr\u201d and\u00a0audience-involved\u00a0\u201cMoney Money\u201d written for the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n