Weekend Review: not so Gritty City

The weekend offered a mixed bag of odd experiences and local jems. Here is a summary of what you missed:

In the odd category was the Broadway Center staging of “Cabaret.” It was a solid show for the most part, at least on the technical front. It was just an odd staging. See, the show is all about Berlin’s Kit Kat Club during the fall of the sinful times of “old Germany” and the rise of Nazi oppression. The play centers on the struggles of Sally Bowles, an aging and drug addicted dancer and an American tourist in search of a great novel behind the backdrop of what was sort of the Moulin Rouge of Germany. Most of the aspects of the revival of the Bob Fosse show were there, but it was the most sanitized version I have ever seen.

High School versions of the show were more risqué than this version, which made the story fall a bit flat since the storyline hinges on the shift between sex-and-drug-filled debauchery of what was essentially a sex club to one that faced destruction as Adolph Hitler’s vision of a “New Germany” took hold.

The dancers, for example, wore more clothes in this show than my grandmother did when she was making breakfast for me during a visit. “Cabaret” is about sex and drugs and everything-goes living. The show girls might as well have been wearing turtlenecks and parkas. It so clean that a tweenie friend of mine attended and laughed. If there ever was a family-friendly version of the show, this was it. But there shouldn’t be a family friendly of the show.

Next on the roster was New Frontier’s concert, anchored by Gavin Guss. While he rocked, the supporting bands did not. Big Wheel Stunt Show and A Leaf sucked. And not in a good way. There must have been a happy donkey backstage because the mouths of the singers were misused on stage. Yes, it was that bad. It was like the old Hell’s Kitchen on a weekday.

An interesting surprise was found at the Java Jive, with Sugarfixx, Battersea, Honeybear. While the lights were out until almost 10 p.m., the show went as planned once Tacoma Power flipped the switch. Overall, the music was solid by Java Jive standards, with Tacoma-based Battersea providing the highest energy performance of the trifecta. Expect to see more of this band, fronted by Eric Reidar, in the months to come.

As last call came and went, the dawn shortly followed after a quick trip to Shari’s for post-bar munchies. It was a good weekend out and about.