Volume 4, Issue 1
January 10 - January 24, 2002

Life is a Cabaret

An intimate look at Theatre On Broadway's upcoming production

By Chris Magyar

Ever feel like walking into a room and watching people sing and dance?

No? Okay, how about walking into a room and watching people have sex? Better? What if you could walk into a small, dimly lit room and sit in a chair, watching love and hate and music and sex and heavy drug use take place mere inches from your face?

Willkommen. Welcome to Cabaret. The classic musical celebrating and exploring the bacchanalian club atmosphere of '20s and '30s Germany is coming to Denver. This won't be another overblown production featuring B-level Broadway talent, though. It won't take place in a different time zone than your seat, and it won't cost more than an appendectomy for a ticket. Denver's sleeping giant of the community theatre scene --Theatre On Broadway --has snatched the rights for Cabaret's revival and will be mounting a run completely produced and performed by local talent. The extravaganza opens January 18 and runs through March.

To find out more about this coup, we sat down with Nicholas Sugar, the Theatre Group's artistic director. For this particular show, he has also assumed the title of choreographer and co-director, and will be portraying the role of the Emcee, recently made famous by Alan Cumming. Sugar has a quiet energy in his voice, one of the most perfectly round shaved heads we've ever seen, and enough enthusiasm for this project to explain the multiple roles he's taken on his shoulders.

"The best thing about Cabaret is that it's an intimate show and we have an intimate space," he said. "It's not like we're trying to mount Anything Goes with a cast of thousands and a ship on the stage. It is a cabaret here. It's supposed to be small; this is how it started."

Those who have been lucky enough to attend a Theatre Group show in the past know the Theatre On Broadway is quite an intimate space indeed, with only a dozen rows of seating and a wide floor-level stage. To mount the show, the Group did make some modifications, such as a raised platform on the stage and another platform about seven feet off the ground where the live musicians will perform John Kander and Fred Ebb's legendary songs.

Sugar is particularly excited about the musicians. "Musicians are usually an added cost and luxury that small theatres can't afford. That's part of the bigness of this: the budgets are bigger, the stress is bigger, everything's bigger." The music will be directed by Donna Debreceni, who also worked with the Group on last season's hit When Pigs Fly.

"Musicians are jumping on board just because they want to do Cabaret," Sugar said. "Everybody has wanted to get involved. It was by far the best theatre call we've had for just one show. We had people coming out of nowhere to do the show."

The cast, which was culled from what Sugar described as "three hours of nonstop talent" at auditions, will be 17 members strong, not including musicians. This seems like a crowded company for just a little cabaret, but Sugar knows better. After all, he's lived in New York. "This is an Off-Broadway Equity House in New York. People don't realize that," he said. "There are shows in Greenwich Village -- Broadway shows --that are staged in half the space, at an angle, just crammed in there. I've worked with a lot of young actors in Denver who say, 'We're going to New York. It's bigger and better than Denver. ' Then they do and call me up and say, 'You guys have a great space! You have a dressing room, a bathroom. You actually have a LOBBY, not just a skinny hallway you walk through. '"

And there's the facts. Actors and audiences alike are beginning to realize there are benefits to performing in Denver, even though the surface of the city may appear to be just beer and sports. The Theatre Group wanted Cabaret to start this season off because the audience base for great theatre is growing beyond the company's usual target, which is the gay and lesbian community.

"When I came here seven years ago from New York, I had no intention of staying," Sugar said. "What I found was a growing city. Colorado had just overturned Amendment 2, so the gay and lesbian community was really strong and united. I heard about the Theatre On Broadway and it was just another small company. Then they decided to do the first all-gay season. The shows sold out completely, every night. It was amazing. That was an eye-opener for us. Here's an audience that's starving and supportive and wants this. Now, years later, the community has grown and changed a lot, and so has the city as a whole. There's more tolerance and acceptance here. Denver is growing in that aspect. We need to broaden our appeal just to keep up."

Cabaret makes a perfect bridge for the company. While retaining certain appeal for the Group's core audience, mounting a production based on a Tony-award winning revival is sure to attract mainstream attention and enthusiasm. Like the revival, however, Sugar warns that audiences shouldn't expect a tame song-and- dance show.

"What's happening with the revival version is the reviews are coming out saying the choreography is wonderful, but 'we can't tell you what it is. ' Not because they want to keep it a secret, but because they're literally not allowed to print the necessary words to describe it in the paper! The vulgarity is definitely there. The play deals with the time period's sexuality, the drug addiction, the depression, the need for entertainment at whatever cost." The gleam of the Emcee's come-hither look shone in Sugar's eye. "We definitely serve an audience that likes to be pushed a little. It's cutting edge, it's provocative, it's sexy.

It's quality. We'll get people buying tickets without even knowing what's playing. Our reputation is: we're going to go there, we're going to see something interesting, and it's going to be a good production whether we agree with the script or don't. Quality work, quality actors, not some theatre in the suburbs."

Not some cavern in the Complex, either. "Cabaret just works at our theatre. It's really wonderful that the theatre community has embraced that. To say, it's at Theatre On Broadway, this is where it's supposed to be. It's not the Avenue, it's not the Acoma. It just doesn't work there. It's the right fit for us."

Of course, it's a fit the Theatre Group has grown into. Cabaret is by far the biggest production mounted in the space, and the biggest challenge both financially and artistically they have faced yet. Still, Sugar is undaunted, even with the multiple responsibilities he has. "I'm a control freak. That's how I got into directing. You know, as an actor you can be red, or you can be blue. But I get to stand outside the picture and mix the red and the blue.

That's what I like about directing, the ability to make pictures. Of course, I get a juicy role this time around, too."

The challenge of attracting an audience doesn't have him scared, either. Without any marketing at all --just a small postcard to regular patrons --seats are already selling like crazy. A simple mention in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News brought phone calls. Even in a sports-and-beer city, a great Broadway musical can generate a lot of attention. Coming from huge cities (Sugar also lived in Hong Kong and Los Angeles), he's thrilled to see mainstream folk paying attention to theatre here. "There are only so many games you can go to and so many beer bars you can sit in before it's time to do something new. I love doing new things all the time--I'll go downtown to a sports bar and sit there or I'll go to an art gallery or I'll go to the mountains. But I'm used to cities that have a lot to offer, so you just have to absorb things. I have to think we're creating that culture here. Otherwise why bother? I have to think I'm offering that to somebody, just one person even, and that we'll open them up in a new way."

In a twisted way, the spectacle of Cabaret -- the fun parts, not the tragedy --could serve as an example of the kind of counter-culture Denver is finally ready for. "The cabaret was not a plush club," Sugar said. " These people were not that talented, these people were on drugs, these people were having sex with everyone in sight, it was dark and seedy and underground. And raw. It was just raw."

Not to say that more drugs and sex equals a first-class culture, but the expo-sure to such things, even through the artifice of drama, can be invigorating for a sleepy town. "I love intimate theatre," Sugar said, once again with that gleam in his eye. "I love looking out into the audience and connecting with people, or seeing my actors connect with people. You know, I went to the Buell last night and saw a great show, but at a certain point, you're watching an audience watch a show. You're removed. You can't be affected directly by it. Whereas here, in our space, you have no choice. There's nowhere to hide. And that's why Cabaret is so exciting. You aren't just going to show up and watch a play called Cabaret, you're going to come to a real cabaret and be right there in the middle of the action."

Previews of Cabaret begin January 16. Theatre On Broadway is located at 13 S. Broadway. A complete schedule can be found at www.theatregroup.org. For tickets ($12-$25), call 303-860-9360.

Photos by Michael Ensminger and Gary Stefanski