A few hours before the city welcomes in 1931, American writer Cliff Bradshaw (Charles Haggerty) arrives in Berlin seeking accommodation and the peace to write his novel. He quickly finds himself drawn into the notoriously decadent nightlife and sharing a room in the boarding house of Fraulein Schneider (Anita Harris) with English cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Kara Lily Hayworth). Bowles performs at the Kit Kat Club, where the Emcee (John Partridge) dominates a risque show, masking political commentary behind a front of brazen eroticism. Add in a sub plot about Frau Schneider's relationship with fruit and veg man Herr Schultz (James Paterson), and a new 'friend' of Bradshaw who gets him involved in some shady activities, and you have the bare bones of what storyline there is.
Musicals are largely about froth, and this is no exception. When you take away the singing and dancing there isn't a lot of plot left to get your teeth into. The first half had little else, and the second included a long solo from Harris that felt interminable. But the final number before the interval hinted at better things to come - a clever, sinister and well staged version of Tomorrow Belongs to Me, led by Partridge, showing the dark undercurrent of Naziism. That was brought home more strongly in the second half as the implications of Schultz's Jewishness is made violently apparent.
Froth all right, but froth with some bubbles of substance.
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