Two especially attractive blonde lasses who claim Germany as a birthplace (although you’d have to read their bios to discover they aren’t home-grown talents) are presenting a musical retrospective and a taste of post-World War I Berlin’s decadence and dissipation.

Adrienne Haan and Micaela Leon enter singing “It’s All a Swindle,” as they toss memorabilia Twenty-Million Mark notes to the audience – a reminder of the era’s uncontrollable inflation that rendered social norms and money virtually meaningless. The show’s song list, and the singers’ patter, augment that theme.

The time fomented the beginnings of a sexual revolution, and Freidrich Hollaender/Richard Rillo’s song, “Blonde Women,” is followed by the Hollaender/Marcus Schiffer “Sex Appeal.” As accompaniment to their “Attila, the Hun,” Micaela and Adrienne left the stage on opening night to cruise the audience, hone in on one receptive man and, leaving him appropriately roused, pulled another onto the stage to vamp him even more publicly.

The song titles reflect the theme.  “Check Out the Men,” They Call Me Naughty Lola,” Maskulinum – Femininum.”  At one point, the era’s casual drug use is dramatized by the suggested use of a syringe while singing. Two songs are more familiar — Weill/Brecht’s “Pirate Jenny,” and Friedrich Hollaender/Sammy Lerner’s “Falling in Love Again.”

Body mics allow a full freedom of movement to the performers and a decidedly theatrical staging, which works well.  On opening night, however, that innovation had an unexpected consequence.  Actively moving about, Micaela overstepped and tripped, falling off the narrow stage. To the relief of a concerned crowd, she effected a trouper’s comeback with assurances that all was well and continued the number.

Richard Danley is the show’s musical director and pianist, “Sweet” Sue Terry does the honors with her saxophone and Phillipp Gutbrod is on drums.  The arrangements are well done, sung mostly as duets with bits of original German lyrics here and there. The subject matter is so absorbing that one welcomes the few solo numbers accompanied by only the piano, allowing a better appreciation of Haan and Leon’s appealing voices, companion pieces to their attractive personalities.

Halfway into the opening night show, a technical problem knocked out the singers’ body mics, resulting in the instrumentation overshadowing many of the lyrics.  Regrettable, but for at least this reviewer, it provided a need (or excuse) to return to the show again, to observe two appealing young performers in the process of making a conspicuous mark for themselves in New York cabaret.

J-P Perreaux was technical director. Narcisssa and Goldmund was directed by Jeff Howard and will be presented again October 31, November 22 and November 29. 

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
October 24, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org