OPINION
Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
May 21, 2018
Volume 28 Number 10
May 21, 2018
ISSN: 1094-9453
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n Dmae Roberts
Cabaret: Then and now
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MY TURN
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ith a storm in the wind, what would you Sometimes people stand up to it, but more often
do?
they stand by as spectators or brush off its impact.
Almost 30 years ago, I sang these lyrics
I’m even more deeply troubled when people of
from the original version of Cabaret, the musical by color become part of a hate movement. A
John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Mastersoff based self-declared “Asian Nazi” — 24-year-old Heon
on the play I Am a Camera, which was adapted from “Hank” Jong Yoo of Tyler, Texas — was arrested in
Christopher Isherwood’s novel Goodbye to Berlin. April on charges of making false statements when
Cabaret is set in 1930s Berlin when
he purchased seven guns in east
the Nazi Party is gradually taking
Texas. Yoo created YouTube videos
over Germany. It centers on a
of himself singing “Dixie,” wearing
young American named Cliff who
a Confederate soldier’s uniform,
adventures to the Kit Kat Klub, a
and “denigrating Black Lives
seedy cabaret where he meets a
Matter and Jewish people.” On the
British singer, Sally Bowles.
Southern Poverty Law Center’s
Many readers might be familiar
website, he was quoted as
with the movie starring Liza
“considering myself white” and
Minnelli and Joel Grey. In 1998,
calling his parents a racial slur.
the new Broadway version of the
It saddened me that an
play was adapted with songs from
immigrant raised in Texas could be
the film. In it, LGBTQI (lesbian,
so attracted to fascism. It’s even
gay,
bisexual,
transgender,
worse that no one stood up to him,
questioning,
and
intersex)
taught him to embrace being
undercurrents
became
more Dmae Roberts plays Fräulein Schnei-
Asian, or connected him with
prominent and the club and der in Cabaret. (Photo/Greg Parkinson
communities of color.
dancing became more gritty and Photography)
It takes strength to stand up
W
raunchy.
I was in the original version of the musical twice,
once as a Kit Kat Girl and a few years later as
Fräulein Schneider, the “B” story of the play, about
an ill-fated elder romance. I always wanted to play
the role of Fräulein Schneider when I was closer to
the actual age of the character and had more life
experience. When I learned that Fuse Theatre
Ensemble, a company that also produces the
OUTwright Theatre Festival of LGBTQI works,
was staging Cabaret, I auditioned. I’ve now checked
off my bucket list an opportunity to reprise a
character I love in the “new” risqué version of the
play that contains more sexual situations and
nudity than the previous productions.
What’s most striking is that the storyline of
anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany is more blatant and
ominous. Considering the recent rise of nationalism
and neo-Nazi gatherings, Cabaret has greater
weight and pertinence now than when I was last
involved in the play in 1989. Since the 2016 U.S.
presidential election, there have been daily
headlines of not only anti-Semitic hate crimes, but
racist, xenophobic, and homophobic ones as well.
against hate. Many people don’t, however, because
they are afraid, as exemplified by Fräulein
Schneider in the play when she sings the questions:
Would you pay the price? What would you do?
My revisitation of Cabaret in the highly
immersive production in Portland is featured
through June 2 at the real cabaret setting of the
Funhouse Lounge. It also has a cast that’s
two-thirds LGBTQI and includes five actors of color.
Though some might blush (or laugh) at the nudity
and sexuality, the play holds a mirror to the growing
nationalism and neo-Nazi activities in our country.
Cabaret, with its fun and sometimes poignant and
chilling songs, dramatizes how evil can grow slowly
into a pandemic if it’s not addressed. After making a
decision between love or bowing to the will of an
oppressive nationalist movement, Fräulein
Schneider asks the important question that still
rings true in 2018: Go on; tell me I will listen. What
would you do? If you were me …
Cabaret is playing at the Funhouse Lounge, located at 2432 S.E.
11th Avenue in Portland, through June 2. To learn more, call
(214) 504-6350 or visit <www.fusetheatreensemble.com>.
To buy tickets, visit <www.boxofficetickets.com>.
Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.
Wondering what events are going on this week?
Check out The Asian Reporter’s event calendars, on page 12.
