Cabaret Milwaukee's First Show--The Jealous Revolver

Cabaret Milwaukee opened its first show last night. The 1940s retro live production company joins a growing number of local 20th century performance groups including The M.U.T.E.S., Wisconsin Hybrid Theatre and Rockabilly Girl Productions. Cabaret Milwaukee's first show was a '40s show set int he hieratic Best Place in the Pabst Brewery. It's a very fresh feeling as you get in and sit down. Very jazzy and classy with Anthony Deutsch on piano, Devin Drobka on drus, Clay Schaub on upright bass and Scott Hlavenka on guitar. 

The show settles-in amongst actors showing audience members to their seats amidst the jazzy background. Adam White hosts the evening. He directs the show through variety acts that are anchored-in by little segments of a '30s-style organized crime drama.

The drama had Michael Keiley playing a charismatic crime boss. He surveys his empire with the help of a woman named Vivicia, played with authority by Sarai Anzaldua, who also wrote some of the evening's material. The center of the story of The Jealous Revolver Episode One involved a young crooner (Ryan Nelson) who was looking to make some extra money from the crime boss. He's got no experience, but the boss hires him to eliminate a problem in the form of a careless associate played by Brian Miracle. The heart of the conflict is interesting, but not half as interesting as the reason why the crooner wants to make a little extra . . . see--he's fallen for a woman who works at a club owned by the boss--a beautiful woman played by Michelle White who has a brilliantly responsive understanding of this type of drama. She's got the perfect presence for this kind of show, which aids things immeasurably.

Also making a clever appearance between the scenes s Laura Holterman. She nails an early 20th century radio presence in the role of Mrs. Milli--a woman doling-out household advice to women still sting for their men to come back from the  front lines of World War One. Holterman provides a clever fusion between contemporary aesthetic and the historical '40s. Those Mrs. Milli segments were probably my favorite single part of the program. 

The best moments on the program approach that kind of fusion between contemporary aesthetic and retro style. Jason Hillman reaches for that kind of style with a contemporary political stand-up routine written as though he was a comedian from the '40s. There's the occasional bit of period-style advertising delivered in jingle format by Sarah Mellstrom, Steve Breese and Katrina Cengeri. There was also tap by Danielle Webber and '40s-style crooning by Jen Cintron in the role of Sadie Starlight . . . Starlight does one of the first performances on the program. She does a really good job of helping render the era. It was during her first song after hearing Deutsch and company go through the intro music that I started to miss the aesthetic of interior cigarette smoke. Not that I wanted the smell in the air or on my clothes and not that I personally wanted a cigarette, but there are brief moments here that feel just the right shade of authentic that one can't help but notice how strange it is that no one seems to be smoking in a cabaret in the early 1940s. 

The program as a whole is a little long at well over a couple of hours. The challenge of any variety show with multiple acts is to make the whole thing seem fluid. With each act coming up twice, the program definitely dragged. It's approaching 2.25 hours long. That's like . . . 2 and a quarter episodes of Lux Radio Theatre. Way too long. A show like this would work better even one hour shorter. The more acts involved in a show like this, the more fluid the transitions have to be. Otherwise 2 hours feels kind of like four. That aside, this is a promising debut for Cabaret Milwaukee. 

Cabaret Milwaukee's The Jealous Revolver Episode One runs once more tonight at 8pm at the Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery on 901 West Juneau. The show starts at 8pm. For ticket reservations, visit Cabaret Milwaukee online.