Here's the review I sent my friends...who haven't seen the show before, so there's a lot of plot stuff included. :-)

Before the show actually started, several cast members were on stage warming up and stuff and chatting with the crowd...completely in character though! They've really got it done up to feel as if you're in a real nightclub. The whole orchestra is round tables that seat four, and then long bars on either side, which is where I was sitting. There are lamps at each table that dim during the show, and there are even lamps up in the mezz, which is a normal mezzanine. I was very excited when Alan first came out. :-) Willkommen was pretty much what I expected, having seen it on Rosie and the Tonys and everything. There were several moments during the show where my jaw just dropped, as I couldn't believe what I'd just seen....one of those moments was during the opening scene. You know how, on the CD, the Emcee introduces Bobby and Victor, and says, "There's only really one way to tell the difference...I'll show you later"? Well, later in the song, he goes up to Bobby and Victor and grabs them both you-know-where, and then says, "That's Victor!" :-)

I really liked John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff...in the next scene he met Ernst on the train to Berlin, and he's the one who refers him to Fraulein Schneider for a room. Fraulein Schneider was being played by Blair Brown and I didn't like her quite as much as Mary Louise Wilson on the CD, though she grew on me by the end of the show. Ron Rifkin was fabulous as Herr Schultz. When Herr Schultz is introduced to Cliff, he asks him where in America he's from, so Cliff tells him Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and he goes, "Oh, I have a cousin in Buffalo...perhaps you know him?" :-)

Jennifer Jason Leigh was playing Sally, and it bugged me for a little while that I'm sure I could sing at least as well as she does. :-) Her acting was, however, very good. When the Emcee introduces her, he says, "She is so talented, so charming...only yesterday, I said to her, 'I want you for my wife', and she said, 'Your wife? What would she want with me?'" :-) So after he said that, a few people laughed (myself included! :-), but obviously not enough people, because he just stood there looking at us for a second until finally more people laughed and somebody clapped, and he nodded and said, "Thank you." :-)

When Sally calls Cliff's table, he picks it up and says, "Hello?" and she exclaims, "Oh, you're English!", and he says, "Absolutely!", and she replies, disappointed, "Oh, you're American." :-)

I didn't realize that Sally was fired from the Kit Kat Club on New Year's Eve, but that's why she goes to live with Cliff...she arrives at his apartment and starts looking around, and picks up a book and goes, "Oh, it's your book! What a strange name...'Mein Kampf'" :-) "Perfectly Marvelous" was fine...another thing I didn't know from the CD is that Cliff is bisexual...Bobby knows him from a nightclub in London.

"Two Ladies" was...interesting, to say the least. :-) During one of the musical interludes, the Emcee, Lulu and Bobby went behind a curtain, which was lit from behind so you could see their shadows, and started miming all sorts of...positions...and then afterwards, Alan pulls back the curtain and he's leaning against one of the sides, langourously smoking a cigarette. :-)

"It Couldn't Please Me More" was just too cute...all these pineapples came down from the ceiling and were twirling around. :-) And Alan was in the background for the ending, doing different things depending on what they were singing...it was hilarious!! :-) Throughout the whole show he was walking around the tables in the orchestra, so if you were sitting along one of the aisles, you would definitely get a close up view of him. :-)

Cliff is having a lot of trouble writing his book with Sally around, so they start talking and she tells him she's pregnant...she doesn't know who the father is, so she's planning on having an abortion, but Cliff says it could be his, so he wants to keep it. The Emcee then comes and brings a microphone on stage and she goes up to it and sings "Maybe This Time", and at the end of the song, she goes back to what she was doing, and the Emcee takes the mike away...it was kinda different, but I liked it.

"Money" was just a fun song...Alan really is wonderful in the role. Now, Fraulein Schneider had been having arguments with Fraulein Kost, who rents a room from here and who is basically a prostitute for sailors. Anyway, Fraulein Kost then catches Herr Schultz coming out of Fraulein Schneider's room, so to cover up, Herr Schultz announces that they are getting married in three weeks. And, that's what they decide to do. :-)

Ernst has hooked Cliff up to a job smuggling stuff in from France...Cliff needs money, so he does it. At the engagement party for Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider, Ernst takes off his coat to reveal a swastika on his arm, and Cliff realizes what he's done. Also at the party, Fraulein Kost tells Ernest that Herr Schultz is Jewish, so he warns Fraulein Schneider that there will be difficulties if she marries him. He is about to leave, but Fraulein Kost convinces him to stay by starting to sing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", a patriotic song, which the cast joins in a circle to sing, leaving Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider on the outside...I thought that was really effective.

So, Act Two! :-) It was really sad when Fraulein Schneider told Herr Schultz she couldn't marry him...though it seemed a bit strange to me when Alan came on stage to throw the brick through their "window". "If You Could See Her" was interesting...the gorilla was really good. :-) Cliff and Sally had an argument, as he wanted to go back to the States to escape what was happening in Germany, but she had just been hired back at the Kit Kat Club and wanted to stay...she left and went, despite his objections. He got into a fight with Ernst, Bobby and Victor, and Sally performed "Cabaret". The next scene was very intense...Sally came back, drunk, and told Cliff she'd aborted the baby...he slapped her, and it looked very realistic. :-) Anyway, the whole finale was very serious, and then at the very end, during the Willkommen reprise, the Emcee removed his overcoat, only this time, underneath was a concentration camp uniform. It was a really good ending.

So I went out to the stage door afterwards, and there were a few people there...it was darn cold though! :-) I only waited for Alan, and he was out fairly quickly.