THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, August 2, 2019 |A
gives us a life-size Sally
Bowles, a portrayal devoid
of caricature in whose sad,
shabby humanity we can
easily believe. Best of all are
the two old pros, Mariette
Hartley and John Rubin-
stein, cast as Fräulein
Schneider and Herr Shultz,
whose autumnal love is
doomed by the viciousness
of the world around them.
Ms. Hartley actually got a
round of applause for the
grim conviction with which
she assured her appalled
tenants that “if the Nazis
come—I will survive....For—
in the end—what other
choice have I? This—is my
world!” She earned it, too.
If you’re looking for light
summertime fun, stick to
the beach. If, on the other
hand, you want to relish a
strong, compelling revival of
one of Broadway’s greatest
musicals, come to Ogunquit
Playhouse.iii
I was writing this review
when word came of the
death of Harold Prince. He
had long since ceased to be
a major force in American
theater by the time I be-
came the Journal’s drama
critic—his last hit, “Show
Boat,” opened in 1994, nine
years before I filed my first
review—and neither of the
two shows of his that I cov-
ered in this space, “Love-
Musik” and “Prince of
Broadway,” merited a rave.
By then he had lost his un-
canny feel for the moment,
one of the things that had
helped to make him so sig-
nificant an artist. Yet a gi-
ant he still was, one in
whose long shadow we all
work today. Among many
other things, it was Mr.
Prince who directed the
very first production of
“Cabaret” in 1966, a high-
concept staging whose darkseriousness changed forever-
more the way we think about
what back then continued to
be called “musical comedy.”
It was also Mr. Prince who
directed Stephen Sondheim’s
“Company,” “Follies” and
“Sweeney Todd,” the most
important and influential
American musicals of the
postwar era. And it was Mr.
Prince who directed the first
great Broadway musical I
ever saw, the 1974 revival of
“Candide” that opened my
eyes to what musical theater
could do and be.Cabaret
Ogunquit Playhouse, 10 Main
St., Ogunquit, Maine ($51 and
up, depending on availability),
207-646-5511, closes Aug. 10Mr. Teachout, the Journal’s
drama critic, is the author
of “Satchmo at the
Waldorf.” Write to him at
[email protected].Dark and
Racy Summer
Stock
A compelling ‘Cabaret’ based on Sam
Mendes’s lewd, pitch-black production
THEATER|TERRY TEACHOUT
Randy Harrison and the cast of ‘Cabaret,’ above, and Kate Shindle, left, in the Ogunquit Playhouse productionGARY NG (2)LIFE & ARTS
Henry Higgins in a first-
class revival of “My Fair
Lady” back in 2008). Rarely
does a summer go by when I
don’t drive up to Ogunquit
to catch a musical, and I’ve
yet to be disappointed.
I confess, though, to hav-
ing been surprised when
Ogunquit announced that it
was mounting a production
of “Cabaret” based on the
Sam Mendes-Rob Marshall
version. Not that that show
was ever anything other
than wildly popular: It
served as one of the Round-
about Theatre Company’s
can’t-miss cash cows
throughout two long runs
there, which opened in 1998
and 2014. But “Cabaret,” for
all its deceptive air of fes-
tivity, is in fact savagely se-
rious, a tough-minded snap-
shot of Weimar Germany on
the eve of Hitler’s ascent to
power, and Mr. Mendes’s
sleazed-up staging, which
put the emphasis on the
show’s pitch-black side,
was—to put it very, very
mildly—not the sort of
thing you’d expect a resort-
town theater to present.
So it is fine news that
this “Cabaret,” directed by
BT McNicholl and choreo-
graphed by Andrea Leigh in
the distinctive manner of
the Mendes-Marshall stag-
ing, has neither been cen-
sored nor watered down.
Ogunquit has even taken the
trouble to reproduce the
original sets, designed by
Robert Brill, and rent the
down-and-dirty costumes
created by William IveyLong in 1998. If you saw
“Cabaret” at the Round-
about, you’ll know what
you’re getting—and you’ll
know not to take the kids,
either, unless you want to
do some heavy-duty explain-
ing, especially after the sil-
houette staging of “Two La-
dies,” in which every
imaginable variety of sexual
congress is illustrated with,
shall we say, total forth-
rightness.
It’s the casting that gives
this “Cabaret” a fresh and
individual touch. Alan Cum-
ming had played the MC a
few hundred times too
many by the time I re-
viewed its second Round-
about run—he was clearly
flying on autopilot, albeit
with absolute professional-
ism—whereas Randy Harri-
son invests the part with a
cheery geniality that helps
to underline its horrific iro-
nies. Similarly, Kate ShindleOgunquit, Maine
TIME WAS WHENAmerica
was full of theater compa-
nies that put on “summer
stock” shows, importing big
names to star in recently
written plays and changing
their fare every couple of
weeks. Their repertory com-
panies served as the sink-or-
swim training grounds for
up-and-coming actors and
provided worthy entertain-
ment to countless vacation-
time theatergoers. Almost
all of them are gone now,
but Ogunquit Playhouse,founded in 1933 in one of
Maine’s most popular
coastal resort towns, contin-
ues to mount high-quality
productions of a half-dozen
or so musicals each summer
in its 668-seat auditorium.
While most of its offerings
are unabashedly pitched to
the tourist trade, the com-
pany usually offers at least
one interesting revival per
season, and it continues to
bring in performers of note
(I saw Jefferson Mays playmore than one car is like
something out of H.G. Wells.
Sometimes, it’s just very
funny—the show hits its
stride with episode 3, in
which Tulip visits Corginia,
a land that looks like an-
cient Athens but is peopled,
so to speak, by Welsh corgis.
Corginia is led by Atticus
(Ernie Hudson), who is a
fount of wisdom but can
never decide whether or not
he wants to go outside.
We know this indecisive
dog. Similarly, we know the
scorched land Tulip comes
from; it’s one we’ve seen, just
not in the upper Midwest.
But from the outset, “Infinity
Train” is toying with percep-
tions, aiming at that point
the surrealist André Breton
wrote about, where dichoto-
mies of consciousness con-
verge. There are no melted
watches hanging on the limbs
of the blasted Wisconsin
trees, but the familiar is reg-
ularly found out of context,
warped but recognizable; the
tumult of images and charac-
ters is like the pinball ma-
chine of an adolescent’s
imagination.
For her part, Tulip is en-
dearing, resourceful, some-
times frantic. At other
times, this 12-year-old in
wonderland sounds like a
40-year-old who can’t de-
cide whether to change dry
cleaners. Despite the amaz-
ing things she’s finding
along the way, and the as-
tounding characters, joys
and dangers, all she wants
to do is get off the train.
Coding camp means adult-
hood and freedom. But
whatever’sattheendofthe
line might also mean death
for all we, or Tulip, know.
It’s hard to say where “Infin-
ity Train” may be heading
(five episodes out of 10 were
made available; two will
play on each of five consec-
utive nights). But you have
to imagine that getting
there is going to be more
than half the fun.Infinity Train
Begins Monday, 7:30 p.m.,
Cartoon NetworkYOU CAN’Tuse “surreal” or
“Kafkaesque” without risking
an eye roll, but it’s hard to
describe “Infinity Train”
without resorting to both. In-
tellectually mischievous,
snarky, campy, animated and
set in a perversely totalitar-
ian dreamland, “Infinity
Train” is about a 12-year-old
girl who finds herself aboard
a seemingly endless train on
which each car contains a
separate universe—a hero’s
journey, Joseph Campbell
might say. But the dreadful-
looking train also seems likea silent shout-out to “Maus.”
And the whole thing suggests
a film by Luis Buñuel starring
Rocky the Flying Squirrel.
It’s certainly got appeal:
Since the introductory short
appeared on Cartoon Net-
work’s YouTube channel in
2016 it’s gotten more than
4.7 million views, which
means something even if
one considers repeat visits.
(I’ve watched it three times
myself.) What the new se-
ries does is rework and ab-
sorb that episode—which
beganin medias res, like
most of the new ones—and
now opens with a Wiscon-
sin-set origin story: Tulip
(voice of Ashley Johnson), a
less-naively drawn Lisa
Simpson, is an unhappychild of divorce whose fa-
ther was supposed to take
her to game-coding camp in
Oshkosh. He suddenly can’t
do it. Neither can Mom. So
Tulip puts on her boots and
heads out the window for
the station. There she finds
a train. Destination: Osh-
kosh. “Oh, that’s lucky,” she
says. We shall see.
A vortex of light suddenly
sucks Tulip into another
world, where she acquires a
glowing green number on
her hand (significance un-
known) and meets her com-panion-to-be—One-One, a
black-and-white robot who
looks a little like a Roomba
and is composed of two dis-
tinct characters: Glad-One
(Jeremy Crutchley, sounding
like C-3PO in “Star Wars”)
and Sad-One (the show’s
creator, Owen Dennis,
sounding like a cross be-
tween Eeyore and Carlton
Your Doorman). Sad-One
gets most of the good lines,
which are quite droll, as is a
lot of what surrounds Tu-
lip’s seemingly Sisyphean
struggle to get off the train.
What the team encoun-
ters as it moves, or escapes,
from car to car is fantasti-
cal, sometimes eerie—the
open sea/barren shoreline
Tulip finds upon leavingCARTOON NETWORK
‘Infinity Train’ follows a girl’s adventures in surreal train cars.
Endless Ride, Dreamlike Worlds
TELEVISION REVIEW|JOHN ANDERSON
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