Stage Door: Emma Stone in "Cabaret"
Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at 3:30PM
Jose here. Earlier this year I reported back from the Kit Kat Club to share my impressions about Michelle Williams’ performance as Sally Bowles in the Roundabout Theatre production of Cabaret. Last night I went back to see what Emma Stone (Spirit-Nominated this morning) brought to the part...
Halfway through the first act of Cabaret, Sally Bowles realizes that life with her naive, new lover Cliff (Bill Heck) might be exactly what she needs. She sits with Cliff on a chaise lounge and for a moment she sees herself living the life of a wife and mother, satisfied with keeping home and raising her child. Suddenly, the Emcee interrupts this precious moment by bringing a microphone, its allure too powerful for Sally to resist, and drawn towards it as if under a spell, she performs “Maybe This Time”.
Onstage, the heartbreaking irony of this moment (Sally selling her soul to showbiz, while fooling herself into thinking she’s doing the opposite) is hard to detect if the actress playing her is too eager, or not eager enough; a delicate balance which I’m thrilled to report was beautifully achieved by Emma Stone.
Having already proved to be a truly magnetic screen presence, Stone brings her unusual sensuality to Sally Bowles by subverting the quirkiness that makes her so much fun to watch in movies. Gone are the traces of the goofy girl from Easy A, or the naivete of her Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man. If anything, she’s taking on the introspective self-destructiveness of her Sam from Birdman, the same volatile qualities that make her appealing and scary. Her Sally is a teenager who has convinced herself she can fool others into thinking she can play with the grown-ups. Her levels of delusion are such that she fails to notice she hasn’t really fooled anyone but herself.
Stone is also smart enough to know that in the stage version, Sally isn’t the star, she’s part of the ensemble. To a certain degree she's also a memory conveyed by Cliff who “writes” the show as it goes by looking back at his Berlin experiences. Stone’s Sally, while not the star of the show, is so seductive that we miss her whenever she’s not onstage, partly because we want to see her again, and partly because we are afraid of what will happen to her when we’re not looking after her. The audience develops caretaker feelings towards her, combined with sexual desire, making for Stone’s most mature performance to date.
And can she sing you ask? While she is obviously no Liza (then again who is?), Stone successfully delivers her numbers, bringing a raspy, sensual quality to them. (She often sounds like Lindsay Lohan did in her pop star moment!). Stone knows that singing isn’t her (or Sally's) true forte, so she lets this be an essential part of the performance, delivering the last third of the title song completely out of pitch, furiously fighting against the notes coming from the band. If a man can’t restrict her, why does this song think it can?
Reader Comments (20)
Already have my tickets to see her in two weeks. I can't wait!
i do not like the idea of singing out of pitch in a musical. even if it is appropriate to character. give me fantasy or cause me death (in musicals)
Nat - Agreed. But what if it's out of pitch on purpose? Emma could pull it off (her "Mein Herr" is perfection! It had my special places tingling and everything) but I like that she made the choice to deliver a bad version of "Cabaret", because it made it clear that Sally had just doomed herself forever. It was like that moment in "Moulin Rouge!" where Nicole Kidman sobs her way through the beginning of "Come What May". #longlivetheredheads
I'M SO JEALOUS.
I mean, I already saw Michelle Williams in the role and Alan Cumming owns this show but I have no problem going back to see Emma. I'm waiting to find an affordable table seat close up to the action but i might just end up getting a cheap seat high up like I did last time. I'm incredibly curious in hearing her version of "Cabaret" and her final scene with Cliff. Michelle might have gotten alot of flack but she *totally* sold that scene.
Yeah, while I *get* the argument about characters not singing as well and thus actors performing it that way, I certainly never heard of the defense until less theatre-trained actors started infiltrating both movie musicals (Zellweger in Chicago, for instance) and stage musicals.
Glenn - exactly!
Nat, with one exception.
I didn't like the rendition of Maybe This Time I heard online, but I guess it's not fair to judge simply on that. To be fair, Anne Hathaway is the only new Sally Bowles I would be really interested in or maybe just a new face with a great voice.
P.S. Jose, will you go to A Delicate Balance?
I don't remember if Kidman was ever quite out of pitch in Moulin Rouge but I also don't remember her singing any better than say, Zellweger in Chicago.
And yet it's always Zellweger/Chicago getting the blame for starting this whole fad of stars with mediocre vocals headlining musicals.
Now MR is of course a much better movie than Chicago. But without Kidman straining in MR, there would be no Zellweger straining in Chicago.
Just sayin'...
Nicole doesn't really have a strong voice (which is totally apparent in One Day I'll Fly Away) but she has a serviceable/pleasant one. I don't know if any of Renee's songs in Chicago really required much of the effort that Nicole had to put in in Moulin Rouge.
Glenn, Nat: But the original Sally Bowles on Broadway (played by Jill Haworth) was also performed as poorly as Sally might have. If anything, it's Liza who swung the argument in the other direction, that characters who are poor performers can still be performed with flair and gusto.
goran, never forget Paint Your Wagon! Never.
For the record, I don't mind Rene's vocals in Chicago (i think it's a really good acting performance). It's her dancing that's embarrassing and it's a dance musical!!
Thank you, Colin, for saying what I was going to - in the show's original Broadway incarnation, Sally was NOT an incredible singer. People think of the part that way now solely because of Liza tearing it up in her Oscar-winning performance in the film version (which is absolutely one of THE great screen performances). But also consider where in the show the song "Cabaret" comes - this is when Sally is at her MOST emotional. It makes complete sense to me that she might abandon all pretense of actually giving a good performance of the song. I'll reserve judgment until I actually see Emma in a few weeks (CAN'T. WAIT.), but I like it in theory.
And Nathaniel, I am SO with you on Renee in Chicago. She holds her own with the vocals, but the dancing is... not good...
I don't agree that it's a new thing though, Ethel Merman, Chita Rivera and Elaine Stritch were no Lizas when it came to vocals and I wouldn't change a single thing about their legendary Broadway recordings. What makes a "good voice" is subjective when it comes to the character in question I guess. I mean, I adore Audra and Kelli O'Hara for example, but their vocal clarity wouldn't make for a good Sally Bowles if you ask me.
Mr. Outlaw, I truly cannot remember a worse cast than Paint Your Wagon, (except Harve Presnell ). It certainly put the nail in the coffin of big movie musicals.
Jose, Merman had a better voice and a tighter vibrato in her younger days and could hit the back of the second balcony prior to an amplified Broadway. Stritch was a “type” much like Carol Channing, hired for their theatricality, not a “voice”. And Chita Rivera follows the lead of a Gwen Verdon as dancer first, who happens to sing in a voice suitable to the character.
All of these ladies sang in tune. It certainly makes sense, given the ineptitude of other Cabaret performers (like the orchestra) to not be wildly competent; but I have the B-way recording and no one sings off key.
^^^THIS.
Although I still haven't recovered from Charlotte d'Amboise's rendition of "The Music and the Mirror" (which I experienced live). I know she's a dancer first, actress/singer second, but so was Donna McKechnie, and I could listen to her version on the original cast album endlessly.
Lee Marvin in Paint Your Wagon and Pierce Brosnan in Mama Mia--my ears, my ears!!!
As someone on the other side of the country; I am truly jealous.
We may never know if Miss d'Amboise lacks her singing talent honestly or if her father was dubbed in Seven Brides.
I also believe Clint Eastwood more pathetic and embarrassed than Lee Marvin .