Argenta Cabaret cast, band first-rate

LITTLE ROCK — Even the orchestra is beautiful.

There are a lot of good things in the Argenta Community Theater’s first inhouse production, the musical Cabaret, which opened Wednesday night on North Little Rock’s Main Street.

The show (music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Joe Masteroff, based on John Van Druten’s 1951 play I Am a Camera) is set in Berlin in the early ’30s as the Nazis are rising to power.

The staging, courtesy of director Bob Hupp, who has stepped out of his “day job” as producing artistic director at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and co-choreographers Christen Pitts and Marisa Kirby, is practically impeccable.

And the cast is full of topnotch voices, from the leads (Kirby as down-and-out British singer Sally Bowles; Michael Klucher as young, callow American writer Cliff Bradshaw, who falls for her; and Brandon Higdem as the roguish, corrupt Emcee) through the supporting cast (David Weatherly as Ernst, Alan Rackley as Schultz, Tricia Spione as Fraulein Schneider and Jessica Smith as Fraulein Kost) to the sinuous dancer dancer ensemble (Carl Carter, Matt Morley, Kris Waltermire, Dylan Dugger, Sydney Ippolito, Emily Karnes, Bailey Lamb, RaeLeigh Narisi, Rachel Powell and Brittany “Sparkles” Rorie).

Putting the nine-piece band on a “balcony” makes the most of limited space; putting cabaret tables in the front lets a good chunk of the sellout audience feel intimately involved.

Anna Makogonova’s costumes are fantastic, but it’s obvious that eyeliner must be a major line item on the production’s budget.

And the production puts way too much stress on accents (the accent coach gets prominent program credit); in spots the show becomes more about the accents than it does about the performances or the show’s poignant message about intolerance.

Additional performances are at 7 p.m. today and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock. The show is sold out; to find out if tickets are available or to see if there’s room on a waiting list, call (501) 353-1443 or visit the website, argentacommunitytheater.com.