Cabaret

"It is a show that leaves its mark. You will see in the ending of this latest version. The audience is shaken up"

The theatre director, Jaime Azpilicueta (San Sebastian, 1941), has pulled out all the stops in his latest production. Six lorries are needed to transport all of the stage equipment for his new version of the musical, ‘Cabaret’, and 60 experts to assemble it all. “Amazing! We are talking about something like what is transported to move eighteen houses. Three million Euros have been invested in bringing the project into fruition, which is nothing like the 10,000 Euros that a theatre production can cost”, highlighted the spokespeople for the production company, which is eagerly awaiting its arrival in Bilbao, having already stopped off in Madrid and enthusiastically started a tour that will take them to over 33 cities in one year. The Arriaga Theatre will not be kept waiting.

From 1st to 30th December, the Old Quarter’s coliseum will host a show that oozes sparks and colour with costume design by Antonio Belart and lighting by Juanjo Llorens. At times, it will resemble the Folies Bergére in its heyday, in order to remain as true as possible to the original version of the musical which made its debut on Broadway in 1966. “I think this is the best way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘Cabaret’. I did a staging in 2003 but now I have set out to do something different. I do not want to show the Kit Kat Klub as a brothel! People went there to enjoy the shows, with beautiful people and a great deal of rhythm and joy”, explains Jaime Azpilicueta, a familiar face for the Bilbao audience, who always goes down well.

One must be full of optimism to put on a charismatic show for a month in which there is no lack of surprises as it is extremely well-known. “Being so popular is an advantage. I don’t see it as a problem. Who doesn’t remember the film with Liza Minnelli and Michael York? It is clear that everybody knows both sides of the story, the same as the revelry of the Kit Kat Klub that is threatened by Nazism… Is this detrimental to us? Quite the opposite. It is a show that leaves its mark. You will see in the ending of this latest version. The audience is shaken up”. (Extract from the report by I. Urrutia)

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