When Andrea met Sally

Actor Andrea McArdle marks a milestone in her Cabaret role. She isn't Annie anymore.

By JOHN FLEMING

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 18, 2001

Last month, Andrea McArdle was playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret in Greenville, S.C., home of Bob Jones University. How was this notably raunchy version of the John Kander-Fred Ebb musical going down in one of the most conservative cities in the country?

"Opening night they were not that conservative," McArdle said. "Last night they were more of a church-loving crowd. They got real quiet. It was a different kind of night. That's what makes theater so interesting."

The revival of Cabaret, co-directed on Broadway by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall, won four Tony Awards. Its staging in a nightclub-style environment -- the Kit Kat Klub -- was a smashing coup de theatre, which obviously can't be recreated on the road, where the company plays a different venue every week or two.

"The New York show was amazing," said McArdle. "It is hard to recapture that, and I didn't know how I was going to take to this production, but I think I might even like it more. Maybe it's just this particular cast. The chemistry is perfect. It feels like an original company."

McArdle joined the Cabaret tour in January. The cast also includes Jon Peterson as the Emcee.

Playing a coke-snorting cabaret singer in Weimar Berlin is a long way from what made McArdle a star. As a 12-year-old, she originated the title role of Annie in 1977.

"It took long enough," said McArdle, who has also been in Beauty and the Beast, Les Miserables, Starlight Express and State Fair on Broadway.

The first time McArdle auditioned for Cabaret, she didn't get the part. "I auditioned to replace Jennifer Jason Leigh and had a very bad day. Then I got Belle (in Beauty and the Beast), so I thought, well, I guess I'm always going to be playing people like Belle and never get to play the Sallys."

Later, she requested another audition with Marshall, who directed the tour. "I had my agent call, and Robby saw me again. In 25 years, I've never asked to be seen again for anything, so I guess I saved it for something I really wanted to do."

Sally Bowles has been played by a host of stars, from Julie Harris in I Am a Camera, the non-musical stage and film adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories, to Jill Haworth in the original Cabaret in 1966; from Natasha Richardson, who won a Tony for her performance in the current revival, to former Miss America Kate Shindle, replaced by McArdle on the road.

But the definitive Sally Bowles was Liza Minnelli, who put her glamorous stamp on the character in the 1972 movie, with Joel Grey as the Emcee.

"I never wanted to do the show before," McArdle said. "Even as a kid, I knew they were Liza's songs. There was no reason for anybody else to sing them. But they've reinvented the show so successfully that you don't even think of those images from the film. Not once has anyone compared them to this production. The whole concept is so alarmingly different."

One of the biggest differences is the chorus, Kit Kat Girls in ripped black lingerie, whose jaded decadence earned the description "heroin chic" from American Theatre magazine. Chorus members also play in the band and move scenery around.

"It's a lot more moody, a lot more graphic," McArdle said. "They're not what you think of as a bunch of chorines."

In the revival, Sally's friend Cliff Bradshaw (played by Hank Stratton) is more plainly gay than in previous productions. "Everything is more reality based, more intense," McArdle said. "Cliff's questioning of his sexual preference was not really touched upon very clearly. They treated it almost hush-hush. You certainly can't miss it here."

Unlike Minnelli, who turned Sally into an American, McArdle plays her as Isherwood intended: as a fallen London socialite. Her mezzo-soprano is more in line with Richardson's vocal range than Minnelli's high-powered belt.

Comparing Sally to Holly Golightly, the party girl in Breakfast at Tiffany's, McArdle said she was a familiar character.

"I know people like Sally. In this business, any one of us could go down that wrong path. I think it's sadder in the end when she finally does succumb to all of the substances and bad living. She lives in denial and is the last person to realize that the Nazis are coming."

Theater preview

Cabaret opens Tuesday and runs through Sunday. Showtimes are Tue.-Thur., 7:30 p.m.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $22.50-$64.50. (813) 229-7827 or toll-free at 1-800-955-1045.

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