Press

NOISE AND SMOKE
Helen's, NYC
December, 2005

In looking over 2005, we can note the growing number of ensembles and reviews that have been featured in cabaret rooms. These venues have increasingly served the function once associated with off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. One theater piece in-the-making was Noise and Smoke: Hits of Weimar Berlin, the first performance last fall of the Kabarett Kollektif series. Featuring Karen Kohler and Dirk Weiler, it consisted of little patter, focusing-as we learned at the end of the show-on songs that were all eventually banned by the Nazi regime.

Karen and Dirk played very well together, singly and jointly well suited to the characters they depicted or described: gigolos, vamps, and, on the other side, dreamers. Particularly striking was their duet, "Liar, liar," a translation of Holländer's Münchhausen. One of them would describe a utopia at odds with contemporary Weimar society, while the other would counter with accusations of falsehood.

By now Cabaret Scenes readers and cabaret audiences are familiar with Karen, our September 2005 cover girl. She not only created the Kollektif but also has garnered praise for her solo Marlene Dietrich show, for sharing the spotlight with Greta in Berlin-Paris Express, and for appearing here and abroad with KT Sullivan. Personally wholesome, Karen has perfected her dramatic presentation of Weimar decadence!

Still unfamiliar to most cabaret audiences is Dirk Weiler, the delightful surprise of Noise and Smoke. Dirk is a suave, attractive, multi-talented performer who can not only sing grand opera but also skillfully perform cabaret songs with an extraordinary versatility. He is as well a skilled tap dancer and trained actor, possessing a very mobile face that can express the tender or the demonic (as in Der Koch or The Cook, which allows him to portray a Sweeney-Todd-like character whose butcheries and grotesque meals for the führer symbolize Nazi brutality).

Dirk is also very funny, adept at conveying the irony necessary for satire. He introduced the show with a stern description of its content as well as, implicitly, the behavior expected of the audience who must give up their idea of an intermission. Dirk's caricature of German authoritarianism, already the subject of jokes, became therefore a joke about a class of jokes (for example, the familiar one about the unsuspecting passenger at a German airport who forgets a piece of personal information and is informed, "we have ways of making you remember"). In any event, Noise and Smoke provided in addition to its absorbing content a virtual showcase for this amazing virtuoso-all that is missing was the tap dancing. Perhaps we will get this as well in future shows, for hopefully Dirk will become a familiar figure in cabaret venues.
- Barbara Leavy, Cabaret Scenes

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BERLIN-PARIS EXPRESS
Helen's, NYC
November 16, 2005

The last of the kabarett kollektif series at The Hideaway Room at Helen's is Berlin-Paris Express featuring Karen Kohler and Greta, with Bobby Peaco on piano and John Bowen on synthesizer. It is entertaining, gripping, and informative. Our guest, a newcomer to cabaret, reported that the performance drew her in from the beginning and kept her riveted until the end. Karen and Greta have made a convert to cabaret!

Between their shared opening and closing numbers, Karen and Greta performed separately. Karen presented the songs of the Weimar period of Berlin, Greta the French songs--not, however, tied to any particular period. The cities of Berlin and Paris are potential studies in contrast, as are the two singers in appearance and in performing styles. What unites them is the passion they bring to their music, and the dramatic intensity with which they deliver the translations of what they are about to sing. The show has many of the aspects of an effective poetry reading.
Because Berlin-Paris Express bears revisiting, it is possible to find in it different qualities at different times. We had seen the show last spring. This time we were aware of the difference in themes. The German songs are about decadence and obsession: about obsession over a man (Jonny) or about the compulsive acquisition of things (Ballad of the Soldier's Wife and The Kleptomaniac), or about illicit sex (Song von Mandelay by Weill and Brecht). The Song of a German Mother (whose son dies in battle) could serve today as an anti-war anthem.

The French songs are about ennui, disillusionment, and alienation because of relationships that have failed (or perhaps failed because alienation is often for the French a basic feature of the human condition). Of course, such generalizations must be qualified and Karen informed her audience that the German songwriter Hanns Eisler was one of those introspective artists who held that the lyrics of a song should stand on their own, needing little interpretation from those who sang them. This kind of historical background added to the pleasure of listening to Karen and Greta.
- Barbara Leavy, Cabaret Scenes

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BERLIN-PARIS EXPRESS
The Encore, NYC
May 11, 2005

The newly opened club, The Encore, appears to be a wonderful home for the Kabarett Kollektif's latest offering "BERLIN-PARIS EXPRESS." Once you enter the cabaret room, you immediately get the feeling that you are going to be transported to another time and era….and you are!

Karen and Greta open the show with First We Take Manhattan, a Leonard Cohen song….and the journey begins! Two women singing to men (not the intention of songwriter Cohen) "…I'd really like to lie beside your body….." tells you they are sexy, unabashed and you can't wait for what is to come.
These two ladies approach the material with great respect for the lyrics, intent and undertone of each chosen song, and yet they bring an uncommon individuality to each one. Whether the songs are sung in German, French or English, you would swear you understand every word. How come?

Karen Kohler has a way of speaking to you with her body, a drop of an eyelid, the movement of her arms, the sway of her long torso, a backward glance, the flick of a finger, her stance, her stroll across the stage. This young woman "sings" with her entire body. She becomes the temptress, gasps, utters guttural sounds, has a soprano voice that soars, bellows, whispers, sighs, and is totally brazen, when called for. She is mesmerizing.

Greta is all passion, fervor, ardently breathless, a magnificent ageless quality. You cannot take your eyes away from her when she is on stage. She is the embodiment of love incarnate. Both of these women are elegant in manner, dress and style.

One of the outstanding moments in this show was Karen Kohler's rendition of Die Kleptomanin (The Kleptomaniac) written by Hollaender. The spoken translation gives no idea where the song travels. Karen gives a brilliant interpretation of the giddiness of die kleptomanin, taking that which doesn't belong to her, coveting everything, jewelry, clothing, a piano, someone else's man, giddily singing "I've got to have it, have it, have it…." totally obsessive. She left the audience breathless with this absolutely quirky song.

Greta shows her humorous side with Venema's Cigarette Tango with lines like "you treat my love like a cigarette…" Well done, tongue in cheek, however, what makes it humorous is that you would never believe anyone would treat Greta's love "like a cigarette", oh, no! A romantic to her very fiber of being, Greta's passion rises to a war-cry, fever pitch in songs like Les jeux sont finis (You Can Go); Quand to t'en iras (When You Go Away) bringing these numbers to a close with arms upwardly outstretched like a Valkyrie on fire.

There were so many songs in this show that spoke of love and the lament of love, but there was also Lied einer deutschen Mutter (Song of a German Mother ) who is not yet aware of what the world will become as she watches her young boy's upraised arm and goose stepping march in his khaki uniform… until he returns home in a shroud. It is a timeless song. Ich weiss nicht zu wem ich gehoere (I Don't Know to Whom I Belong ) introduces music director Bobby Peaco at the piano singing the opening about the many loves to be had and continued by Karen. Bobby Peaco at the piano complements this show very well and John Bowen on synthesizer added those many notes of darkness and intrigue.

Kabarett Kollektif is a wonderful idea. It's time has definitely come. The member performers come from France, Germany, Quebec, England, Belgium and they are singers, musicians, actors, composers, songwriters, directors and playwrights. We are destined to hear more and more of them individually or collectively.
- Philis Raskind, Theater Scene

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BERLIN-PARIS EXPRESS
The Encore, NYC
April 22, 2005

"Cabaret was born in Paris, and thrived in Berlin," Karen Kohler advises her audience, especially in the decades of the 1920s and the 1930s. Berlin-Paris Express features Kohler and Greta, part of the Kabarett Kollektif, a group of performers bringing the style and substance of European cabaret to New York audiences. Opening as a duo with Leonard Cohen's First We Take Manhattan, the two performers then create their separate shows within the show, Kohler with the Berlin songs, Greta with the Parisian.

There is an instant sense of difference between the usual cabaret show seen here and its Euro counterpart: the vocalists' passion and intensity that seems to come with the territory, or the heritage. Kohler's presentation of Surabaya-Johnny, the Brecht/Weil number, sets the stage for what follows, and John Bowen's synthesizer lends it a moody mist sweeping over the lyric. In his hands, the instrument provides impressionistic coloration that varies from the haunting sound of an accordion to the crescendo of an organ.

Kohler's songs, in both German and English, evoke the ambiance of a Weimar-era Berlin cabaret almost palpably. Her powerful delivery of Frederick Hollander's saturnine lyrics-he was Marlene Deitrich's favorite songwriter-help carry out the sensation, as do several numbers by Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill.

Greta, no less dramatic than her colleague, turns her attention to the Paris destination of the Express, initiating her part of the show with Aznavour's Yesterday, When I was Young, and Charles Trenet's Coin de Rue. A long-established, international, and stirring performer, she is equally at home in English, French or German, and the numbers Greta sings are equally trenchant to Kohler's.

Current cabaret in Paris or Berlin can hardly be better than this. Take the Berlin-Paris Express at New York's The Encore. Enjoy the pleasures of a virtual trip to (pre-war) Europe, and put aside any concern about the depreciating dollar. You'll better appreciate the saga of cabaret while enjoying two very special performers, plus the musical direction and piano of Bobby Peaco, and John Bowen's synthesizer.
- Peter Leavy, Cabaret Scenes

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The songs are all dark, edgy, haunting and very dramatic...these artists were a delight, with successful and memorable readings on their solos and duets.
- John Hoglund, Bistro Bits

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This is definitely an unusual and much needed idea in cabaret, especially if you realize there is a history and dearth of material beyond the "American Songbook". This is what cabaret is really about.
- Philis Raskind, Theatre Scene

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KAREN KOHLER AND THE KABARETT KOLLEKTIF
Mama Rose's, NYC
October 7, 2004

When we reviewed the first season of Karen Kohler's Kabarett Kollektif in June 2003, we were enthusiastic about a series in the European cabaret tradition rather than shows presenting a few songs by Brel, Piaf, Weill and others intermingled with selections from the Great American Songbook. Watching the first of this year's Kabarett Kollektif series, we were confirmed in our earlier view.

For a brief time, Mama Rose's was transformed into another world, a venue evocative of German and French clubs, the performers either Europeans who have made the United States their home, or expatriates who now make Europe their home.

What an array of talent it was! Some singers, such as the stupendous Belgian Micheline van Hautem, who delivered Jacques Brel as he probably has never been heard before, were new to cabaret. Others, such as Greta, a frequent performer during the heyday of Eighty-Eights, obviously was happy to be part once more of the New York cabaret scene. Host Jean Brassard introduced with gusto Frederique, Gina Leishman, Marni Rice, and Dirk Weiler. Modestly, Karen sang two numbers but otherwise did not command more attention than the others. Doyle Newmyer on piano and Hilliard Greene on bass were impressive accompanists.
-Barbara Leavy, Cabaret Scenes

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KAREN KOHLER'S KABARETT KOLLEKTIF
Duplex Cabaret Theatre, NYC
April 17, 2003

For American aficionados, cabaret celebrates the Great (and New) American Songbook. Invoking a European tradition usually means singing Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, or Kurt Weill, an entire show sometimes given over to one of them. But most times, the uniquely European quality of these artists is masked by a performance that essentially assimilates their work to American traditions. Recently, however, Karen Kohler has started a Kabarett Kollektif, beginning with a series of four performances at The Duplex. It is her hope to "preserve the cabaret arts of 20th century Europe," drawing on an "expanding troupe of European born performers."

We caught the third of these shows, featuring Gina Leishman. Born in England, resident of several European countries, she now lives and performs in the United States, where one of her projects is an avant-garde orchestra called the Kamikaze Ground Crew. What is striking about Gina is neither her voice nor her playing of the piano or accordion (excellent musicianship was provided by her accompanist, clarinetist Doug Wieselman). Rather, she commands attention because she is very intense and interesting and because she exemplifies an aspect of European cabaret rarely experienced in New York.

Gina's songs are consistently dark in subject and mood, not surprising since she draws mainly on lyrics and poetry by Brecht. The subjects are death, suicide, loneliness, endings, sexual dependency. A telling contrast to American popular song is "Diamonds Are Just Glass," implicitly, therefore, not a girl's best friend but rather symbolic of the superficial values of contemporary life. For the most part, Gina purposely refrained from communicating her emotions directly to her audience. But what would be a flaw in another performer proved apt. Feelings of cynicism, ennui, despair, involve themes that the 20th century inherited from the romantic art of the 19th, which introduced a new subjectivism in Europe. The artist is turned inward, singing to herself in effect, and we the audience are given the chance to overhear her.

Clearly this show exemplifies only one aspect of the European cabaret tradition. The series will be interesting, novel, and instructive, and Karen Kohler is to be commended for bringing her Kabarett Kollektif to us.
- Barbara Leavy, Cabaret Scenes