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1933 And All That
Drams 2
Venue Rocket@Apex Hotels (venue 16)
Address Grassmarket
Reviewer Daniel Winterstein
Cabaret. Wilkommen back to Weimar Germany. In 1933 And All That, Anna Zapparoli is a one woman cabaret show (she is a large woman though). Songs are mostly from the collaboration between Kurt Weill and the great German playwright Bertolt Brecht, with some by their contemporaries. This is a family show; the family in question being Zapparoli's. Her husband Mario Borciani directed the show and plays the piano, whilst she is supported by her precocious sprog Beniamino (and a potato, probably no relation), plus there's a daughter doing tech. This is not nepotism though; they all deserve to be there.
Zapparoli has a fine - if not amazing - voice, and a good sense of showmanship. I have some reservations. The Marlene Dietrich number is ill-advised, and the small taste of Mack the Knife is just teasing. Whilst there is politics of course, it's all anti-Nazi. It would have been nice to hear some of Brecht's anti-capitalist pieces which might still be relevant. Overall though this is intelligent enjoyable cabaret. The Zapparoli troupe also perform a non-Brechtian cabaret on odd dates.
9:15pm, even dates until 22nd August.
© Daniel Winterstein, 11th August 2002
© Daniel Winterstein 1998-2008
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