Cabaret comes to France's Folies Bergere

PARIS, Oct 30 (Reuters) Cabaret, the musical set in Weimar Germany that made Liza Minelli a star, has opened at France's most famous nude revue in one of this year's most heavily hyped theatrical productions.

The French language version of the Broadway show transforms the Folies Bergere, a venue famous for its revealing numbers since the 19th century, into a heavily stylised version of a 1930s Berlin bar.

Claire Perot, the young newcomer who stars as the nightclub singer Sally Bowles, has pouted at Paris commuters from the sides of buses for weeks in the run-up to opening night in moody shots by star photographer Ellen von Unwerth.

''It's an honour to sing Cabaret because it's an anthem within a show that is one of the most beautiful in the world,'' Perot told Reuters at the premier on Thursday, attended by Liza Minelli.

''It's something very innovative. There are only French artists.

All the musicians are French ... everyone is enthusiastic to bring the musical to France.'' The production, designed by British theatre director Sam Mendes, relies more on suggestion than actual nudity to create its effect but there is a heavy emphasis on seduction and glitz.

The show's raunchy chorus line numbers and menacing undertones of approaching catastrophe are stirred into a glittering mix that largely dispenses with the often grimy tone of the original stories by British writer Christopher Isherwood.

Cabaret traces the friendship of the free-and-easy Bowles with a reserved young Englishman amid the seedy glamour of Berlin before the arrival of the Nazis.

The show, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, leaves out many of the episodes of Isherwood's Berlin stories to make Sally one of musical theatre's most memorable heroines.

The sinister Master of Ceremonies' greeting of ''Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!'' takes the audience from the Folies Bergere to the Kit Kat Club, where they become part of the show.

Lightly clad dancers swirl around spiral staircases and a balcony that juts out above guests' low tables, decorated with red lampshades.

But Mendes' production uses gradual changes in costumes and dance sequences to underline the transformation of the Weimar era's pleasure-seeking as Europe slides towards totalitarianism.

''To me, death is very present in this show,'' said Fabian Richard, who plays the club's Emcee.

The unrestrained dancers of the early sequences, following their own steps with abandon, slowly fall into step over the course of the show, their haircuts and outfits becoming more hard-edged and uniform as they do so.

Reuters SAM DB0940