Andrea Goss is currently starring in the Broadway touring production of "Cabaret" as the unsinkable Sally Bowles. The show is currently at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday as part of the Broadway in Fort Lauderdale series.
miamiartzine.com editor Michelle F. Solomon spoke with Goss about the tour, how she approached the iconic role of Bowles, and why the current incarnation of "Cabaret" is so relevant right now in today's topsy-turvy political environment.
maz: You were on Broadway in "Cabaret." Tell me about that.
AG: "I understudied Sally and I was one of the Kit Kat Girls. It was fun to be able to be on stage and play the instruments and have my own character, but also get to understudy those three incredible women who played Sally on Broadway [she understudied Emma Stone, Sienna Miller, and Michelle Williams on Broadway]. It was such a learning experience for me."
maz: Did you have to learn to play an instrument for your role as one of the Kit Kat Club Girls? This production has the actors playing instruments and doubling as the accompanying orchestra, which is fascinating.
AG: "Most of us knew the instruments beforehand. I played violin and piano (in the show.) I had played piano since I was 3 years old and I played both since I was young. They did the same thing in the original cast in 1998 with Natasha Richardson as Sally. It was one of the very first shows to utilize the actors as the band also and to make them a quadruple threat (singers, actors, dancers, instrumentalists). It's really such a great use of the actors and it makes the show more intimate, I think."
maz: I've heard people say that this current "Cabaret" speaks to what's going on currently in the American political scene. Do you think so?
AG: "Sadly, I think that's why it does feel so relevant and so modern. The show itself asks 'How did it happen?' and this was in 1930. It does feel relevant, but it's also so time period. That's what a club felt like and that's what they were going through back then. I think people are relating to everything right now because this is what our country is going through right now. It asks tough questions and makes people think. I would love to see a time when it is not relevant.
The writers were incredible. How they ask the questions and still made it fun and witty. The show really does turn on you and shines a light on you in the end. People are connecting to that realistic and humanity that they are feeling on the stage."
Andrea Goss as Sally Bowles and Benjamin Eakeley as Clifford Bradshaw in the 2016 National Touring production of Roundabout Theatre Company's "Cabaret".
maz: How was it playing a role that has been performed by so many and made so iconic? How do you make it original?
AG: "At first it's daunting because people will compare you to Liza or Natasha (Richardson). The movie is quite different than the play's story line. I had to put that aside and look at the story and see how I could tell it the best way. If I tried to replicate someone else's performance, it doesn't serve the story, it doesn't serve the audience and it doesn't serve my fellow actors. I need to find my own way in. I think where I was really was that as an understudy they didn't want me to replicate Michelle's performance or Emma's performance and they really let me find my own version. As an understudy, that's actually a little rare. I was given so much freedom. I went back to the source material and the (Christopher) Isherwood novel. ["Goodbye to Berlin" is a 1939 novel by Christopher Isherwood set in Weimar Germany. It was what inspired "Cabaret."] I really related to that version of Sally and to me that was a really helpful way in. I found my own things that I could relate to. Sally loves performing. She lives to perform and as an artist I also live to perform. There are a lot of differences between us, but for me that was my very first way in to her. I couldn't think about who else has done it or try to replicate them. So many incredible people have played the role before. And if something works it works and you can steal that from them, but to me it's just focusing on the material and who else is playing opposite of me or who else is in the scene. There are so many different ways to interpret it. It doesn't have to be done one way. "
Andrea Goss as Sally Bowles, Randy Harrison as the Emcee and the 2016 National Touring cast of Roundabout Theatre Company's "Cabaret."
maz: Have you had many "aha!" moments playing the role?
AG: "I can't even think of a specific. To be honest, for me a lot of the 'aha' moments are sometimes in the songs. The most surprising things are in the songs, though, that I do myself like 'Maybe This Time' or 'Cabaret.' It's moments where maybe the scene before had changed with Ben Eakeley (who plays Clifford Bradshaw) and something in that changed and all of a sudden there's a moment, especially in 'Cabaret,' which is such an emotional change for her. It's where she grows up and makes the decision for herself. I think in that song things change in me and it's really startling and it's really interesting as an actor because I don't think I've ever experienced that in a role before. It's really fun and exhausting, but it's the best kind of exhaustion at the end of the night."
maz: How do you keep it fresh when you're playing the same role night after night?
AG: "I have been on tour for a year -- maybe 10 months, but we had two months off. I still find something new every night, which is not always the case with shows. And you have an incredible cast on stage and Ben and I, who play opposite, we constantly get to play on our scenes and find something new and nothing is ever going to feel exactly the same. And watching Randy (Harrison as the emcee), he gets to improv and talk to the audience. It's just one of those shows that, to us at least, it feels different every night. And that's exciting as an actor and a real challenge to keep it new.
Andrea Goss as Sally Bowles in the 2016 National Touring production of Roundabout Theatre Company's "Cabaret."
maz: The song 'Cabaret' in the show is a very different take. I think audiences will be surprised.
AG: "That is the moment that Sally makes her decision to do what she does at the end. And when she makes that decision she knows it's going to break Cliff's heart. It's the moment where she grows up and it's strengthening to her. But it's also the first time she's ever really loved someone and to have to do that to someone it's heartbreaking and it's devastating to her."
maz: The show seems very decadent and there are some interpretations I don't remember seeing in the original?
AG: "It's always been there since 1998. I think (that was when) they went back to the source material. The character of Cliff is kind of Isherwood and they wanted to be traditional to the material. They didn't bring out anything that wasn't there to shock audiences. This is what was happening in Germany at the time and they were seedy. People were experimenting and all these different things were happening. I don't think people realized how gritty and how realistic these things were. I really appreciate that they don't try to do shock value and it's actually tame compared to some of the things that were actually happening. I think the writers used the Kit Kat Club to explain or to create a commentary on what was happening. It's an incredible tool."
maz: Have you done a national tour before?
AG: "I've done regional before, but not a national tour. I've been able to see places I would have never been able to have seen. And to bring the show to cities where people didn't have the chance to see ('Cabaret') in New York, that is fulfilling."
maz: Playing such a role, do you think that's a game changer for you in your career?
AG: "It is a once in a lifetime role and especially being in this production I think it is really important right now with everything going on. For me, I'm just trying to focus and enjoy this moment. Careers are always changing and you never know what's going to happen next. You just have to enjoy it while it's happening."
Roundabout Theater Company’s "Cabaret" is at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday, Jan. 22. Tickets start at $35. Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33312. For tickets and schedule,www.browardcenter.org; by phone, (954) 462-0222.
