Broadway veteran Donald Corren’s journey to “Cabaret” in Alabama

By Lee J. Green

New York-based actor Donald Corren makes his first journey to Alabama for a journey back in time to Berlin during the twilight of the Jazz Era.

One of the most famous American musicals of all time, “Cabaret,” comes to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival stage in Montgomery, through Aug. 6.

The veteran actor of stage, screen and audiobooks has played many roles in his 40-year career. But he considers playing Herr Schultz one of a few “roles of a lifetime” and it connects him with his family heritage.

Herr Schultz is the only Jewish character in the show, a middle-aged fruit vendor. He has a romance with the owner of the boarding house he is staying at, Fraulen Schneider, that is put at peril by the Nazi ascent to power in Berlin.

“Their love affair is really the heart of the piece,” said Corren. “It leads to the wedge being driven between them by the Nazis, who threaten to shut down the boarding house. Schultz tells them he is German, but they say, ‘you’re Jewish so you need to go’.”

Corren’s great-grandfather immigrated from Odessa, Russia, to Stockton, Calif., in 1901. He first had vegetable cart, and would go on to develop a very successful furniture empire in northern California.

Corren and his father, Mel, wrote a book about his family’s journey to the United States, “I’ve Lived It, I’ve Loved It,” which is available on Amazon.

“It’s a classic Russian Jew immigration story. My great-grandfather was a very industrious man,” he said. “Our family also helped build Temple Israel (in Stockton) and my mom was the president of the congregation.”

Corren got involved in theatre when he was only five years old. “We had a very progressive school system, and our grammar school even had a drama club.”

In high school, he learned all aspects of the theatre and earned a scholarship to the prestigious Julliard School of Acting.

Corren started his professional career in Chicago, working alongside playwright David Mamet, actors William Macy and the Belushi Brothers. Then he would go on to New York City to do theatre and the accomplished pianist supplemented his income by playing in some piano bars.

Corren originated the role of Cosme McMoonin in the celebrated Broadway production of “Souvenir.” Then when Harvey Fierstein left the ground-breaking “Torch Song Trilogy” in 1984 to make the movie of the same name, Corren took over his role on Broadway. “To follow such a legend is a challenge, but it was such a groundbreaking show and in incredible experience for me.”

Ten years ago, Corren was in a Holocaust-themed show called “The Soap Myth.” Written by playwright Jeff Cohen, it dramatizes the conflict between Holocaust scholars and historians who require documentary proof when determining the history of the Holocaust and survivors who were the eyewitnesses to the horrors.

“It really connected on a deep level and is a very important work still performed today (with Richard Dreyfus in the lead role),” he said.

The next show he did connected with his Jewishness but with a much

By Lee J. Green

“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” lights up the Red Mountain Theatre stage from July 21 to Aug. 13, and its narrator is glowing about classic musical.

“This is just such a beautiful story about family, loyalty, forgiveness, love and redemption,” said Amy Johnson. “We’re excited about sharing this production; to present it in a big and bright way.”

The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical debuted on Broadway in 1982 and has become a worldwide sensation. It tells the Biblical story of Joseph and his brothers with musical styles spanning from country-western to bubblegum pop to rock and roll.

Stacey Alley directs and choreographs the RMT production. That cast also features Kyle Holman, who was Tevye (Johnson played Fruma-Sarah) in Red Mountain’s 2017 production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Johnson also starred in the Theatre LJCC production of “Seussical the Musical” in 2012 and in the Alabama premier of “Parade” at the Virginia Samford Theatre. The musical about Leo Frank won Best Musical Revival at the 2023 Tony Awards.

“I think it’s important to tell these stories with authenticity and to honor what they are communicating,” she said. “When we did Fiddler, we had coaches helping us to properly speak Hebrew and Yiddish. It allowed us to really connect with the show on a deeper level.”

The Birmingham native starting doing theatre when she was five years old in a show called “Rated G.” It was written by a University of Montevallo graduate.

“Both of my parents graduated from Montevallo, as did I,” she said. “I’m grateful that my family and friends opened up the world of theatre to me. It has been such an important part of my life.”

Johnson said she supports RMT in its effort to offer learning opportunities to young talent and to give them opportunities to showcase that talent on the big stage.

This “Joseph” production is welcoming a different group of child actors from community schools and institutions for each of the four weeks of the show. Each group will spend one week learning the songs and choreography, then one week in the show.

“I think it’s so beautiful to open this up to kids of all backgrounds so they can share their gifts… and to learn more about these important stories we’re telling,” she said.

For more information and to get tickets, go to www.redmountaintheatre.com continued from page 46

>> Rear Pew continued from page 43

>> Cabaret the lost Ark. Not something to be taken lightly. No one knows its secrets. It’s like nothing you’ve ever gone after before.”

“What are you trying to do, scare me? You sound like my mother. We’ve known each other for a long time. I don’t believe in magic, a lot of superstitious hocus-pocus. I’m going after a find of incredible historical significance. You’re talking about the bogeyman. Besides, you know what a cautious fellow I am.”

Much later, in Washington, after the Ark has been recovered…

“You’ve done your country a great service, and we thank you, and we trust you found the settlement satisfactory.”

“Oh, the money’s fine. The situation’s totally unacceptable.”

“Well, gentlemen, I guess that just about wraps it up.”

“Where is the Ark?”

“I thought we’d settled that. The Ark is somewhere very safe.”

“From whom?”

“The Ark is a source of unspeakable power and it has to be researched.”

“And it will be, I assure you, Dr. Brody, Dr. Cohen. We have top men working on it right now.”

“Who?”

“Top men.”

How much of human life is lost in waiting. – Emerson/Oxley different tone and subject – “Old Jews Telling Jokes” – about the Borscht Belt comedians.

Doug Brook hates snakes, Jacques. He hates ‘em. For more, listen to the FIVE-star rated Rear Pew Mirror podcast at https://podcasters.spotify. com/pod/show/rearpewmirror or any major podcast platform. For past columns, visit http://rearpewmirror.com/.

Corren also has narrated more than 150 audiobooks, including one titled “First The Jews,” which delves into antisemitism and the hatred that has been infesting the world for more than 3,000 years.

In 2021, Corren made his first trip to the Deep South. He played a doctor in the Netflix movie “Dolly Parton Christmas on the Square,” filmed in Atlanta.

He said when he found out about “Cabaret” auditions for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, “I had heard about the tremendous reputation of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival had and (Schultz) is a role I have always wanted to do. I grew up with the musical.”

“Cabaret” was based on a 1951 play “I Am a Camera,” which was adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by Christopher Isherwood, called “Goodbye To Berlin.”

Debuting on Broadway in 1966, the groundbreaking musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff focuses on the nightlife at the seedy underground Kit Kat Club.

Alabama Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Rick Dildine said, “the club itself serves as a metaphor for the ominous political developments in Germany at the time. The story is both realistic and representational.

“As an artist, I feel there is a difference between art and entertainment. Art focuses our attention while entertainment distracts us,” he added. “’Cabaret’ uses entertainment to focus our attention on how a society’s norms can be chipped away even while we are all laughing and enjoying the show.”

Indiana Cohen — professor of archaeology, expert on the occult, and obtainer of rare antiquities — was being questioned about an intercepted cable by two representatives of a government agency in the middle of World War II.

Indy, with a gleam of recognition in his eye, said, “Ararat is one of the possible resting places of the lost ark.”

One of the agents replied, “You mean the Ark of the Covenant? The chest the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments? The original stone tablets that Moses brought down out of Mount Horeb and smashed?”

“No…”

“No?”

“No. Noah. Noah’s Ark.”

“Noah’s Ark?”

“Yes, the original ark that Noah built and preserved humanity and animals in, if you believe in that sort of thing. Didn’t you guys ever go to Sunday School?”

“Well, I…”

“Everyone on the Earth was consumed by the waters in a storm which lasted a whole 40 days and 40 nights. Wiped clean by the wrath of God.”

“Obviously, we’ve come to the right men.”

“Noah’s ark ended up, probably in broken pieces, on a mountain called Ararat. Where people might have remembered for many years, until all of a sudden, whoosh, all memory of it is gone.”

“Where?”

“Well, nobody knows where.”

“Frankly, we’re somewhat suspicious of Ravenwood an American being mentioned so prominently in a secret Nazi cable.”

“Oh, rubbish. Ravenwood’s no Nazi.”

“Well, what do the Nazis…”

“Well, obviously, they’re confused. When the rains abated, Noah first sent a raven out to search for dry land. And the ark was made of gopherwood. Something got lost for them in translation.”

“What does that tell you that it doesn’t tell me?”

“It tells me that they’d be better off reading books than burning them.”

“I’m beginning to understand Hitler’s interest in this.”

“Oh, yes. The Bible speaks of the Ark preserving a select group of humanity, and withstanding God’s laying waste to entire regions. A navy with the ark before it, is invincible.”

Later that evening, Marcus met Indy at his home.

Marcus told Indy, “They want you to go for it. They want you to get ahold of the Ark before the Nazis do, and they’re prepared to pay handsomely for it.”

“And the museum? The museum gets the Ark when we’re finished?”

“Do you think there’s room in the museum for a ship large enough to save every living species on earth?”

“Well, I…”

“Yes, of course. We’ll build a new wing if we have to.”

“Noah’s Ark. Nothing else has come close. That thing represents everything we got into archaeology for in the first place. I’ve got to find Ararat. I think I know where to start.”

“That’s the least of your worries right now, believe me, Indy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I mean that for nearly 4,000 years, man has been searching for