{"id":528645,"date":"2026-01-20T00:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T00:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/528645\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T00:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T00:46:12","slug":"theater-cabaret-review-nyc-tiergarten-blogcritics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/528645\/","title":{"rendered":"Theater\/Cabaret Review (NYC): ‘Tiergarten’ | Blogcritics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tiergarten, USA<\/p>\n

Two of New York City\u2019s cultural powerhouses coalesced in the Borough of Churches on Friday night, turning packed audiences into time travelers. Tiergarten, an effervescent cabaret show conceived and directed by Death of Classical<\/strong><\/a> impresario Andrew Ousley, warped into being at St. Paul\u2019s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn as part of the 2026 Prototype Festival<\/strong><\/a>. The show took us to Weimar Berlin, through Verdi\u2019s fire, to ancient Rome, and beyond. Bending time, it whirled us away from today\u2019s nightmares into gaudy evocations of storied catastrophes of the past.<\/p>\n

Cabaret singer Kim David Smith<\/a> hosted as a blitz of bygone eras manifested through cabaret numbers, operatic arias, spirituals, dance, striptease, and even puppetry. Smith was ham-fabulous during some of his own numbers, like \u201cAlabama Song\u201d and \u201cWitchcraft.\u201d But he retreated to the shadows to sing \u201cPirate Jenny\u201d from Kurt Weill\u2019s<\/a> Threepenny Opera while the artists of Foreshadow Puppetry<\/a> told the story visually with shadow puppetry, using an old-fashioned overhead projector and a screen.<\/p>\n

Another outstanding number was \u201cThe Liberty Song,\u201d with lyrics by Founding Father John Dickinson<\/a>, sung in a buttery-rich baritone by Miguel \u00c1ngel V\u00e1zquez<\/a>. V\u00e1zquez returned to (sort of) evoke the Fall of Rome with \u201cArrivederce Roma,\u201d a song that dates back, if not quite that far, then at least to the time of the manufacture of my grandmother\u2019s music-box jewelry case.<\/p>\n

Lynchings, Burnings<\/p>\n

The evening\u2019s deepest, darkest, and starkest few minutes came during Amara Granderson\u2019s<\/a> stunning rendition of \u201cStrange Fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AmaraAmara Granderson (Kevin Condon)<\/p>\n

A few numbers later, Granderson gave us the strangest moment, too. Her powerful but straight-ahead take on the old spiritual \u201cWere You There?\u201d \u2013 about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus \u2013 drew some inappropriate but understandable laughs, as it followed a sacrilegious striptease by burlesque performer Pearls Daily to Smith\u2019s droll rendition of \u201cNature Boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The absolute high point of an evening full of of fabulous numbers was \u201cAzucena\u2019s Song\u201d from Il Trovatore. Soprano Ariadne Greif<\/a> transformed the ersatz Weimar speakeasy into a vale of tears with a towering and chilling performance of Verdi\u2019s fiery aria, all in a revealing outfit. (Like the best operatic interpreters Greif is at ease<\/a> with the outrageous, the weird, and the funny; the New York Times has described her as \u201cbeautiful and [my italics] physically fearless.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\"AriadneAriadne Greif sings Handel at \u2018Tiergarten\u2019 (Kevin Condon)<\/p>\n

A marvelous modern pas de deux from dancers Liana Zhen-ai and Dylan Contreras set up a finale from Smith that took us back to Weimar Berlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Death of Classical is famed for its concerts in crypts<\/a> and catacombs<\/a>. Prototype almost never disappoints as it curates some the most innovative and hard-hitting theatrical events<\/a> of any New York City season. Tiergarten gave us some of the best of both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiergarten, USA Two of New York City\u2019s cultural powerhouses coalesced in the Borough of Churches on Friday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":528646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[234542,5229,234543,169105,234544,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80501,234545,234546,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-528645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-amara-granderson","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-ariadne-grief","11":"tag-cabaret","12":"tag-death-of-classical","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-prototype","20":"tag-prototype-festival","21":"tag-tiergarten","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115924669797323541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}