About
Step into the world of a 1920’s Berlin Cabaret for an evening of song, story, and sin!
Soup Can Theatre is proud to present a bold and colourful new production that merges musical and comedy cabaret with immersive theatre. Following in the footsteps of the 2010 Fringe smash hit Love is a Poverty You Can Sell – which was also presented as part of the ‘Best of Fringe’ program and the 2012 Next Stage Festival – Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2: Kisses for a Pfennig (German for ‘penny’) aims to recreate the mood and atmosphere of an authentic Berlin cabaret in ‘Bite’, a warm and scenic bar/music venue in the heart of downtown Toronto, and to seduce audiences with a tantalizing stage show rife with song and spectacle.
Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2: Kisses for a Pfennig features music from across the decades, including the songs of German darling Marlene Dietrich, famed stage composer Kurt Weill, cabaret pioneer Frederick Hollander, Broadway legends Stephen Sondheim and Kander & Ebb (Cabaret), the subversive musical hit Urinetown, American singer-songwriter giants Paul Williams and Harry Nilsson, and others! Bringing these memorable melodies to life is a live ten-piece orchestra and a top-notch cast of Bohemian riff-raff including Seth Drabinsky (Hedwig in Breath.Feel.Love’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Jennifer Walls and Natasha Negovanlis (cast members of Angelwalk’s Dora nominated revue Off Broadway, On Stage), Michael-David Blostein (the Emcee in Adam Brazier’s Hart House Theatre production of Cabaret), show-stopping “male actress” Christian Jeffries, and many returning cast members from the first Love is a Poverty You Can Sell.
Also returning are audience favourites, emcees Hans and Jodel (Ryan Anning and Scott Dermody), who will liven the proceedings with their unique brand of corkscrew banter and add intrigue with a dark folk tale about a young butcher’s apprentice.
Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2 won’t stop at the edge of the stage; mixing and mingling with the audience throughout the performance will be supporting performers, lovingly referred to as the “Bar Flies”, playing 1920’s cabaret denizens who will help break down the barrier between the past and the present. Patrons will also be able to visit the bar and enjoy a traditional German beverage; the Berliner Weisse – a centuries-old summer cocktail made from Weissbier (wheat beer) and real raspberry syrup.
Under the directorial eye of Sarah Thorpe and the baton of music director Pratik Gandhi, Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2: Kisses for a Pfennig promises a hedonistic evening to remember!
Praise for the first Love is a Poverty You Can Sell includes:
“Sultry … Seductive … Uniformly Delectable …N N N N N” – NOW Magazine
“Stellar … Constantly Delights … Note-Perfect Mingling of the Past with the Present … ★★★★” – Eye Weekly
“Immersive and Inventive … A Must-See” – Toronto Review of Books
“Smart … Stylish … I Loved the Whole of It” – Slotkin Letter