Cabaret performer’s new show blends
Bowie tribute with his style
BY BOB KRASNER
There are a couple of things that
the Dutch/German cabaret
performer Sven Ratzke would
like you to know at the start.
In town for a two-week run at La
Mama for his show “Where Are We
Now,” featuring the songs of David
Bowie, Ratzke is quick to mention
that his performance is “not that of a
cover band – that is totally not what I
am doing.” And he’s a little tired of being
asked, “what’s your favorite David
Bowie song?”
The very striking and stylish Ratzke,
who has performed to steady acclaim
around the world, previously presented
“Starman,” a tribute to Bowie at Joe’s
Pub that had the blessing of the man
himself. That show was touring Europe
when the news came of Bowie’s passing.
“When we lost Bowie the show became
more of a comfort,” Ratzke muses.
Rather than continue in that vein,
he took a break from Bowie after completing
the tour to present a new work,
“Homme Fatale.” But then the time
seemed right to re-examine Bowie’s
catalog in a simpler manner than the
band format of “Starman.”
Working with just pianist Christian
Pabst, Ratzke’s new show is, he states,
“Fifty percent Bowie and fifty percent
me.” Presenting each song with an accompanying
monologue, he mixes fact
and fiction as a tool to examine each
piece. While there are certainly echoes
of Bowie’s voice in his interpretations,
this is not a performer whose main goal
is to mimic the originals. Rather, his
intent is hopefully to share what he has
found out about the songs through the
process of performing and examining
them.
“There were a lot of his songs that I
didn’t understand before I sang them, ”
he notes. For example, “Sweet Thing/
Candidate,” one of the lesser known
songs from the “Diamond Dogs” album,
was one that the singer was “always
intrigued by, but didn’t understand.
And I had to understand it in
order to sing it.”
“I discovered the layers of the song
– it’s an imaginary world that he steps
into,” relates Ratzke. The story that he
tells prior to performing the song relates
to his interpretation on stage.
Other songs are given unexpected
treatments, such as “Let’s Dance,” a
number that Ratzke recognizes as one
that many find trivial. But in his slowed
down, percussive treatment the pop
concoction gains a previously unheard
gravity. Part of the credit for this goes
to his musical collaborator, composer/
pianist Pabst.
The collaborative process of finding
the arrangements and musical backdrops
for Ratzke’s voice often comes down to
the singer, who does not play an instrument,
relating what he is looking for
musically in visual terms, leaving Pabst
to find a way to interpret his marching
orders. Take “Rock and Roll Suicide,”
which Ratzke explained that he wanted
the music to sound like, “a shabby, empty
nightclub in Berlin, where backstage a
performer is looking into a mirror. There
are French cigarettes and makeup, and
a face that is totally white, disappearing
into smoke.”
“It’s only a piano and a voice, so we
need to take everything out of that piano
and that voice,” explains Ratzke. “I
have to find a way to bring the stories
to life.” Bowie’s songs “bring people
Ratzke’s new show opens Dec. 11 at La MaMa.
PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
together,” he states. “In a time when
everyone is so egotistical, his songs are
universal.” The title of the show, also
taken from a Bowie song, is something
that Ratzke feels more people should
ponder, especially younger folks.
“Where am I now, where am I going?”
he asks.
There will be two more legs of this
tour and then, “this chapter is finished,”
he says. But for now, he notes,
“It gives me a lot of joy and comfort to
sing these songs.”
“By the way,” he adds, before leaving,
“Heroes is my favorite Bowie song.”
“Where Are We Now” runs from
12/11 to 12/21. Information is available
at lamama.org/where-are-wenow/
When we lost
Bowie the show
became more of
a comfort”
Cabaret performer Sven Ratzke.
PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
18 December 12, 2019 Schneps Media