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Tiergarten, USA
Two of New York City’s 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 impresario Andrew Ousley, warped into being at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn as part of the 2026 Prototype Festival. The show took us to Weimar Berlin, through Verdi’s fire, to ancient Rome, and beyond. Bending time, it whirled us away from today’s nightmares into gaudy evocations of storied catastrophes of the past.
Cabaret singer Kim David Smith 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 “Alabama Song” and “Witchcraft.” But he retreated to the shadows to sing “Pirate Jenny” from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera while the artists of Foreshadow Puppetry told the story visually with shadow puppetry, using an old-fashioned overhead projector and a screen.
Another outstanding number was “The Liberty Song,” with lyrics by Founding Father John Dickinson, sung in a buttery-rich baritone by Miguel Ángel Vázquez. Vázquez returned to (sort of) evoke the Fall of Rome with “Arrivederce Roma,” a song that dates back, if not quite that far, then at least to the time of the manufacture of my grandmother’s music-box jewelry case.
Lynchings, Burnings
The evening’s deepest, darkest, and starkest few minutes came during Amara Granderson’s stunning rendition of “Strange Fruit.”
A few numbers later, Granderson gave us the strangest moment, too. Her powerful but straight-ahead take on the old spiritual “Were You There?” – about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus – drew some inappropriate but understandable laughs, as it followed a sacrilegious striptease by burlesque performer Pearls Daily to Smith’s droll rendition of “Nature Boy.”
The absolute high point of an evening full of of fabulous numbers was “Azucena’s Song” from Il Trovatore. Soprano Ariadne Greif transformed the ersatz Weimar speakeasy into a vale of tears with a towering and chilling performance of Verdi’s fiery aria, all in a revealing outfit. (Like the best operatic interpreters Greif is at ease with the outrageous, the weird, and the funny; the New York Times has described her as “beautiful and [my italics] physically fearless.”)
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.
Death of Classical is famed for its concerts in crypts and catacombs. Prototype almost never disappoints as it curates some the most innovative and hard-hitting theatrical events of any New York City season. Tiergarten gave us some of the best of both.
