Cabaret

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Date of Performances
Matinees: Nov. 29 and 30 at 10 a.m.
Evenings: Nov. 29, Nov. 30, Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m.

About the Show  

Kander and Ebb’s landmark musical turns Weimar Berlin of 1929 into a dark haven of decadence, its extraordinary and morally ambiguous inhabitants determined to keep up appearances as the real world - outside the comfortable sanctuary of the cabaret - prepares for the nightmarish chaos of war. It is the story of Cliff Bradshaw who meets Sally Bowles, a singer at the infamous Kit Kat Club in Berlin. Through their relationship and the relationships of the people in their lives, we become aware of the dark politics that will soon consume and destroy them all.

Cabaret, with book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, was based on John van Druten’s play I am a Camera, which in turn took its inspiration from Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin stories about the corrupt, disintegrating society that was Germany between the World Wars. It opened on Broadway in 1966 winning eight Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Score. The highly acclaimed movie version, starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, opened in 1972 and received eight Academy Awards. In 1998, a radically revised production opened on Broadway and received four Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. Cawthra's current musical is in the spirit of this revised production.

The production will also reflect the German expressionist movement, which was created out of a revolt against realism and naturalism. It reflects the era’s taste for excess, the pathological and the diabolical. Shadows and light, representing the eternal struggle between good and evil, are also indicative of the movement and echo the themes of the show. Film critic Lotte Eisner, having escaped Nazi persecution herself by fleeing Germany, once said that “expressionism no longer sees, it has visions.” Cawthra's production works on the concept that it is like a dream, where images of reality and fantasy co-exist. By awakening emotions in response to the themes, we relate the experience of the not-too-distant past to our current lives, and recognize that the play remains ever relevant.

It contains some of musical theatre's best known songs: Willkommen and, of course, the title number, Cabaret. This revised version adds songs written specifically for the movie, Mein Herr and Money, Money.