Pacific Index

Starting October 23, Cabaret is sure to glue audiences to their seats

“But that is just part of the story we’re telling,” Director of “Cabaret,” Dan Murphy, tells me between bites of fresh olives. He is referring to Cabaret’s delectable or rather, raunchy, sense of humor amidst its hard-hitting historical plot. 

Set in pre-Nazi Berlin, Germany, “Cabaret” is a musical not only surrounding the seedy underbelly of the showgirl scene in 1930s Berlin, but juxtaposing that with Hitler’s approaching rise to power leading into World War II. Based on the 1939 novel by Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin, Cabaret features Sally, a cabaret singer, who performs in the Klub as slowly but surely, the march of the Nazis is coming towards Berlin. Murphy puts it, “Some of the people in the cabaret tend to ignore it; others can’t.” The characters find themselves having to make a choice; either face the music, or turn the other way.

Despite this, neither the characters in the Kit Kat Klub, nor the audience is ever left in the bliss of ignorance. The emcee, played by Joseph Barrett, takes a crucial role in the musical. He pops in throughout the show to give historical context as well as some perspective to the audience, serving not only as the host to the Klub, but the narrator of the show. “He encapsulates the seedy, queer, raunchy underground of 1930s Berlin, luring the audience in to understanding that perspective and empathizing with it,” Barrett reveals. 

Sally, the Cabaret singer to which the show follows, is played by Sydney Timm. “She’s fun and sexy and off the walls… but there’s also a part of her that’s been deeply hurt,” says Timm. That nuance in the character is exactly what Timm has enjoyed digging her fingernails into. Timm also expresses love for the dance numbers, a sentiment shared by fellow cast member Addy Behring, who plays Lulu, a fellow dancer at the Klub. Behring’s favorite musical number is Two Ladies, “It holds a special place of pride, and shame, in my heart.” It’s true, Cabaret can be a dark story, but some of that humor seems to take the edge off. 

I saw it myself at Friday night’s rehearsal Choreographer, Liberty Dolence does not play when it comes to nuance. She transformed a part of the dance number “Don’t Tell Mama,”  by taking the movements apart and re-choreographing them in the matter of minutes, wringing out the impact on the audience ten-fold. “This is my favorite number,” Dolence leans back in her chair to whisper to me as the dancers set up. Dolence later tells me that one of her goals is to give homage to Bob Fosse, who was the original choreographer of Cabaret. “The movement style is classic Bob Fosse inspired with a mix of German Expressionism movement style.” 

“Part of it is very upsetting,” Murphy reiterates. Although Cabaret has its humor, it all comes down to the historical context of the show. It isn’t about being funny, although that is a part of it, it’s about the takeover of fascism in Germany in the 1930s. “This is a show about Nazis. About the beginning of World War II,” Murphy states. But even in the heavier aspects of the show, comedic aspects are the light in the face of looming atrocities. 

Shows at 7:30 pm Thursday – Saturday, October 23 – 25, and 2 pm on Sunday, Oct. 26 at the Tom Miles Theatre in Warner Hall. $8 general admission, free for Pacific students.