If you’ve never been to the Old Courthouse Theatre (OCT) or you haven’t visited in a while, I have one reason why you should change that this weekend: Cabaret.

Cabaret, the final show of OCT’s 49^th season, is a 1966 musical that takes the audience back to a time that most people today weren’t alive to witness (and those who did experience it probably don’t want to remember): 1929-30 Berlin, just as the Nazis were rising to power.

[Purchase tickets here.]

The thought-provoking musical was based on the 1951 play, I Am a Camera, by John Van Druten, which was based on Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin, a 1939 novel. It features music by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Joe Masteroff.

“Cabaret is set during a very brief time in Germany’s history—the Weimer Republic, nestled between the fall of Imperial Germany after WWI and before the rise of the Third Reich during WWII,” said the show’s director, Heather Wilson-Bowlby. “The republic experienced a time of relaxed censorship in all forms of art, entertainment, and lifestyle, during which cabaret artists were able to explore themes of sexuality, politics, and social issues with greater openness, including LGBTQ+ themes that were previously taboo.”

What to Expect

The musical’s plot follows Sally Bowles, an English cabaret performer in Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub, as she enters an unlikely relationship with Clifford Bradshaw, an aspiring novelist from the United States. The action bounces between Clifford’s apartment flat in a boarding house owned by Fräulein Schneider and the seedy Kit Kat Klub, which is overseen by the Master of Ceremonies.

Because the show can be a little risqué with mature topics, I wasn’t sure how Wilson-Bowlby and her crack production team would present it. If you go too over the top, you run the risk of offending some theatregoers; however, if you present a watered-down version, you upset those who know the story and want to see it done in a way that is faithful to what was happening at that time in Germany, and, quite frankly, it lessens Cabaret’s message and impact.

Instead, what Wilson-Bowlby and her team, including a stellar cast of actors and actresses, give us is nothing short of perfection.   

Are You a Bystander to History?

After watching the final dress rehearsal, I was at a loss for words. I, along with the few others in the audience that night, sat in silence for several minutes after the show ended. While I can’t speak for the others, the impact of the closing scene (really, the entire show) and everything I had just seen transpire on stage made me think about my role and place in society. Am I just a bystander to history or would I do something about the injustices I witness around me?

Wilson-Bowlby sums it up beautifully: “As a modern audience, we know all too well what comes with WWII and Nazism with their racial laws created to exterminate human beings they found undesirable. Cabaret poses the question, ‘What would you do?’

“We all would like to view ourselves as the hero, but that is only in hindsight. Cabaret offers several points of view: the observer, the survivor, the optimist, the dreamer, and the guide.”  

Because the production is true to the story and what was going on in late 1920’s Germany, don’t arrive to the theatre expecting a feel-good story that will make you laugh uncontrollably or leave you with warm fuzzies. It’s not meant to be that type of show.

“Good art doesn’t always make you feel good. Sometimes it’s best if it makes you think,” stated Wilson-Bowlby. And it definitely makes you think.

The original 1966 Broadway production of Cabaret won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Choreography, Best Scenic Design, and Best Costume Design. It also won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical.

Order Your Tickets Today!  

Take a step back in time with us for the last three performances of Cabaret on Friday, May 9, and Saturday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, May 11 at 2:30 p.m. The house opens 30 minutes before the show starts.

To purchase tickets, click here.