Explore the dark and seedy life of 1929 Bohemian Berlin in the musical drama “Cabaret,” staged by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Department of Theatre and Dance April 15-16 and 21-23.
A multiple Tony Award-winning show, “Cabaret” will be performed at Jenkins Theatre in the Noel Fine Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 15, Saturday, April 16, and Thursday-Saturday, April 21-23. Matinees will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 16, and Saturday, April 23. Face coverings are encouraged for audience members. It is for ages 13 and up.
Set in the Kit Kat Klub in Berlin, the show focuses on two couples – American writer Cliff Bradshaw and English cabaret performer Sally Bowles, and German boarding house owner Fraulein Schneider and her elderly Jewish suitor Herr Schultz. The club’s emcee takes the audience through the show.
Since its Broadway debut in 1966, “Cabaret” has been released as a feature film in 1972, had long-running revivals on Broadway and was recently featured in the hit show, “Schitt’s Creek.” It is currently running in London’s West End. Famous cast members include Joel Grey, Liza Minnelli, Judi Dench, Alan Cummings and Natasha Richardson.
“We are performing the original 1966 version of the show,” said director Mark Hanson, an associate professor of musical theater. “It’s a whole different animal, with songs you may not know that draw out and engage more of the characters.”
The play is not as much about the rise of Nazism as it is about how a society deals with economic depression, stress and political upheaval, Hanson said. “It is about people, the choices they make and how they deal with those choices.”
The show offers substantial roles for the talented student cast, he said, which includes seven main actors and a 20-member ensemble. The score includes toe-tapping, vaudevillian music and dancing in the club as well as plot and character-driven songs in realistic settings.
“It’s brilliantly written, that is why it’s so popular,” said Hanson. “It has strong characters, strong material and great music. It’s a comedy that has dark overtones. It has people laughing but then asking themselves why.”
Tickets are $27 for adults, $24 for seniors, faculty and staff members and $16 for youth. UW-Stevens Point students with I.D. may get tickets for $10 in advance or $7 day of show. Purchase tickets online at tickets.uwsp.edu, by calling 715-346-4100, or by visiting the Information and Tickets Office in Dreyfus University Center in Stevens Point. Tickets will also be available at each venue starting one hour prior to each performance. The theater will seat to full capacity.