Millennium Repertory Company at the Manchester Arts Center in Manchester, TN is proud to stage a production of the Kander/Ebb/Masteroff classic musical Cabaret, opening April 15, 2022 and running two weekends. A limited number of Cabaret Level seats are available for each performance which include a drink ticket for a cocktail/mocktail and putting you right in the Kit Kat Club for the show.
A landmark of American theater, this musical brings to the stage both comedy and tragedy in turn, all set against the rise of facism in 1930’s Berlin. Decadence, love, humor, and loss can be found within the Kit Kat Club, as well as some of the most memorable characters in musical theater like Sally Bowles and the Emcee.
Many Broadway classics have been reinvented, but few have been so thoroughly as Cabaret. From short stories, to film, to straight play, to stage musical, back to film, and then a complete reinvention of the stage musical, Cabaret has remained relevant for the past 85 years. Cabaret sets the rise of the Nazi party against the freewheeling decadence of sex and drugs of Berlin in the late 1920’s, and the themes of authoritarianism, fascism, and the banality of evil are just as relevant in the current moment as they were then.
Story
Cabaret opens on the evening of December 31st of 1929, New Years Eve, as the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Club welcomes the audience, introduces the cabaret performers, and insists that everyone leave their troubles outside. This sets the stage for the rest of the show, which is the story of three relationships: Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, who is immediately taken with English singer Sally Bowles; Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff’s boarding house, who begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller; and the people of Germany to their country and the Nazi party.
With the Emcee’s songs as commentary, Cabaret explores the dark and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Weimar Germany slowly falls apart. Cabaret is an emotional examination of the rise of fascism and the banality of evil.
Auditions for this production were in December 2021.