Directed by Mark Giza
Music Direction by Tom Slowick
Choreography by Sandy Coughlin-Wegrzyn

CAST

Chris Rojas as the Emcee

Tyler Wolfson as Cliff

Nazar Tracy as Ernst

Robyn Scott as Fraulein Schneider

Tracey Hebert as Fraulein Kost

Ally Reardon as Sally

Hal Chernoff as Schultz

2 Ladies

Jami Wilson & Robyn Scott

Kit Kat Girls

Jami Wilson as Rosie
Olga Tracy as Lulu
Allison Schubach as Frenchy
Maggie Watracz as Helga
Dina Del Buono as Texas
Darlene Cloutier as Fritzie

Jamie Wilson
Jeanne Wysocki

Asher Simon-Plumb as the Teen Boy

The Theatre Guild of Hampden Presents Cabaret

Cabaret takes place from 1929-1930, a time when Berlin, in the midst of a post-World War I economic depression, is transitioning from a center of underground, avant-garde cultural epicenter to the beginnings of Hitler’s totalitarian regime and the rise of the Nazi Party. Into this world enters Clifford Bradshaw, a struggling American writer looking for inspiration for his next novel. On his first night in Berlin, Cliff wanders into the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy nightclub overseen by the strange, omniscient and gender-bending Master of Ceremonies, “the Emcee.” Here, Cliff meets Sally Bowles, a vivacious, talented cabaret performer, and an utterly lost soul.

Sally and Cliff begin a relationship, which blossoms unexpectedly into a dream-like romance. As time passes, however, the situation in Berlin changes from exciting and vital to ominous and violent; Ernst, Cliff’s first German friend, turns out to be an up-and-coming member of the Nazi Party, and Herr Schultz, a fellow boarder at Fraulein Schneider’s guest house (and Schneider’s fiancee), is the victim of an Anti-Semitic hate crime. When he finds out that Sally is pregnant, Cliff decides that they must leave for America at once, before things get any worse. Sally, afraid, confused, and unsure that she’ll ever really be able to trade the sexy, illicit cabaret lifestyle for motherhood, gets an abortion, and tells Cliff that he must leave without her.

With a distinctly Brechtian dose of provocation and a score featuring songs that have become classics of the American Musical Theater, Cabaret is a fierce, meaty musical that pushes the boundaries of the form and literally holds “the mirror up to nature.”

CABARET

April 2018