CCP shows guests 'Life is a Cabaret' in upcoming show

ESCAPE - Cabaret rehearsal
Mark Wilson/News Tribune
Capital City Productions is currently rehearsing for its upcoming fall dinner theater production of "Cabaret," to run Oct. 11-13, 18-20 and 25-27.
ESCAPE - Cabaret rehearsal Mark Wilson/News Tribune Capital City Productions is currently rehearsing for its upcoming fall dinner theater production of "Cabaret," to run Oct. 11-13, 18-20 and 25-27.

"Life is a cabaret" is one line that summarizes the popular, Tony-Award winning musical, "Cabaret." The show's namesake is at the center of the play's plot - a variety show with different acts that allow its audience and participants to escape the realities of life with diverse entertainment.

"It is a great metaphor for life. Life is full of surprises and we never know where it will take us," said Rob Crouse, founder of Capital City Productions and director of its upcoming presentation of "Cabaret" on Oct. 11-13, 18-20 and 25-27 at Shikles Auditorium. "This musical is full of joy, shock, sadness; you get all of it."

However, despite the decadent celebration of culture the seedy nightclub showcased in "Cabaret" portrays, a second line sums up the intense, turbulent environment just outside its doors, as Germany faced the rise of the Third Reich on the brink of World War II.

"It is a throwaway line for Sally Bowles (a headlining British singer for the cabaret show at the Kit Kat Klub). 'It is only politics. What does that have to do with us?' The answer is everything," Crouse said. "People were disenchanted with their government with what happened in Germany at the time, tuned out and not paying attention. When that happened, Hitler came to power. They didn't realize that the decision to vote determined their lives."

The story derives from a semi-autobiographical account of Christopher Isherwood's time in 1930s Berlin, the people he met and his and their lives during pre-Nazi Germany, which he outlined in his novel "Goodbye to Berlin." John Van Druten adapted Isherwood's book into a Broadway play called "I Am a Camera," and playwright Joe Masteroff then adapted that tale into the 1966 Tony-Award winning musical "Cabaret" with music by John Kander and Fred Ebb.

Outside of a 1972 film scoring Liza Minnelli an Academy Award for her depiction of Sally Bowles, "Cabaret" has had many stage revivals, including the most recent one hitting Broadway in 2014. Crouse based Capital City Productions' presentation on the popular 1998 Broadway revival, which earned 10 Tony Award nominations and four wins. However, this is not his first time directing the momentous musical.

"I directed 'Cabaret' 27 years ago for The Little Theatre, and CCP did not exist back then," he said, noting M'Liss Saph, who is plays boarding house owner Fraulein Schneider in the upcoming production portrayed Bowles under Crouse's first direction of the musical nearly three decades ago. "This version is more in depth, showing how Hitler's first target was free expression and going after the Cabaret entertainers and the club because of their loose lifestyle."

The story follows a young American writer Clifford Bradshaw, played by Steve Kretzer, who is coming to Berlin to work on his new novel. While at the train station, Cliff meets Ernst Ludwig, played by Don Otto, a German who offers him work and recommends a boarding house. He visits the Kit Kat Club where he is introduced to Sally Bowles, played by Margaret Graham.

"Cliff falls in love with Sally, this fun, vibrant person. But she represents the cabaret life and the German people who are oblivious to what is really going on around them," Crouse said.

"Sally is very high-spirited and high energy. Within the hour and a half of the show, she has pretty much every single emotion under the sun," Graham added. "There is a lot of different emotions and that is a lot of fun getting to push myself to hit all of those levels, which is Rob's big picture."

Cliff falls blindly in love with Sally. Yet, as time goes on and Cliff starts to see what is happening around them, he realizes "you can't just take it in, you have to take a stand," Kretzer said.

"That ends up being a source of contention between him and Sally, who very much want to revel in the good old days," he added.

Love is also in the air for the facility's owner Fraulein Schneider and her tenant and a Jewish fruit shop owner Herr Schultz, played by Dick Dalton. The two seasoned actors deliver a true love story representative of how the political and social turmoil of that era often tore couples apart.

"We have some lighthearted fare in between us and a little bit of lightness in the show " M'Liss Saph said. "It's really the one true love story."

"There are very few heartfelt relationships in this musical," Dalton added. "Everyone in the show doesn't think it is going to happen to them. Yet, the Holocaust did happen and it happened to all of them."

While these story lines unfold while the Third Reich rises, one important constant in the show is there to help guide the audience through it all - The Emcee, or Master of Ceremonies, at the Kit Kat Klub. The sexually unfettered Emcee - alongside the cabaret dancers and staff - welcomes the audience to the Kit Kat Club with the song "Willkommen," serving in true master of ceremonies fashion. However, as Tim Bommel who is playing the role that serves as symbol.

"I am playing a character and a symbol at the same time. The whole show is about the desperate kind of happiness you have to counteract the sadness and darkness that surrounds you. My character embodies that through the whole show. No matter what is happening, I have to bring that through," he said. "It is so genius how the writers of the show took that as a theme. My character represents all the other themes that are happening throughout the show - loss, the desperation to be happy during the atrocities that happened during that time. It was very exciting but very challenging."

For the "Cabaret" costume directors Ryn McGuire, Nate Grey and Michelle Newberry they tried to balance how revealing and elaborate they wanted to make many of the costumes, as well as individualizing their wardrobe for shared numbers and other scenes outside of the club.

"You get to research the history and the fashion of the setting," Newberry said. "We have ordered online and through a professional company out of Chicago, as well as do a lot of thrift shop shopping."

Each Kit Kat dancer has three sets of different lingerie and a party dress, with McGuire, who has developed a passion for costumes and will co-direct "The Addams Family" for CCP next fall, making three costumes for this production. While each woman has four costume changes during the show, they also have a variety of cover-ups and accessories to mix it up from scene to scene.

Each of the women, along with most of the "Cabaret" cast delivers a trifecta of talent - acting, singing and dancing. It made sense for a former Kit Kat Klub dancer from The Little Theatre's presentation of "Cabaret" to return to this production 27 years later to instruct a new generation of dancers.

LuAnn Madsen, who has been involved with Capital City Productions since its inception and now teaches tap and theater dance lessons through the company, grew up dancing with her mother owning a dance studio and operating a professional dance line. As the musical's choreography director, Madsen brushed up on the 1998 revival, which is slightly different than the original, as well as making sure the eight numbers the cabaret dancers perform such as "Don't Tell Mama" and "Mein Herr" aside from other sequences fit into Crouse's directorial vision for the play.

"I watched different videos of the musical done at different venues, and then I looked at what the skills of my cast are and try to incorporate that. I have some cast members that can do some unusual things, so we can work those into the choreography," she said. "The numbers tend to be a commentary of what else is happening in the show. They are different because they helped move the story forward."

While audiences are not only experiencing the musical production, they are also walking into a cabaret for the dinner theater at Shikles. Musical director Kim Dugan will lead a line-up of live musicians to provide music for the show's many numbers, and production guests can also purchase a two-person table on stage to be up close and a part of the "Cabaret" action.

Shelly Cline, a historian at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education in Overland Park, Kansas, will give a short presentation opening night of "Cabaret" with a longer presentation about the Holocaust given in the afternoon at the Missouri River Regional Library.

"We are hoping to tape it so we can show it here each night at the show," Capital City Productions president Nate Grey added, noting an exhibit on loan from the center will also be in the Shikles Auditorium lobby during the production schedule.

"Part of the reason why this play is important is WWII veterans are disappearing, the whole Holocaust story is important we remember it so a whole new generation is familiar with what went on," Crouse said.

The importance of this show is one that the cast understands and says is relevant for people today.

"It brings back remembrance of a piece of our history which is so important but it is also so relevant for the time in which we live. We live in America and we are the capital of the free world. It is scary to think that these people, who had no idea something like this happened to them but it did," Graham said. "It is very important to take your freedom for granted and to remember those who lost their lives during this time. The message is more adult and not appropriate for children, and bring your Kleenex."

"Cabaret" runs Oct. 11-13, 18-20 and 25-27. Doors open for evening performances at 6 p.m., with dinner served at 6:30 p.m. and the show at 7:30 p.m. Doors open for matinee performances at 11:30 a.m., with dinner at noon and the show at 1 p.m. Tickets are $38 per person, which includes dinner and the show. A portion of proceeds will benefit Toys for Tots. For more information or to order tickets, call 573-681-9612 or visit capitalcityproductions.org.