In a Berlin nightclub, as the 1920’s draw to a close, a garish Master of Ceremonies welcomes the audience and assures them they will forget all their troubles at the Cabaret. With the Emcee’s bawdy songs as wry commentary, Cabaret explores the dark, heady, and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, is immediately taken with English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff and Sally’s boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish.
Based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood
Helen Hayes Nominations
Outstanding Choreography, Resident Musical, Rachel Leigh Dolan, CABARET
Outstanding Resident Musical, CABARET
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Resident Musical, Paul Scanlan, CABARET
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Resident Musical, Maria Rizzo, CABARET
Washingtonian Review
“The production is at its best when it’s steeped in all its rouged, writhing, spotlit glory. Scanlan commands a troupe of male and female Kit Kat Club dancers.”
DC Theatre Scene Review
“[Paul] Scanlan’s robust physique and tight jaw gives him a strong, even dangerous presence. He totally reinvents the Emcee…”
BYT Review
“[Keegan’s Cabaret is] no happy-go-lucky Kidz-bopped, bastardization of the 8-time Tony Award winning musical. The songs and dance numbers are intentionally explicit, deliberately raw, and jolting—it’s musical theatre in its purest and freshest form.”
Washington Post Review
“[Maria] Rizzo’s Sally has the voice and the acting skills to belt the famous title song and still make it wholly convincing as Sally’s breakdown moment. She also has the dance moves to sell naughty numbers like ‘Don’t Tell Mama.'”
Broadway World Review
“If there’s one thing Keegan Theatre usually does well, it is delivering quality renditions of known and lesser-known musicals. The small yet ambitious company’s current production of Cabaret, with solid direction by Christina A. Coakley and Michael Innocenti, is certainly no exception.”
ShowBizRadio Review
“As a whole, the production delicately and professionally finds the balance between presentational and representational theatre…This production honors the musical’s episodic nature better than any production of Cabaret I’ve seen thus far.”
DC Metro Theater Arts Review
“What I witnessed this night was a production that was absolutely breathtaking because it was less about flashy set pieces and intense lighting – and more focused on the amazing talents of every member of the outstanding cast – all working together to tell the story of Clifford Bradshaw’s visit to Berlin.”
Paul Scanlan, Maria Rizzo, Bradley Foster Smith, Jane Petkofsky, Stan Shulman, Erin Ryan, Sarah Chapin, Alison Crosby, Shannon Cusello, Shayna Blass, Paige Felix, Sarah Lasko, Chris Gillespie, Timothy Adams, Charlie Abel, Ben Lurye, Ryan Patrick Welsh, and Matthew Rubbelke
Directors Christina A. Coakley and Michael Innocenti
Music Director John-Michael d’Haviland
Choreographer Rachel Leigh Dolan
