Cabaret lovers Cliff Bradshaw and Sally Bowles played by Will Akins and Hope Wells. (PCT)
Piedmont College Theatre opens its 2019-2020 season with the Tony award-winning musical Cabaret. The musical explores the dark and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany yields to the emerging Third Reich as the 1920’s draw to a close.
The play opens with the Master of Ceremonies welcoming the audience and assuring us that we will forget all our troubles at the Cabaret, a notorious Berlin nightclub. Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, arrives at the club and is immediately taken by English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of a boarding house, begins a romance with Herr Schultz, who happens to be Jewish. Cabaret is a powerful telling of a world in turmoil and humanity caught in the midst of it. Cabaret is for mature audiences only.
When asked about this production Director William Gabelhausen said, “It’s very easy when working with Cabaret to think of it as a musical about the Nazi infiltration but I hope to highlight the fact that what we are seeing is the time period that leads up to that; we want you to see the subtle changes in society, the makeup of neighborhoods and the class structure that really brings about this terrifying time in world history. My goal is to not only entertain the audience but to enlighten them. We are not just going to let the action take place on stage, but we will let it spill offstage into the audience. We have hopes of creating a cabaret atmosphere so the audience can watch Cabaret while sitting in a cabaret.”
Cabaret performances are 7:30 p.m., October 3-5 and 2 p.m., Oct. 6 at Swanson Center Mainstage Theater. Adult tickets are $10, senior and student tickets are $5, and Piedmont College faculty, staff, and students are free. Tickets can be ordered online at www.piedmont.edu/theatre-schedule or by calling the Box Office at 706-778-8500 x1355.
