Enjoy 5th Avenue Theatre's CABARET

The 5th co-produces this landmark musical with the American Musical Theatre of San Jose and St. Paul's Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Performance dates are from March 25 to April 13, 2008.

The decadent world of 1930s Berlin comes to life in this Tony Award-winning musical masterpiece. Based on Christopher Isherwood's novel "Berlin Stories" and John Van Druten's play I Am a Camera, CABARET follows an English nightclub singer, an American writer, a German landlady and a Jewish shopkeeper who find their destinies linked and their futures uncertain on the eve of the Third Reich. By turns defiant and melancholy, brazen and gleeful, CABARET sizzles with show-stopping songs, including "Willkommen," "Maybe This Time," "Money, Money," "Don't Tell Mama" and the explosive title tune.

Considered one of the defining musicals of the postwar era, CABARET broke the mold of musicals by presenting the audience with a highly "conceptualized" production - instead of integrating songs that stemmed organically from each situation, director Harold Prince envisioned a musical with the actors commenting on the action as it happened. CABARET won eight 1967 Tony Awards (including Best Musical and Best Score) and ran for 1,165 performances. It launched Kander and Ebb's (Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman) success and place in musical theater history. In 1972, the musical was adapted for the screen in one of the greatest movie musical hits of all time, winning eight Oscars, including Best Actress for Liza Minnelli.

The cast of The 5th Avenue's production of CABARET features Tari Kelly (B'way: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Boy from Oz, Show Boat, 5th Avenue: White Christmas) as Sally Bowles, Seattle natives Nick Garrison (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Rocky Horror Show) as the Emcee, Louis Hobson (5th Avenue: West Side Story, Miss Saigon) as Cliff Bradshaw, Suzy Hunt (B'way: Execution of Justice, 5th Avenue: Singin' in the Rain, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) as Fraulein Schneider and Broadway veteran Allen Fitzpatrick (B'way: Les Misérables, 42nd Street, Sweet Smell of Success, 5th Avenue: Sweeney Todd) as Herr Schultz. The cast includes Alexandra Ausman, Lisa Bartholomew-Given, Nicole Boote, Scott Brateng, Ross Cornell, Dannul Dailey, Jadd Davis, Tyson Forbes (Ernst Ludwig), Kirsten E. Gerding, Angie Louise (Fraulein Kost), Carrie Madsen, Ellyn Marie Marsh, Melody McArtor, Brandon O'Neill, Maya RS Perkins, Troy L. Wageman and Aaron Young.

CABARET is directed by 5th Avenue Associate Producing Artistic Director Bill Berry (West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz, Smokey Joe's Café, Wonderful Town) and choreographed by Bob Richard (West Side Story, B'way: How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Ian Eisendrath (Into the Woods, West Side Story) serves as the conductor/musical director, the set and lighting designer is Tom Sturge (West Side Story lighting, Wonderful Town sets & lights), the costume designer is Thomas G. Marquez, the hair and make-up designer is Sharon Ridge and the sound designer is Jeremy J. Lee. Bret Torbeck is the production stage manager. -- www.5thavenue.org