<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=02BboX_1H1LkzTn00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=02BboX_1H1LkzTn00" width="2048" height="1536" ><figcaption>Grace Finke/The Miscellany News. The Drama Department produces ‘Cabaret.’</figcaption></figure>From Nov. 5 to 7, the Vassar College community was swept into a display of allure, sensuality and unrest. The Drama Department’s production of “Cabaret”—a musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and book by Joe Masteroff—masterfully struck the delicate balance of musical spectacle and impactful social commentary.Set in Berlin, Germany between 1929 and 1930, “Cabaret” uses the city’s overindulgent nightlife as a setting to slowly unveil the impact of the rise of the Nazi Party. With the opening number, “Willkommen,” the audience is immediately welcomed into the Kit Kat Klub by the cabaret’s Master of Ceremonies (Emcee), portrayed by Oliver Hollmann ’27. The Emcee also serves as the show’s de facto narrator, supported by an ensemble of dancers for the Kit Kat Klub, all accompanying the show’s grand display as we watch the story unfold. The show focuses on the relationship between American novelist Clifford Bradshaw (Jove Leonard ’27) and English cabaret performer Sally Bowles (Nora Guzikowski ’27), and the conflict between the two characters in how they choose to navigate the political tumult in Germany. We also see the romance between landlady Fräulein Schneider (Ada Lovelace ’27) and Jewish fruit vendor Herr Schultz (Nick Monsion ’27), and meet the promiscuous Fräulein Kost (Skylar Spiro ’28) and smuggler Ernst Ludwig (John Miley ’28), who is revealed to be a supporter of the Nazi Party.“In any way possible, the citizens of Germany, as represented in the characters of Cabaret, sought to experience a renewed sense of joy in life free from military, economic, and political struggles,” Fure wrote in the show’s dramaturgy note. “But, the effort to ‘leave your troubles outside’ risks ignoring what’s right in front of you.” One of the draws of “Cabaret” for the Department was its usage of explicit political commentary and lasting contextual relevance. “[‘Cabaret’ is] so polished in some way as a piece of theater, as a script for it to then be able to work across time,” said Director and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Drama Anna Brenner. “And it’s also extremely disturbing that it could work so well right now and that it can have such resonance still.”The show served as the Senior Project in Drama for actors Hollmann, Guzikowski, Leonard, Monsion, actor and choreographer Lovelace, actor and dramaturg Grace Fure ’27 and lighting designer Ren Nicolau ’28. “Cabaret” also featured a student orchestra, directed by Ian Ho ’28. One of the defining characteristics of “Cabaret” was its glamor: I was hypnotized by the show’s jazz-influenced score, sparkling costumes and sophisticated choreography. While choreographing the show, Lovelace not only considered the aesthetic interest of her work, but also how she could curate the production’s visual storytelling through embedded messages in movement. She explained, “A huge device that ‘Cabaret’ uses is distracting the audience with this visual allure and pulling in the audience to this world of escapism, and then all of a sudden throwing them back into the real life and political upheaval and social problems.” The performers in “Cabaret” exemplified this contrast between escapism and political unrest. Part of what makes “Cabaret” so impactful of a show is its usage of the Kit Kat Klub as both a setting and a narrative device. “The Kit Kat Klub is a place where people come to escape,” Lovelace said. “They come to escape because it’s the one place they can feel joy and comfortability in their own skin.” Through Lovelace’s choreography, the student dancers presented the Kit Kat Klub as a diversion from real life, encouraging characters to rid themselves of their worries. However, the Kit Kat Klub slowly loses its spark—its songs imbued with disturbing political undertones, its performers losing synchronicity, its entire illusion of escape fading—as Nazi rhetoric becomes more prominent, showing just how quickly blissful ignorance can crumble.Brenner compared this sudden shift in sentiment to existing in an environment like Vassar: “I talked with our cast and students about this particular time of your life when you’re a student…where you leave the life that you knew, and you’re suddenly in this kind of bubble or utopia that can be so beautiful and exciting and personally expansive…then old wounds or shadows also can emerge in that. And I felt like that’s a really powerful personal aspect of this story.”Brenner, Fure and Lovelace emphasized the importance of “Cabaret” in today’s political context. “That is the point of the piece, you know, is to represent that kind of possible violence and that potential for fascism to come in if you really are trying to put blinders on,” Brenner said. “And so much of the story for me was: how can we delight the audience and lure them in and enjoy this fun cabaret, and then turn the tables and look to them, and shine the light on them to say, ‘well, what would you do?’”“Cabaret” is a chilling reminder of this message, directly portraying the consequences of ignoring the stakes of the situation at hand through the dissolution of Bradshaw and Bowles’ relationship. In the final scene of Vassar’s production, the dancers and Emcee have lost their elaborate costumes, the Emcee speaks without his German accent and the curtain hanging behind the Kit Kat Klub has fallen. Bowles, Bradshaw, Schneider, Kost, Schultz and Ludwig surround the Emcee, with Ludwig wearing a Nazi uniform and Schultz in the striped uniform of a Nazi concentration camp—a shocking image that grounds the audience in the gravity of the show’s political context. “I think ‘Cabaret’ is such an important show to watch and think about,” Fure wrote in an email to The Miscellany News. “It reminds us that we have to relentlessly fight fascism, even in seemingly good times. It’s one of those shows you see and can’t forget. I hope the audiences this past weekend thought deeply about its meaning, and how this story applies to us 100 years later.”</div></body>

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From Nov. 5 to 7, the Vassar College community was swept into a display of allure, sensuality and unrest. The Drama Department’s production of “Cabaret”—a musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and book by Joe Masteroff—masterfully struck the delicate balance of musical spectacle and impactful social commentary.

‘Cabaret’ balances commentary with artistry

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From Nov. 5 to 7, the Vassar College community was swept into a display of allure, sensuality and unrest. The Drama Department’s production of “Cabaret”—a 

‘Cabaret’ balances commentary with artistry

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