History

Based on the book by Joe Masteroff, the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood, Cabaret follows Cliff Bradshaw, an American writer who has traveled to Berlin in search of inspiration. There he finds 19-year-old Sally Bowles, an English cabaret performer working at the seedy Kit Kat Klub. As their romance blossoms, she moves in with him in a boarding house run by Fraulein Schneider and her suitor, Herr Schultz, an elderly Jewish fruit vendor. As the Nazis grow stronger, their lives are thrown into disarray. Overseeing the action throughout the show is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub, serving as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany.

The show won and was nominated for numerous Tony Awards through its three runs on Broadway: the original 1967 production and its revivals in 1987 and 1998. The dynamite musical score is by John Kander, with lyrics by Fred Ebb.

The second Broadway revival - which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical - was based on the 1993 Sam Mendes-directed Donmar Warehouse production from London. Co-directed by Mendes and Rob Marshall and choreographed by Marshall, it held a 2377-performance run at Studio 54, becoming the third longest-running revival in Broadway musical history. The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is producing this version, with direction from BT McNicholl, one of the few directors given permission to direct this particular revival of the show.