For three weeks-only, Vancouver audiences will be transported back in time to the Weimar-era Kit Kat Club, as Raincity Theatre presents the Tony Award-winning musical, Cabaret. From October 15 to November 5, 2022, The Kit Kat Club comes alive at 191 Alexander St in historic Gastown.
For this immersive, site-specific production, Raincity Theatre brings audiences up close and personal with the Kit Kat Club boys and girls to experience the swirling and seedy energy of the famed nightclub.
“Our production of Cabaret will give guests a truly unique night out,” says director Chris Adams. “Imagine being able to smell and sense the seediness of the era and get caught up in the heartbreaking story of Sally, Cliff, and what must have felt like the end of the world. Our audiences will hear each incredible song, see beautiful production numbers, and experience the eerie dawn of Nazi Germany. All from just a few feet away.”
Featuring an incredible cast of accomplished performers led by visionary director Adams and award-winning choreographer Nicol Spinola, Cabaret takes the audience inside the tantalizing world of The Kit Kat Klub in 1930s pre-WWII Berlin, where beguiling, self-destructive chanteuse Sally Bowles lives with no thought for tomorrow. The decadence of the Weimar nightclub under the sway of its outrageous Emcee becomes a mirror reflecting a society spiralling toward disaster with the rise of Hitler’s Nazis.
Kander and Ebb’s 1966 muli-award musical, with a book by Joe Masteroff, is based on the play, I Am a Camera by John Van Druten from Christopher Isherwood’s semi-autobigraphical novel. From the opening notes of “Willkommen” through the title song and such classics as “Don’t Tell Mama” and “Money”, Cabaret delivers a raw theatrical experience on a knife’s edge between unbridled sexuality and impending catastrophe.
Cabaret’s cast is lead by a who’s who of the Vancouver theatre scene. Jessie Award-winning Alex Gullason, recently seen in Apple TV’s Schmigadoon and Raincity’s Company plays Sally Bowles. Graham Coffeng, seen in the Arts Club’s Beauty and the Beast and Raincity’s Company plays the outrageous Emcee. Nick Fontaine, who appeared in the Arts Club’s production of Fun Home plays writer Cliff Bradshaw, who stays at a boarding house owned by Fraulein Schneider played by Caitriona Murphy, who recently appeared in Theatre Under the Star’s Mamma Mia. SFU and Capilano University voice and speech instructor, Sanders Whiting plays the role of Herr Schultz.
Director Adams and choreographer Spinola, worked together on Raincity Theatre’s Sweeney Todd and Company, alongside Musical Director Kevin Woo, who is also the General Manager of Theatre Under the Stars, they lead a talented creative team.
Raincity Theatre’s Cabaret runs October 15 to November 5, 2022, at The Kit Kat Club pop-up at 191 Alexander St in historic Gastown. Visit raincitytheatre.com, for full cast and crew details, showtimes and tickets including VIP Tables created exclusively for this site-specific production, offering patrons the most immersive experience, with their own private entrance, complimentary drink, and the feeling of being even closer to the action.