Pentangle Arts to Present CABARET Through Halloween

"What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play!"

Pentangle Arts invites you to leave your troubles outside and come to our production of CABARET based on the 1998 production directed by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall. The show opens October 21, 2016, and closes with a special Halloween Performance on October 31, 2016.

This legendary musical takes you to Berlin in the 1930s, an epicenter of underground, avant-garde culture, in a country is grappling with economic and political ruin amid the rise of the Nazi party. CABARET illustrates the ways in which citizens cope with a nation in crisis. Some withdraw into another world - in this case a racy cabaret where "life is beautiful" - while others willfully follow charismatic rhetoric and propaganda in pursuit of a more desirable future.

The genesis for CABARET comes from Christopher Isherwood's novellas, 'Goodbye to Berlin' and 'Mr. Norris Changes Trains' based on his time in 1930's Berlin. His most popular short story 'Sally Bowles', was the subject of the 1951 John Van Druten play I Am a Camera. The title of which is taken from an early line in Isherwood's 'Goodbye to Berlin', "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." Fifteen years after I Am a Camera was produced, Broadway producer and director Hal Prince acquired the rights to both Isherwood's stories and Van Druten's play and commissioned writer Joe Masteroff and the young song writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb to write the script and musical score respectively. The show opened on Broadway November 20th, 1966 and was a hit winning 8 Tony Awards with a subsequent production opening in London in 1968. The 1972 film adaptation, while heavily straying from the stage show, won 8 Academy Awards. In 1993, British director Sam Mendes created a new production that was more openly decadent and darker than Hal Prince's original. The instruments in the orchestra were played onstage by the cabaret boys and girls. This version included the reinstating of songs cut from the original as well as adding songs from the film, while cutting some others. This production opened on Broadway in 1998 with the co-direction and choreography by Rob Marshall.

Enter the world of the Kit Kat Club, a seedy, dark, sexually charged haven where patrons are encouraged to "enjoy the divine decadence" and forget the world outside. Bringing the Kit Kat Club to life are Broadway actors Nicolette Hart* (Rent, Legally Blonde, The Wedding Singer, Million Dollar Quartet, Bette Midler World Tour), as Sally Bowles, an utterly lost vivacious cabaret performer, and Joey Calveri* (Trip of Love, Rock of Ages, Wonderland), as the gender-bending Emcee, with local resident Tesha Buss* (Broadway's CATS and Gypsy at Paper Mill Playhouse with Betty Buckley) as the fiery Fräulein Kost. Local cast members representing some of the Upper Valley's best talents along with some of New York's rising talents include: Mike Backman as Herr Shultz, Kim Meredith as Fräulein Schneider, Rob Brinkmann as Clifford Bradshaw, ColLen Doyle as Ernst Ludwig, Kit Kat Boys and Girls: Nate Hinson, Anthony Wright, James Oblak, Kat Eichler, Katie Kitchel, Iva Wich, Elise Ballard, Sarah Treanor and Rebecca Frazier.

According to Director Joey Murray, "CABARET is as relevant today as it was when it premiered 50 years ago. As a director and artist, I believe it is my responsibility to reflect what is going on in the world today in my work. I hope audiences will come to CABARET not only to be entertained, but to question, think and truly have an emotional, human, and evocative theatrical experience."

Joey Murray is a New York City-based theatre, concert, and music video director. He is currently Director/Choreographer of the regional touring premiere of Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical. His other work as a stage and concert director has been seen at regional theaters and major performing art centers all over the United States and in China. He is also the Artistic Director for The Broadway Dolls, an award-winning concert experience featuring a cast of the most in-demand women on Broadway.

Pentangle Arts is thrilled to welcome back Josh D. Smith**, Music Director (Fiddler on the Roof, Rocky Horror Show, CATS), Susan Lamontange, Choreographer (Rocky Horror Show, CATS), Janine Thoma, Lighting Designer (CATS), Rachel Neubauer, Sound Designer (CATS), Carl Tallent, Set Designer (CATS), Tracey Sullivan, Costume Designer (Fiddler on the Roof, CATS) and is pleased to introduce Vermont native Elisabeth Barnes-Flint, as Production Stage Manager. According to Pentangle's Executive Director Alita Wilson, "This company in its totality will deliver a meaty musical that pushes the boundaries of the form and literally holds the "mirror up to nature" asking, "why do we again and again allow destructive powers to take control of society?"

Don't miss the classic Broadway musical production of CABARET, October 21-23 and October 27-31 at Woodstock Town Hall Theatre. For more information about the production and to book tickets, visit www.pentanglearts.org/cabaret or call (802) 457-3981.

Pentangle would like to thank the following sponsors for their support of CABARET: Bentleys Restaurant, The Deer Brook Inn, Wild Apple Graphics, Woodstock Farmers Market, WoodStock Home and Hardware, and Woodstock Insurance. Pentangle's production of CABARET is part of Vermont Arts 2016, celebrating public funding for the Arts.

* The Actor appears through the courtesy of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

** Musical Director is a member of the American Federation of Musicians.

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