CAB004
The “Cabaret” ensemble, with Mason Alexander Park (center), take the stage, stunningly rendered by set designer Wilson Chin in his Olney Theatre Center debut.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Due to high demand, Olney Theatre Center is thrilled to announce that their production of Cabaret has been extended through October 13.
The extension schedule is:
Please note: There is no performance on Friday, October 11. Instead, Olney Theatre Center will present the latest in its Applause Concert Series, a concert performance of Kander and Ebb’s Kiss of the Spider Woman featuring members of the Cabaret cast including Mason Alexander Park, Gregory Maheu, Tom Story, Donna Migliaccio, Jessica Lauren Ball, and welcoming back to OTC Patricia Hurley.
Cabaret opened to rave reviews on August 28. Writing for the Washington Post, critic Celia Wren praised the production,
Don’t tell Mama, but the Kit Kat Klub has gained a little class. The central setting and anchoring idea for the musical “Cabaret” still harbors the requisite louche personalities and risque song-and-dance acts. Fishnet-stocking suppliers aren’t hurting for business. But in director Alan Paul’s smart, tangy production at Olney Theatre Center, there’s slightly less of the pointed sleaze that has suffused other iterations of the Weimar Berlin nightspot. It’s a prudent calibration that ultimately reinforces the theme of a society’s disastrous and willful moral myopia.
The production’s attractive scenic and musical conception allows us to feel, rather than simply observe, the lure of that myopia….
The Olney production has a major asset in [Mason Alexander] Park’s Emcee, who exudes not only the necessary lewdness, but also a childishness and vulnerability, which adds emotional punch while echoing the sense of a society teetering on the edge. Sporting glitter eye shadow, this Emcee salaciously caresses the harp. He looks downcast when his jokes fizzle. In numbers such as the provocative opener “Willkommen,” he sings in brassy, smoky tones, frequently letting a snarl creep in.
Kabder and Ebb’s classic is set in 1929 Berlin, where Cliff (Gregory Maheu) arrives to work on his novel but finds himself swept up in the life of the cabaret with its bawdy Emcee (Park), and swept away by the performer and provocateur Sally Bowles(Alexandra Silber). Bunked together at Fräulein Schneider’s (Donna Migliaccio) boarding house, their impossible affair bumps up against the threatened love between their landlord and a Jewish fruit seller (Mitchell Hébert).
Cabaret
Book by Joe Masteroff
Based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Music Direction by Christopher Youstra
Choreographed by Katie Spelman
Directed by Alan Paul
August 28 – October 13, 2019
Tickets begin at $47 and may be purchased at olneytheatre.org. Discounts available for groups, seniors, military, and students.