Review: CABARET at B. Iden Payne Theatre

In a theatrical landscape crowded with reinventions, UT’s Cabaret finds its power in precision. This production honors the bones of Kander and Ebb’s classic, the grit, the glamour, and the creeping dread, without overstating. It is confident, deliberate, and beautifully self-aware.

Set in 1930s Berlin as fascism slithers into everyday life, Cabaret follows American writer Cliff Bradshaw (Connor Burk) and British cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Ella Eavenson) navigating a city intoxicated by its own decay. The Kit Kat Klub is their playground and their prison, a place where laughter masks collapse and love is always tinged with fear. UT’s production balances charm and doom with startling grace.

Rodolfo Robles Cruz’s direction is impeccable, cohesive, emotionally grounded, and refreshingly unforced. It never leans into camp or crude provocation, a common trap for this show. Instead, it trusts the text, the music, and the audience’s intelligence. Pacing is taut, emotional turns calibrated, and the production understands that Cabaret is not about excess but erosion, the seductive unraveling of decency beneath entertainment.

The on-stage band deserves its own ovation. They are the show’s heartbeat, positioned within the world of the Kit Kat Klub, reacting and breathing as part of the story. Sultry saxophones, sharp brass, and a rhythm section drive every emotional turn, giving the piece authenticity and danger. At times, they feel like another character, a chorus of conscience underscoring the action with irony and ache.

Angel Blanco’s choreography is masterful. Sexy, playful, and provocative without caricature, it is grounded in vaudeville, tinged with jazz, and always suggestive without being gratuitous. The ensemble dances with precision and abandon, inviting the audience into the decadence. Subtlety here gives sensuality real power; exaggeration is unnecessary.

Visually, Joshua W. Martin’s set is simple but purposeful, framing the performers while fluidly shifting between nightclub, boarding room, and the world beyond. A few well-chosen elements, a table, a typewriter, a chest, conjure intimacy and danger. The sparseness forces focus on people, not spectacle.

Ella Eavenson’s Sally Bowles is cunning, vulnerable, and self-protective, echoing contemporary interpretations more than the Minnelli archetype. Her final number, “Cabaret,” is a masterclass in emotional crescendo, voice soaring and cracking, desperation seeping through glamour.

David Gonima’s Emcee is exquisite as the moral compass that is quite twisted with a grin. He straddles the line between entertainer and witness, reminding us that he is both part of the story and outside it. Gonima’s rendition of “If You Could See Her Through My Eyes” lands with haunting irony, a lighthearted tune that curdles into commentary on prejudice and hypocrisy. It is one of the show’s sharpest moments, revealing how easily laughter becomes complicity.

Cliff Bradshaw, portrayed with warmth, subtle charm, and a sense of quiet integrity by Connor Burk, anchors the narrative. He is the audience’s surrogate, caught between fascination and horror as the world around him unravels. Burk brings a grounded humanity to the role, making Cliff’s awkwardness, vulnerability, and moral grappling both believable and compelling. His chemistry with Eavenson develops naturally, and his reactions to the unfolding chaos provide much of the audience’s emotional journey.

The older couple, Fraulein Schneider (Shaya Harris) and Herr Schultz (Roman Losa), are the production’s emotional core. Their chemistry is endearing, their scenes tender and sincere. Though a touch younger than one might expect, Harris and Losa bring warmth and gravity to their roles. Their love story, strained by the poisonous rise of antisemitism, is the quiet tragedy of the show, ordinary goodness crushed under extraordinary hate.

The act one closer, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”, remains one of musical theatre’s most chilling moments. Sung with poise and raw emotion by Natalie Tran as Fraulein Kost, begins as a hymn of hope and blooms into something sinister. The transformation is subtle and terrifying. What once sounded patriotic now rings as a call to exclusion, a warning that the future does not belong to everyone, only to those deemed worthy. The moment resonates all too clearly today. Across the world, we see familiar rhetoric creeping back, rising antisemitism, renewed hostility toward immigrants, political movements that trade empathy for fear.

This production never preaches. It does not need to. The parallels are self-evident. Through its restraint, UT’s Cabaret reminds us that history does not repeat itself with spectacle, it slips back quietly, one song at a time, while the crowd keeps clapping.

By the time the final note fades, the laughter curdles in the throat. The lights dim. The world feels suddenly, uncomfortably familiar. And that is when you realize this Cabaret is not a period piece at all. It is a mirror.

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

Directed by Rodolfo Robles Cruz

Now Playing Through November 9th, 2025

Nov. 7th and 8th: 7:30 – 10:30 p.m.

Nov. 9th: 2 – 5 p.m.
 

UT Department of Theatre and Dane

@ B. Iden Payne Theatre

300 E 23rd St, Austin, TX 78712

Austin Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. MATILDA: THE MUSICAL (Gaslight-Baker Theatre)

16.4% of votes

2. SISTER ACT (Bastrop Opera House)

6% of votes

3. SHREK (Broke Thespians Theatre Company)

5.4% of votes

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