TheatreZone and FGCU to Collaborate on CABARET
Mark Danni directs the Berlin-set musical with choreography by Karen Molnar Danni, featuring professional actors and students in lead roles.
Naples' TheatreZone and Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) will collaborate on a joint production of Cabaret, to be held at the FGCU TheatreLab Oct. 8-11. The production opens TheatreZone's 2026-27 season and unites FGCU students with professional Actors' Equity Association performers. TheatreZone Founding Artistic Director Mark Danni is directing.
Performances will take place Oct. 8, 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Oct. 10 and 11 at 2 p.m. at the FGCU TheatreLab, 10501 FGCU Boulevard South in Fort Myers.
Cabaret is the sixth joint production between TheatreZone and FGCU's Bower School of Music & the Arts, which is directed by Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki. TheatreZone plays a role in providing workforce experience to many FGCU theatre and music students.
Set in Berlin as the Jazz Age gives way to political upheaval, Cabaret unfolds inside the Kit Kat Klub, where a Master of Ceremonies presides over a seductive world of music, escape and shifting realities. The story follows American writer Cliff Bradshaw and cabaret performer Sally Bowles, while relationships outside the club reveal the growing tensions of a society on the brink.
With a book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, Cabaret features songs including “Willkommen,” “Maybe This Time,” “Money,” “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” and the iconic title song.
“One of the most exciting parts of this collaboration is watching students grow as artists while working alongside professionals,” said Danni. “They experience firsthand the preparation, discipline and standards expected in professional musical theatre.”
Danni directs the production, with choreography by TheatreZone co-founder and choreographer Karen Molnar Danni.
Meet the Cast
The cast brings together professional Actors' Equity performers and FGCU students in many of the musical's most memorable roles.
Cooper Stone stars as the Emcee, the provocative Master of Ceremonies who welcomes audiences into the Kit Kat Klub and presides over the musical as the world outside it begins to change.
Mia Laboy Reyes portrays Sally Bowles, the spirited English cabaret singer at the center of the story, while Noah Patrick Zimmerman plays Clifford Bradshaw, the young American writer whose arrival in Berlin draws him into Sally's world.
Actors' Equity performer Frank Blocker plays Herr Schultz, the Jewish fruit merchant whose tender romance with Fräulein Schneider becomes increasingly threatened by the changing political climate. A Drama Desk Award nominee, Blocker is familiar to TheatreZone audiences from appearances in Jersey Boys, Bonnie & Clyde, Heathers, Urinetown, Amadeus and Me and My Girl.
Susan Dohan, also an Actors' Equity performer, portrays Fräulein Schneider, the German boarding house owner whose relationship with Herr Schultz becomes one of the musical's most poignant stories.
Gerritt VanderMeer, an Actors' Equity and SAG-AFTRA performer and member of the FGCU faculty, portrays Ernst Ludwig. VanderMeer has more than two decades of professional experience, with stage credits including the national tour of The Music Man, The Old Globe, Trinity Repertory Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare Theatre Company, as well as appearances with TheatreZone and other Southwest Florida professional theatres.
Brittany Halen, an Actors' Equity performer and TheatreZone veteran, appears as Texas in the Kit Kat Klub ensemble and serves as dance captain. An actor, singer, dancer and violinist, Halen also plays violin in the production.
FGCU students are featured throughout the company, including Nadya Smirnova as Fräulein Kost; Stephan Tatum as Kit Kat performer Bobby, also playing violin; Davian Jimenez as Victor; Shaelyn Crabtree as Fritzie; Payton Hilger as Lulu; Grace Duncan as Helga; Justin Price, who also plays alto saxophone; Gavin Regalado as Max; and Brielle Midler as the Customs Officer.
Cabaret
Oct. 8-10 – 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 10-11 – 2 p.m.
FGCU TheatreLab
10501 FGCU Boulevard South
Fort Myers, Florida
Tickets are $50 and $45, with a limited number of $10 tickets available for FGCU students with valid ID.
Book seats at Theatre.Zone or call 888-966-3352.
About TheatreZone
TheatreZone is Naples' premier professional musical theatre, presenting Broadway-caliber productions and concert experiences in an intimate venue in residence at Community School of Naples. Founded in 2005 by Broadway and Off-Broadway performers Mark Danni and Karen Molnar Danni, the nonprofit company features professional performers from across the country under its contract with Actors' Equity Association.
About FGCU Bower School of Music
The Bower School of Music at Florida Gulf Coast University offers comprehensive training in performance, education and music studies. Through partnerships with professional organizations such as TheatreZone, students gain practical, real-world experience preparing for careers in the performing arts.
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