Wilbury Group Closes Season with CABARET, Now thru 6/7

The Wilbury Theatre Group closes its 2013-14 season with the acclaimed legendary musical Cabaret, the multiple award-winning masterpiece by Joe Masteroff, with Music and Lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, Directed by Tom Gleadow today, May 15-June 7 at the Wilbury Theatre Group, 393 Broad Street, Providence RI.

In this gritty and reimagined production, Gleadow teams with acclaimed choreographer Shura Baryshnikov and music director Mike Savignau and invites audiences to take their seats at the Kit Kat Klub, the perfectly marvelous cabaret where singer Sally Bowles (Katie Travers, The Threepenny Opera) meets writer Cliff Bradshaw (Joshua Andrews, The Threepenny Opera). As the two pursue a life of pleasure in Weimar Berlin, the world outside the Klub begins to splinter as the Nazi party rises to power. Presiding over it all, from the decadence to destruction, is Jo-án Peralta (Blasted) as the Kit Kat Klub's ever-ambiguous and magnetic Emcee.

CABARET runs May 15-June 7 at The Wilbury Theatre Group, 393 Broad Street, Providence RI. Tickets just $15-$25, with discounts available for subscribers, seniors, and students. Tickets at 401-400-7100 or thewilburygroup.org.

"Cabaret is one of the greatest and most well-known musicals in American musical theatre history," said Wilbury Group artistic director Josh Short. "At first glance it might seem like a bit of a departure for the Wilbury Group, but those who know the show know that it's great because, while entertaining, it's a gritty and fantastic celebration of diversity, and a reminder of the dangers of our complacency in the face of those who want to destroy those who choose to live their lives outside the realm of 'normal' society. It couldn't be more relevant to the experience of many today, and we couldn't be more excited to have Tom Gleadow here to direct and bring his vision of it to life."

The seedy Kit Kat Klub, with its enigmatic Master of Ceremonies (Emcee), is a den of decadent celebration where a young American writer, Cliff Bradshaw, meets British cabaret singer, Sally Bowles. Their unique relationship and the carefree partying of 1930s Berlin masks personal and political conflicts, all reflected in songs such as Willkommen, Two Ladies, Tomorrow Belongs to Me, and Cabaret.

The multiple Tony Award-winning musical, set in Germany as the Nazi Party closes in on its rise to power, is based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin about his time spent in Berlin during the Weimer Republic. Isherwood's novel was subsequently adapted into the play then the film, I Am A Camera and ultimately, the musical Cabaret.