Stars say 'Cabaret' retains relevance in Chicago return
Jeff Award-winning Chicago actress Shannon Cochran and Broadway veteran Mark Nelson both learned last July that they were cast in the national tour of the Broadway musical "Cabaret." Little did they realize how relevant the musical would feel to them in the interim between their casting and the tour's Chicago engagement, starting Tuesday at The PrivateBank Theatre.
Both were shocked at how, in the midst of primary election season, some presidential candidates openly disparaged minority groups at rallies and news conferences to the cheers of large crowds.
"It's a good time for the world to see 'Cabaret,'" Nelson said. "As long as there's still hate and prejudice in the world, there's a need for this show."
"Cabaret" shows the poverty and turmoil of Germany's Weimar Republic in the 1930s through the eyes of aspiring American writer Cliff Bradshaw (Lee Aaron Rosen). Cliff gets drawn into Berlin's hedonistic night life when he meets the semi-talented British nightclub singer Sally Bowles (Andrea Goss), who works at the notorious Kit Kat Klub overseen by the sexually lascivious Emcee (Randy Harrison of "Queer as Folk" fame).
Many of these characters are so self-involved that they get caught off guard by the rise of the Nazis.
"What makes the musical so perfect is because it has the elements for people who want sheer entertainment: gorgeous girls, amazing sexy dancers and lots of music that they might already know," said Cochran, who plays the nonchalant landlady Fraulein Schneider in the tour.
"But it's also got this whole other 'B' storyline for another generation," Cochran said. "That is a lovely and sad picture of the people who lived through that terrible time leading up to World War II."
Nelson, who portrays Fraulein Schneider's love interest, the Jewish fruit merchant Herr Schultz, loves the contrast between their storyline and the Kit Kat Klub.
"There's this courtly, old-world dignity to these beautiful older people who are approaching each other with such depth and understanding," he said.
The return of "Cabaret" is a rare instance where a Broadway revival received a Broadway revival. In 2014, New York's Roundabout Theatre Company remounted its long-running smash-hit 1998 revival of "Cabaret," complete with star Alan Cumming reprising his Tony Award-winning turn as the Emcee.
Though the revival didn't last as long as the nearly six-year run of the 1998 production, it lives on in this national tour. "Cabaret's" return not only commemorates the 50th anniversary season of the nonprofit powerhouse that is the Roundabout Theatre, it also marks the half-century of this groundbreaking musical created by playwright Joe Masteroff with songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb. The musical's memorable tunes include "Willkommen," "Maybe This Time" and the title song.
If the characters of Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz don't ring a bell, it's because they were all but cut from director Bob Fosse's eight-time Academy Award-winning 1972 film version of "Cabaret" that famously starred Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles and Joel Grey as the Emcee. But the relationship between Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz has a more important place in the stage show.
"It's very freeing for the characters not to have been a prominent part of the movie," Cochran said. She added that it would have been more intimidating if Lotte Leyna's original performance as Fraulein Schneider had been preserved on film since she is both the widow of German composer Kurt Weill ("The Threepenny Opera") and an actress who rose to fame precisely at the time that "Cabaret" is set.
Both Nelson and Cochran are also glad that they have aged into the roles of Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider, since they have known for some time how rewarding they can be.
"I've had my eye on the part of Herr Schultz since I was 12 years old and saw Jack Gilford play it on Broadway," Nelson said.
Cochran, who has won Jeff Awards for her roles in "The Dance of Death" at Writers Theatre and "Pal Joey" at the Goodman Theatre, has a long association with "Cabaret." She played Sally Bowles in regional productions, including a replacement stint at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire.
"I had never seen this particular revival, so I came to it completely fresh and ignorant of what was different about this versus the older versions," Cochran said. "I think (the 1998 revival) is more specific, the danger has been doubled down on the darker elements of the piece and made it stronger."
“Cabaret”
Location: The PrivateBank Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., Chicago, (800) 775-2000,
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday (also Feb. 14), 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday (also Feb. 17); from Tuesday, Feb. 9, through Sunday, Feb. 21
Tickets: $22-$95