La Mesa teen Adela Colorado loves to dance and playing the role of Frenchie in Cabaret gives her plenty of opportunity to do just that. Frenchie is a dancer in the Kit Kat Klub, a German nightclub in pre-WWII Germany.
“The choreography is intriguing and interesting,” said Colorado, a sophomore at Coronado School of the Arts (CoSA). “We do a kickline that has to be uniform and in sync. Plus, there’s a lot of character acting. I like that I get to play around with the character.”
Character comes into play when the musical shows how life in Germany radically changed when Hitler came into power. “Then the musical turns dark and twisted,” she explained. “It’s fun to make that transition.”
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Audience members will be transported to a nightclub in Berlin in the 1920s as the Master of Ceremonies assures them that, whatever their troubles, they will forget them at the club. Here in this fascinating time and place, the audience joins Cliff Bradshaw, a young, impoverished American writer; Sally Bowles, a pretty English girl; Ernst Ludwig, a shady Berliner; and other memorable characters as they stand on the edge of impending trouble.
“I like that the show has a purpose,” said Colorado. “It’s like a warning disguised as a fun show. You think it’s just a dancing show at the beginning, but there are these undertones that are unexpected and scary. It makes you think.”
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Lightening the mood is the catchy score by Kander and Ebb, which includes “Wilkommen,” “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Cabaret” and “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.”
“I really think people need to see this show,” she said. “The cast is filled with incredibly talented people who will go far and it has this message about this dark time that we don’t want to happen again. This musical shows how easily this type of government oppression can happen without people knowing.”
Cabaret will be presented at the Coronado Performing Arts Center at 650 D Ave. Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6. Tickets range in price from $6 to $18 and are available at cabaretcosa