CABARET

The Chatham Community Players concludes their 90th Season of producing local theater with an audience favorite and Tony Award winning musical, “CABARET” book by Joe Masteroff with music/lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, based on the Play by John Van Druten and Stories by Christopher Isherwood. Jeffrey Fiorello from Montclair directs, Jill Finnerty from Matawan is Musical Director and Megan Ferentinos from Cranford is the Choreographer.

The musical was turned into an eight-time Oscar-winning 1972 movie starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. Prior to the movie, Cabaret premiered on Broadway 1966. The musical returned to New York 30 years later with Mendes' famous Tony-winning production, which premiered at London's Donmar, and starred Alan Cumming (London and Broadway) and Natasha Richardson (Broadway only). Joe Masteroff's book for Cabaret was based on John van Druten's play I Am a Camera, itself inspired by Christopher Isherwood's Berlin stories.

"The original Broadway production utilized a massive mirror, which was turned to face the audience, as part of the set. The mirror forced the audience to face themselves. We saw. We heard. Could it happen again???  In our production, we have gone a step further and placed the audience directly in the Klub. We are no longer bystanders; we are active participants in the production. We are not only the audience of the show, Cabaret, we are also the audience of the Kit Kat Klub and the audience of Berlin in early 1930’s,” explained Director Jeffrey Fiorello.

The large and talented cast includes actors from all around New Jersey. Katherine LeFevre from Dover and John Sechrist from New York City star as Sally Bowles and the Emcee.  Also featured are Pat Wry as Schneider from Bernardsville, Steven Nitka as Schultz from Hackettstown, Chris Abbott as Bobby from South Plainfield, Raven Dunbar as Fritzie from South Brunswick, Michal Efron as Frenchie from Summit, Brian Hall as Hans/Rudy from Cedar Grove, Pam Mueller as Helga from Princeton, Stacey Petricha as Kost and Sean McManus as Young Boy from Chatham, Natalee Phemsint as Rosie from Secaucus, Chip Prestera as Ernst from Stirling, Shawna Schopper as Texas from Andover, , Steve Sharkey as Cliff from Washington Twp., Sky Spiegel as Lulu from Morristown, Chaz Turner as Max from Hackettstown, Andrew Velez as Victor from Matawan and Craig Zimmerman as Herman from Rockaway.

Bob Lukasik produced this musical for Chatham Players 33 years ago, this time he’s producing “Cabaret” that has been revised and updated to be even more intense, more timely, more relevant and truthful to its time. “We are mounting a production that is honest, engaging and far from trite. I invite you to come to the Chatham Playhouse which, for a few short weeks, is being transformed into Berlin's Kit Kat Klub,” said Lukasik.

Box Office Information – Online Ticketing

Performance dates are May 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 and 19 at 8PM and May 13 at 3PM. All performances are at the Chatham Playhouse, 23 North Passaic Avenue, in Chatham.  Tickets are $25 for adults and $23 for youth/senior.

To access the theater’s online ticketing service, simply go to http://www.chathamplayers.org/tickets.htm and click on the “TicketLeap” logo.  The service is available 24 hours a day, and tickets can be purchased online up until three hours prior to curtain on the day of a performance.  The box office will begin accepting phone reservations on April 24 at (973) 635-7363.  For information regarding box office hours, please call the box office number listed above.