WEB PAGE TOOLS ~ Print this article ~ E-mail your opinion on this article OTHER A & E STORIES ~ Sam Hamill's American voice - Poet, translator and founder of "Poets Against the War" speaks on campus ~ Matrix Reloaded: If you can make it past the first 30 minutes you'll be pleased ~ Arts and Entertainment Briefs Come to the Cabaret! Scott McCulloch A & E Editor The salacious, scintillating and sobering musical 'Cabaret' set the Campus Theatre stage ablaze last weekend with its entertaining yet dark portrayal of the end of Berlin's golden age of arts in the late 1920's. Photo by David Holmes The Kit Kat Girls and Bradley Elmendorf, as the emcee, sing "Wilkommen" in Cabaret's opening scene. The story of an aspiring American writer, Clifford Bradshaw (James Wirth), and an English nightclub performer, Sally Bowles (Michelle Mader), who meet and decide to share a flat in Berlin together, 'Cabaret' intersperses scenes depicting the rise of the Nazis, with bawdy, exuberant song and dance numbers performed at the Kit Kat Klub, where Sally works. Bradley Elmendorf plays the flamboyant Emcee of the Kit Kat Klub with obvious relish, and was outstandingly entertaining as he strutted about the stage, long cigarette holder in hand, grinning and leering through his grease paint. In the opening number, "Willkommen," he playfully paws at the club's marquee entertainment - the Kit Kat Girls - as he introduces them, declaring "every one of them a virgin!," while casting a sidelong glance about the room to see if there are any patrons who disagree. Photo by David Holmes Sally (Michelle Mader) asks Clifford (James Wirth) if he'd like to share a flat. Off the Kit Kat Klub stage, besides the brash English nightclub singer, Sally, and her clean-cut, bisexual American boyfriend, Clifford, the story follows Sally and Clifford's elderly landlady, Fraulein Schneider (Ginny Reilly), and her newfound fiancée, Herr Schultz (Bryan Webb). Soon after deciding to marry, Fraulein Schneider realizes that her decision to marry Herr Schultz, who is Jewish, could have dire consequences, given the impending rise of the Nazis and the anti-Semitic mood in Germany, and she must decide if she really wants to go through with it. Fraulein Schneider's decision is the dramatic climax of the musical, and her desperate, final number, "What would you do?" is heartbreaking. The show ends with Sally's singing-through-the-tears anthem, "Cabaret." By this time, it is apparent that the open artistic and cultural world of Berlin - plus, of course, countless relationships and lives like those of Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider - were about to be snuffed out by the Nazis forever. Cabaret shows at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24. Tickets cost $8 with SCC ID, and can be bought at the door, or by calling 546-4606. Photographs of the Cabaret dress rehearsal taken by David Holmes are available on SCC's main web site. © 2003 Shoreline Community College™