"Cabaret Off Broadway" is a celebration of the arts and what the Center brings to city
Arguably the biggest and most exciting party of the year will make its return on May 6 with “Cabaret Off Broadway,” at the Pensacola Little Theatre.
This year's theme is a Cabaret's playhouse that transforms the theatre and surrounding block into an indoor/outdoor entertainment complex including multiple rooms showcasing a different popular play for attendees to walk through and also get a glimpse of the newest additions and renovations to the Clark Family Cultural Center.
Sid Williams-Heath, executive director of the Pensacola Little Theatre, wanted to go back to their original mission of broadways while also making sure people understood the fundraiser is not only about the theatre but what the Center brings to the community from hosting ballet, the Stamped Film Festival, CivicCon, Pensacon, and so much more.
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“There are so many elements that make it a Cultural Center and that's why this theme is particularly important because it's not just a celebration of theater,” Williams-Heath said. “It's truly our celebration of art, and so in one party you can see an experience of the art that we have constantly throughout the year. Whether that is singing and dancing, or drag performances and aerialists or graffiti artists and live musicians."
Cabaret, which last year had over 500 people attend, features six open-bar venues, live entertainment, performances, and culinary art – spotlighting local drag performers, aerialists, singers, dancers, live musicians, actors, bands, DJs, projectionists, flash mobs, graffiti artists, cartoonists, and every drop of drama in-between.
The rooms this year will each feature popular Broadway plays for everyone to enjoy. Guests will go from the welcoming show The Wizard of Oz, which was also the first play shown at the center, with a very colorful, whimsical yellow brick road bringing attendees back to the Center’s roots. In the same area will be the Wicked section of a green, moody and evil area in the distance for the sponsors section. It will transition into the Chicago room, which Williams-Heath describes as the most “stimulating” room, with six drag performers lined up in jail cells doing a number to “Cell Block Tango."
The party will then transition to the Hamilton room where it will represent the point of the play, which is diversity of people of color with actors portraying the Schuyler Sisters, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The room will be set up like a Hamilton wedding where guests can buy a gift that ranges from $100 to $1,000 from the wedding registry to take home with them.
The party changes completely with the Beetlejuice room of trippy black and neon lights, black and white walls that give a feel of a rave room with a DJ, aerialists, props, a conga line and a sandworm coming out of the walls.
Guests can then head over to the final theatrical room, which is also a transitional room called Newsies with stacks of newspapers lined up and singers from Navarre High School performing the “King of New York” and doing a tap dance number.
A block party outside is set up for a Times Square outdoor experience with the entire surrounding block shut down. It's an outdoor entertainment space with everything you will find in New York City from billboards, street vendors and the Statue of Liberty.
Each show is to honor the volunteers who may not be able to do any of the shows at the theater anytime soon but are able to have their own moments of self expression.
The whole objective for Cabaret is to raise funds for Pensacola Little Theater programs, which is supported by more than 1,000 adult and child volunteers who entertain and educate the community year-round for many of their free events and programs for children.
Williams-Heath has been in charge of the building since 2017 and is leading a $3 million renovation of the space to preserve the 1911 building’s historic structure and legacy while also pushing the Center into a new and innovative direction driving the cultural center forward into the future.
They have already raised $2.4 million for the 2023 renovation and will have completed this week the center's courtroom, which is their Black Box Theater, as well as the gallery, which is being converted into an actual Fine Art Gallery. Attendees will be some of the first guests to see these news additions to the center.
“It's so important to remind parents or just anyone in the community that a foundation in the arts really helps give foundational life skills that these children or even adults will take with them forever,” Williams-Heath said. “We're all scared of snakes and knives but we don't realize that one of the biggest phobias that we have is public speaking. So through a very comfortable, safe space like Pensacola Little Theater and the Center, people get to find their voice and overcome phobias like public speaking.”
For more information and to get tickets go to pensacolalittletheatre.com/cabaret. For sponsorship opportunities contact Sid Williams-Heath at executive@pensacolalittletheatre.com
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Little Theatre fundraiser "Cabaret Off Broadway" is back
