‘Wilkommen’: Asolo Rep opens new season with a fresh take on ‘Cabaret’

As a choreographer and director, Josh Rhodes has spent at least part of the last 15 years helping to reinvent or rediscover older musicals for Sarasota audiences at Asolo Repertory Theatre.

He has worked on “Barnum,” “The Sound of Music,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Evita,” “Hair” and more, finding ways to make them seem new even to viewers who know every word.

But each time Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards mentioned the 1966 John Kander-Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff musical “Cabaret,” Rhodes shied away.

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“I feel it’s a perfect show that has had perfect productions,” he said. “Everybody was seeing ‘Cabaret’ so beautifully done on Broadway and tour, why do we need to bring them another one?”

But last winter, when Edwards mentioned it again as a possibility for the 2022-23 season, Rhodes was more agreeable about staging the musical, which takes place in Berlin in 1929 and 1930 at the dawn of the rise of the Nazi party.

“I suddenly felt that even more than usual that this was the time to discuss ‘Cabaret’ and discuss that history, our human history of something so disgusting as the rise of the Nazi party,” he said. “There is more antisemitism now. There is a growing rise in fascism. The only thing we can do as artists is to start by simply telling these stories to the audience and remind people of our history, our human nature, and how easy it is to behave that way and ask ourselves where are we in the current world we’re living in. What am I doing to battle antisemitism and people using others as a scapegoat?”

Musical addresses current issues

Rhodes and two cast members talked about the show in the same week that the performer once known as Kanye West was dropped from numerous corporations after posting antisemitic remarks online. And evidence of Jewish hatred has become more prominent across the country.

“Cabaret,” based on Christopher Isherwood’s memoir “I Am a Camera,” is set in Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub, where a mischievous Emcee oversees a provocative, sometimes ribald production with a varied assortment of singers, dancers and musicians, including the headliner Sally Bowles. Harold Prince staged the original Broadway production with Joel Grey as the Emcee, and Sam Mendes directed an acclaimed revival that starred Alan Cumming.

At Asolo Rep, Rhodes is working with Lincoln Clauss as the Emcee, Iris Beaumier as Sally, Alan Chandler as Clifford Bradshaw – the show’s version of Isherwood – and a cast of mostly Sarasota newcomers. His team also includes music direction by Angela Steiner, costumes by Alejo Vietti and scenic design by Tijana Bjelalac.

The musical is set primarily at the club, as well as the boarding house where Cliff lives (with Sally a frequent visitor), run by Kelly Lester as Fraulein Schneider.

The songs – including “Two Ladies,” “So What?” “Maybe This Time,” “If You Could See Her” and the title number – comment on what’s happening in the social and political world outside the cozy club.

Rhodes said he is focused on a period in Berlin when there was a “sliver of beauty and artistry was thriving. They were almost about to vote in gay rights. There was the potential of Berlin to be a new democracy. There was a sliver of a moment when you could feel a little hopeful for the values we have and you thought Berlin could have had a different outcome.”

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Clauss said he has been finding his way into his character and trying to avoid getting caught up in what Grey, Cumming or others have done with the role.

“The trap with the Emcee as an actor is that people see him as this everyman, omnipresent being, almost like a metaphor of what’s happening in Germany. That’s not really actable,” he said. Clauss sees him more as an artistic leader, “the orchestrator, the puppetmaster, who wants to put on a really great show no matter what. That is the objective of my Emcee.”

In Rhodes’ view, the club is filled with talented performers, and Beaumier believes Sally  “hopes to be the greatest star. She hopes to make her place in the world as another Black icon after Josephine Baker.”

Beaumier said her mother watched the film of “Cabaret” (with Oscar-winner Liza Minnelli as Sally) many times when she was a child. “I loved the songs in the movie, but I didn’t really know about the musical or what it all meant until high school and then college when I dug a little deeper to find out what it was about.”

As a Black artist, Beaumier never saw herself in the role because Sally is tradtionally played by white actresses. “I was able to read the script for the first time as if Sally Bowles was a Black woman in Germany. I’m the daughter of immigrants.” Her mother’s family is from Ghana and Togo and her father was born and raised in France.

“Baker did go to Berlin and they loved her, and she went to France and they loved her even more. It’s my duty to honor her hopes and dreams as the next star,” Beaumier said.

The show is brand new for Clauss, who admits to not being fully aware of the songs and their varied meanings.

“I’m one of those who heard ‘Cabaret’ and thought it was a jovial number,” he said. “I didn’t realize ‘Maybe This Time’ is about a pregnancy. I was coming into this completely blind. I haven’t seen the movie.”

Rhodes said he had the opposite problem. ‘That’s what made me afraid of it. I knew it too well.”

“Cabaret”

Music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Joe Masteroff. Directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes. Runs Nov. 16-Dec. 31, Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets start at $35. 941-351-8000; asolorep.org

Follow Jay Handelman on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact him at jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com. And please support local journalism by subscribing to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota’s Asolo Rep opens season with timely production of ‘Cabaret’