There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies...and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany...and it was the end of the world...

Hattiesburg is heating up this summer as Hattiesburg Civic Light Opera welcomes you into the hottest spot in Berlin, The Kit Kat Klub, in their production of the 1966 Broadway classic Cabaret, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of its debut this year!

“Cabaret has never been more relevant than it is right now, especially right now in Mississippi,” says director and Hattiesburg native, Miles Doleac. “For all its bawdy, raucous, infectiously entertaining energy, the show is really a tragedy and cautionary tale about those individuals who suffered the rise of one of the most inhumane forces our world has ever seen, Nazism.” Doleac goes on, “The show cleverly seduces and cajoles you into this decadent world of unbridled artistic expression and sexual freedom, only to drop the hammer and smash it all to pieces in its devastating second act.” Miles, who also plays the role of the Emcee, has been especially proud to direct this show because of its pointed message of inclusion and the dangers of its opposite. “In the wake of the unfortunate passage of House Bill 1523 in our state, I’m so proud to be shepherding this show, which rails against everything that that legislation represents. Then there was the horrific incident in Orlando, wherein the LGBT community was specifically targeted. Cabaret is saying…we’re all the same. We’re all human beings, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or sexuality, and when we have failed to embrace that fact, we have done so to our significant detriment.”

The show opens in 1931 Berlin, at the Kit Kat Klub, the hottest nightclub in Weimar Germany and one of the last vestiges of the liberated, roaring twenties. An American writer, Cliff Bradshaw, has come to Berlin in hopes of, at last, overcoming his crippling writer’s block and finishing his novel. Instead, he is befriended by a smooth-talking Nazi smuggler named Ernst with a scheme to make the strapped writer some quick cash. Ernst also introduces Cliff to the seedy, magnetic world of the Kit Kat Klub, where he meets Sally Bowles, the hopelessly mercurial Englishwoman who is the Klub’s featured act. Cliff and Sally immediately forge a connection at the worst possible time, as the looming specter of the Third Reich grows larger by the day. “What’s so heartbreaking” Doleac muses, “is that you see all these free spirits, so complicated and creative and tortured, so very alive, paddling like hell, raging, against a current that they know will overtake them. Cliff and Sally have this almost Shakespearean, “stolen season” moment. In another time and place, maybe they would have worked out brilliantly.”

Another element of Doleac's production that is so cool, is that it has branched out to a new venue beyond that of the typical stage setting. HCLO's Cabaret takes place in the back room of downtown Hattiesburg's Thirsty Hippo (309 McLeod Street), giving the show the very visceral feel of being in an actual bar. “I’ve really enjoyed seeing what Hattiesburlesque has done with the back room of the Hippo. I thought, why not turn the whole room into the Kit Kat Klub? Keep the bar open throughout the show. Let’s really create the atmosphere, really take the audience there. After all, the Klub would have been a bar with a stage. The performers would have been right in the audience members’ faces. At the Hippo, we can make that reality. I think it’s going to make for show the likes of which Hattiesburg audiences haven’t quite seen,” Doleac Teases.

In addition to Doleac in the role of the Emcee, Cabaret stars Lindsay Anne Williams as Sally Bowles, veteran HCLO performer, Joseph VanZandt, as Cliff Bradshaw, Seth Karas as Ernst Ludwig, Catherine Capiello as Fraulein Schneider, David Echevarria as Herr Schultz, Sarah-Jane Vetter as Fraulein Kost and Caitlin Bishop, Megan Bradberry, Chase Brewer, Kathern Glydewell, Katie Hovan, Lisa Malloy, Anjuli May, Caleb Armstrong, Michael Boyte and myselfas the Kit Kat Ensemble.

Doleac will team for the second straight show with Dr. Michael Miles as musical director and Rebecca Chandler as choreographer.

After a very successful, and sold out, opening weekend, the show will continue its run this weekend, August 18-20 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings, curtain at 7:30 each night).

For tickets, call 1-800-838-3006 or go to www.hclo.org. For any ticketing questions or problems, call 601-270-4741.

This piece was co-authored with Miles Doleac