Previews: Sept. 23, 2006 Opening: Oct. 10, 2006

Venue: Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1, EN

Rufus Norris directs this new production of Kander and Ebb's classic musical. Based on Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories,the musical Cabaret is the story of Cliff, an American writer who comes to Berlin at the dawn of the Hitler era. He falls in with the denizens of the decadent Kit Kat Klub, and takes as his roommate the club's former star attraction, Sally Bowles. As he struggles to write a novel, he witnesses the blindness and self-deception of a group of people who allow Nazism to gradually take control while they are emotionally and spiritually "fast asleep." A spectral cabaret emcee comments on the story in a series of increasingly pointed nightclub songs. Score includes, "So What?" "The Money Song," "Don't Tell Mama," "Maybe This Time," "Married" and the title song.

photos by Andrew Ku