“Cabaret”is directed by Macalester theatre professor Harry Waters, Jr.

“Cabaret” is one of the most challenging musicals Macalester has ever presented. The story, adapted from John Van Druten’s play I Am a Camera and inspired by Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, has music by the well-known songwriting duo Kander and Ebb. The show invites us to look at pre-World War II Nazi Germany through the eyes of an American writer and a troubled showgirl named Sally Bowles, who performs at the seedy Kit Kat Club. This “cabaret” shows how, if we intentionally avoid paying attention to the outside world and are consumed by our material desires, we allow decadence to contain and control our options and political awareness of living and loving. The singing and dancing are diverting, entertaining, even embarrassing. However, the story gets under our skin and makes us aware.