As ‘Cabaret’ concludes season, Premiere Playhouse announces next shows

Theater-goers who attended a performance of “Come From Away” earlier this month saw a story where unease was replaced with a sense of hope and uniting in a common experience.

The musical “Cabaret,” now being performed by The Premiere Playhouse, offers the opposite: People with hope and a sense of being in a situation together — even if it’s a seedy nightclub in Berlin — while unease grows and grows as the play progresses.

While you might not emerge from the Orpheum Theater Center with the same sense of optimism, you will walk out singing. And you might not belt out the title song with the same mix of poignance and determination that Rachel Smith displays as Sally Bowles, but no doubt you will do your best.

Smith, Patrick Simonsen as master of ceremonies and Tristan Chasing Hawk as Clifford Bradshaw take on the roles mostly closely associated with the musical, which first opened on Broadway in 1966. Simonsen, like Smith, is a newcomer to the Orpheum stage and The Premiere Playhouse. If you’ve only seen Joel Grey in this role, Simonsen will wipe out those memories. His take as the sinuous, darkly goth and more-than-mildly-macabre leprechaun Emcee is memorable.

Smith also is new to The Premiere Playhouse. Her Sally Bowles is a woman who wants what she wants, even if the world around her may be crumbling. Chasing Hawk tackles the role of Bradshaw, a man who seems particularly passive in the first act, letting things happen to him. He is given the chance to show passion and despair in the second act.

A more wistful pair is the combination of Julie Sauer as Fraulein Schneider and Casey Kustak as Herr Shultz. The older couple’s chance for love is doomed by the fact that he is a Jew — and this is pre-World War II Germany.

If you’re only familiar with the movie “Cabaret,” be aware there are significant differences. In the play, Sally is British, Cliff is American and goes by Brian, for example. The nationalities are reversed in the movie, which also includes a love story that doesn’t make an appearance in the play.

The supporting singers and dancers bring the “tawdry and terrible” that was Berlin and the nightclub into sharp focus. The dancers’ costumes are fantastic. You’ll either wish that garter belts and rolled stockings would make a comeback — and remember, men wore garters too — or thanking the inventor of pantyhose and the acceptance of bare legs.

This is The Premiere Playhouse’s last production for this season. It also is Robin Byrne’s last as executive and artistic director. He is returning to England to start a professional acting and directing career but said he hopes to return as a director in the next year or two.

Oliver Mayes, who directed “Cabaret,” will replace him, Byrne said.

“Thank you and goodbye to you all,” he concluded, asking people to continue to support affordable live theatre. For The Premiere Playhouse, that will include “Young Frankenstein” in September and “A Christmas Carol” returning in December. In February 2023, “The Premiere Premieres” will feature the two winners of a one-act play competition. “Cinderella” is scheduled for April 2023.

Season 21 will conclude with a play Byrne said the theater group has wanted to do for “three, four years but couldn’t afford” because the royalties alone cost $30,000, more than twice the usual fee. But “Grease” will be on stage in June 2023.

The Premiere Playhouse will present “Cabaret” at 2 p.m. May 21 and 22. Evening performances are May 19, 20 and 21. To order tickets, click on this link. Performances take place at the Orpheum Theater Center, 315 N. Phillips Ave.