CABARET, Egyptian Theatre Company, Park City, today through April 5 (435-649-9371 or www.parkcityshows.com); running time 2 1/2 hours (one intermission)
It was 1929, in Berlin, and the cabaret was stuffed with people who didn't want to think too deeply about the future. There they were: brown and white, gay and straight, Nazi and not, Jewish and not — all drinking and laughing together. For just a little longer.
The Egyptian Theatre Company's production of "Cabaret" makes the situation real, shoves us back in time. In his director's notes, Terence Goodman asks us to imagine what we'd have done if we'd been living in Germany then. How long would we have been able to ignore the evil around us? How frantically would we have danced?
Jayne Luke is excellent as Fraulein Schneider, the owner of a small rooming house who is being courted by a Jewish gentleman, played by Frederick Cook. The sweetest song in the show is their duet, "It Couldn't Please Me More."
Christopher Glade plays the M.C., and he does a nice job of leering and being craven. Ginger Bess plays Sally Bowles, a wanton young British woman who likes to appear even more hard-bitten than she is. Bess' voice is equal to the music, even to the theme song made so famous by Liza Minnelli in the movie version of "Cabaret."
Jon Brady Copier plays Clifford Bradshaw, the American who, for a long time, doesn't want to inquire into the politics of his friends. Daniel Simons plays one of those friends.
Clifford has his own secrets, secrets that would get him killed if he were to stay in Germany — so if we never quite believe that Copier's character is in love with Sally, well, maybe, we aren't supposed to believe it. Maybe Clifford and Sally don't believe it themselves.
Stacee Riekhof is Fraulein Kost, paying the rent to Fraulein Schneider by entertaining the sailors. She seems so practical and amused and above the fray for so much of the play that it is fascinating to watch her face when it finally hardens into hatred.
Kevin Mathie is the music director and Janet Gray the choreographer. They pack the small stage with song and the shimmying, sizzling, cartwheeling dancing of the Kit Kat girls.
Sensitivity rating: Sexy dancing and costumes. Themes concerning homosexuality and other forms of extramarital sex. Those who are sensitive to fog machines should not sit near the front.
E-MAIL: susan@desnews.com