Alex: come to this Cabaret

It’s cold outside, but hot inside the Kit Kat Klub, the setting of Broadway’s award-winning musical Cabaret.

The Theatre Aquarius production is on stage at Hamilton’s Dofasco Centre for the Arts until March 29th.

Sally Bowles, portrayed by Pamela Gordon, headlines the decadent entertainment in the seedy Berlin nightspot. Somewhat scatterbrained, she’s in a world of her own making.

“In her mind, it’s just too much, it’s too tedious, it’s too boring, it’s too this, she wants, she’s very self-absorbed in her way. I don’t think she wants to come to terms with what’s really happening out there. She wants to live in her own bubble, and in her own world of ‘everything is fine and beautiful’ around her.”

The 1930s are a time of change with the growing Nazi menace dedicated to anti-semitism. In the Kit Kat Klub, performers and patrons feel insulated.

“It starts off so decadent and wonderful and gritty, and as it starts to unravel and you start to see the reality and the pain of everything and relationships and love and how things are torn apart by what is happening in Berlin at this time, and around that area of the world.”

Pamela Gordon securely invokes the insecurity of her character with a coarse and edgy sensuality and a voice rocking the theatre with jubilant, emotional power. When she sings you not only hear, but feel the songs.

Collectively the cast is solid, particularly Cameron MacDuffee as the emcee. For a good time, come to this Cabaret.

Cabaret is certainly a classic of musical theatre, and as one of Sally’s songs “Don’t Tell Mamma” says, “if you see my mamma, mum’s the word.”