The lyricist of the Broadway musical Cabaret must have had lazy college students in mind when he wrote, "What good is sitting alone in your room? ... Come to the Cabaret!" First Year Players, the group performing this musical Thursday through Sunday, are likely to agree.
Although most recognize the catchy title song, very few people actually know what the musical is about. During rehearsal, director and fourth-year College student Mark Gray-Mendes posed that same question to the cast: What is Cabaret about? Everyone burst into laughter when someone shouted, "Free porn!" Fortunately, more serious responses followed.
"The Cabaret is a happy place that tends to ignore reality -- like college," one cast member noted.
The mix of serious moments and comedic interludes are reminiscent of the weekdays and weekends in the life of a college student.
First-year College student Danny Cackley, who plays romantic lead Cliff Bradshaw, agreed.
"On the one hand, there are these comic, provocative dances," Cackley said. "And at the same time, Cabaret deals with serious topics and timeless issues."
The show takes place during the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. It follows Cliff Bradshaw, an American who travels to Berlin in search of a place to write his novel. Hilariously thick-accented Fräulein Schneider (Caroline Ryon, first-year College student) offers Bradshaw a place to stay in her boarding house. Along the way, Bradshaw falls under the charm of the English cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Anne Larimer Hart, first-year College student).
Larimer Hart, who performed in Shakespeare in Love last semester, "plays an exceptionally seductive Sally Bowles," another member of the cast admitted.
"When we came out of auditions, we were really excited because we knew we had a very talented group of people to work with," Gray-Mendes said.
Not only are the actors and actresses top-notch, but as an added bonus, the technical and artistic crews for this show are very experienced.
"Experience makes such a difference in the nuts and bolts, and you can tell that we've been blessed with a really talented staff," Gray-Mendes noted.
FYP puts on a musical every semester. The actors are always first-year students, whose outside commitments range from a cappella groups to sorority events to other acting crews. Several of the actors in Cabaret were also in FYP's fall production, Once Upon a Mattress. Some have acted all through high school and others come in without any experience. Somehow they all find time in their busy schedules to rehearse the show for up to four hours a night, five nights a week for 10 weeks.
But after all of this rehearsing, are they ready for the show?
"Yeah, we've been ready for a while," ensemble member and first-year College student Justin Paxton said.
Gray-Mendes was a little more reserved.
"There are always going to be kinks," Gray-Mendes said, "especially when you don't perform in the same place that you rehearse."
Like the tagline says, "In here, life is beautiful" -- no matter where "here" is. You can come experience the beauty for yourself, this Thursday through Sunday in the Student Activities Building. The show runs from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and tickets are sold on the Lawn and at the door for $5.
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