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Actors Studio going seedy with Cabaret

Kelowna Actors Studio will bring long running musical to the local stage
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Julia Chambers (Sally Bowles) and Nathan Flavel (Emcee) will be featured in Cabaret this October. - Image Contributed

It’s a play that could very well have been set in today’s era with themes of fear and state terror.

Cabaret, the Tony award-winning musical that carries a political wallop, will be on Kelowna stages this October, when the Kelowna Actors Studio brings a multi-week run to the area, from Oct. 11 to 29 (Wed. through Sun.)

Based on a 1951 play, Cabaret premiered on Broadway in 1966 and won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in addition to the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, the Outer Critics’ Circle Award, the Variety Poll of New York Critics, and London’s Evening Standard Award.

A 1972 movie starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey went on to win eight Academy Awards.

And now the Kelowna Actors Studio, behind director Randy Leslie (Rocky Horror), takes audiences deep into the seedy nightlife of the Kit Kat Klub on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power in Weimar Germany. The play follows the interlocking stories of a cabaret singer, a writer from America, and the denizens of Berlin as they are caught up in the swirling maelstrom of a changing society.

“It isn’t just that Cabaret is a beloved and compelling piece of theatre and the winner of eight Tony Awards,” said Leslie, Kelowna Actors Studio’s founder. “It’s set in a seedy nightclub, with characters that are not only complex and dark, but funny and delightful - all in all, deeply human.”

Rocky Horror; Mary Poppins) as the Emcee, Julia Chambers (Spring Awakening; Anne of Green Gables) as Sally Bowles, Desmond Parenteau (Billy Elliot) as the writer Clifford Bradshaw, Eva Cortens (Anne of Green Gables; Jesus Christ Superstar) as Fräulein Schneider, Ron Green (A Christmas Story, August Osage County) as Herr Schultz, Kristal Hunter (Billy Elliot; The Great Gatsby) as Fräulein Kost and newcomer Jason Casey as Ernst Ludwig.

The remaining cast members include Tiernan Lafleur Johnson, Brock Keeler, Timothy Harder, Alex Holowaty, Janice Sorestad, Karen Shale, Karlisa Hiebert, Jennifer Davies, Mikayla Miyashita, Dawna Elias and Megan Edwards.



kparnell@kelownacapnews.com

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