New Jewish Theatre’s Hard-Hitting, Heart-Wrenching ‘Cabaret’ More Relevant Than Ever

New Jewish Theatre’s Hard-Hitting, Heart-Wrenching ‘Cabaret’ More Relevant Than Ever

By Lynn Venhaus

“There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies, and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany… and it was the end of the world” – “Cabaret” 1966

Eerily relevant now more than ever, the musical “Cabaret” has only grown in potency and insight over its 59-year history.

In New Jewish Theatre’s haunting production, director Rebekah Scallet has faithfully adapted Sam Mendes’ brilliant 1998 revival that emphasized the sinister motives as we witness the gathering storm that would lead to World War II and the Holocaust.

However, she has focused on making sure the parallels between then and now are clear, and she has strengthened the shattering epilogue even more than Mendes did. She puts a hard-hitting NJT stamp on it.

As impressive as her track record has been since becoming the artistic director in 2022, it’s noteworthy to mention that this is the first musical she has directed in Wool Studio.

Through the decadent setting of the seedy Kit Kat Club in 1929 Berlin, we witness the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis.

Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

This passionate cast resonates because of how committed they are to the bleak and shocking themes. In their telling of this story, the desperation is palpable. And their layered approach to the hummable John Kander-Fred Ebb score is commendable.

As the cunning Emcee welcomes patrons in “Wilkommen,” he seductively entices: “Leave your troubles outside! So—life is disappointing? Forget it! In here, life is beautiful. The girls are beautiful. Even the orchestra is beautiful!”

In a magnetic performance, Spencer Davis Milford embraces the tawdriness and makes sure the ominous feeling grows. He lurks in other scenes where he’s not the saucy showman, his menacing presence foreshadowing the horrors that are ahead.

Oh, he has doused his “I Don’t Care Much” and “If You Could See Her” in irony, making those numbers even more chilling. After such iconic actors as Joel Grey, Alan Cumming and Eddie Redmayne have created their indelible portraits, Milford makes the role his own.

Fresh from his starring role as Frodo Baggins in “The Lord of the Rings” national tour, he’s back home making his mark in yet another special show. His work has always captivated since he was a youngster, whether on stage at The Muny or The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, or a myriad of other companies. But this is quite a departure from anything he’s done.

When it was time for “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” I braced myself, for its intensity remains affecting — and induces chills.

As conditions deteriorate in the polarizing landscape, those loyal to the “new Germany” face apathetic citizens and those who don’t understand the consequences.. In hindsight, how could they and why were people so unaware?

Soencer Davis Milford as the Master of Ceremonies. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

The innovative 1998 Tony winning Mendes collaboration with Rob Marshall deconstructed the heralded 1966 Hal Prince show in an earlier 1993 London re-imagining. While the original introduced social commentary in uncommon staging, this version heightens the present danger of ignoring anti-Semitism.

Mendes and Marshall would go on to helm Oscar-winning films in the early 2000s – “American Beauty” and “Chicago” respectively – but their impact has carried over for several vivid revivals in the past 27 years, notably 2014 and 2024, and in this striking, moving interpretation.

Scallet makes the most of the Wool Studio’s intimate setting, through an immersive experience placing some audience members in club configurations.

As the small but vibrant ensemble delivers high-energy precision in musical numbers, Scallet skillfully maintains fluidity throughout, with brisk staging, as one scene quickly melds into another.

Ellen Isom’s crisp and snappy choreography adds pizzazz to “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Mein Herr,” “Money,” and “Two Ladies,” and the robust kick line number in second act is an exceptional feat.

Otto Klemp, Hailey Medrano and Jayson Heil. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

Music Director Carter Haney conducts the band on stage – Brad Martin on drums, Alerica Anderson on a stand-up bass, and Kris Pineda on accordion and trombone, and their polished presentation is a highlight.

Scenic Designer David Blake’s visually interesting set has a grand balcony implying secretive dalliances behind closed doors while the downstairs doubles as the nightclub stage and both Sally’s and Fraulein Schneider’s shabby living quarters.

Denisse Chavez’s lighting design shrewdly draws us into the action, highlighting the moods, while Justin Smith’s sound design captures the atmosphere.

Hailey Medrano and Dustin Lane Petrillo are strong together as flighty, flirty nightclub singer Sally Bowles and broke American writer Clifford Bradshaw, brought together by fate, desire and living on the edge.

Separately, they are heart-tugging. Petrillo brings a discernable gravitas to every role he tackles, including virtuoso work in “Red,” The Immigrant,” “Hamlet” and “A Long Day’s Journey into Night” on local stages during the past two years.

Not as innocent as he first appears, and initially caught up in the whirlwind, Cliff eventually becomes the keen —-and appalled — observer whose conscience can no longer ignore the signs.

Dustin Petrillo, Medrano and Milford. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

His character is the fictionalized British writer Christopher Isherwood, who would go on to write the semi-autobiographical novel “Goodbye to Berlin.” The musical’s book by Joe Masteroff is based on the 1951 John Van Druten play “I Am a Camera,” which is adapted from Isherwood’s collection of short stories that he wrote between 1930 and 1933, published in 1939.

Medrano, who has returned to St. Louis with memorable turns in NJT’s “We All Fall Down” last year and work with Metro Theater Company, is at her most heart-wrenching when she refuses to leave her reckless livelihood for the safety and promise of a new life.

She makes drastic self-destructive decisions after spending much of the show flaunting her tough exterior that masks an emotional fragility.

In a smart change of pace, Medrano slows down several classic renditions, boosting their power – the raw, emotional “Maybe This Time” and the title song, aka “Life is a Cabaret” (old chum!) – infused with regret – are both knockouts.

The undercurrent of irony laced with a stinging gut-punch, her anguish seeping through as she breaks. It’s all the more tragic that she chooses to remain oblivious to what’s happening.

Medrano as Sally Bowles. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

Because Sally is such a confused mess, she is not always sympathetic, but Medrano is alluring when she’s “always on” as Sally Bowles, and tender, for a time, with new love interest Cliff.

In the show’s most devastating performance, Jane Paradise projects world-weariness but also a yearning she hides with pragmatism. The veteran character actress is known for lived-in portrayals and is often the MVP in any ensemble.

As Fraulein Schneider who discovers late-in-life love, her doomed romance with shy, kind fruit vendor Herr Schultz, played sweetly by Dave Cooperstein, is agonizing, for he is a Jew, and their shared dreams collapse under the weight of current events.

From their joyous duets “The Pineapple Song” and “Married,” to her melancholy “So What” and the tragic “What Would You Do?” are sad reminders of the choices we make and life’s turns, depriving them of even a shred of happiness.

Also standing out is Aaron Fischer as the calculating smuggler Ernst Ludwig, whose growing fervor for the Third Reich is alarming. With an impeccable German accent, Fischer slowly reveals his bigotry. Fischer, fairly new to the professional stage, and splendid in last fall’s “Anastasia: The Musical” at Tesseract Theatre Company, is one of the most exciting performers to keep your eye on.

Aaron Fischer and Petrillo. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

In fact, John Wilson’s dialect work is superb from all 11 performers. Besides doubling as soldiers and shady characters, the ensemble includes devil-may-care revelers celebrating their hedonistic culture before fear and chaos will grip their world. The nightclub’s naughty boys and girls, and their free-spirited customers live in the moment: Otto Klemp as Bobby, officer, ensemble and on clarinet; Jayson Heil as Victor, Max, ensemble and on violin; Amarachi Kalu as Lulu and on the flute; Caroline Pillow as Fritzie; and Lillian Cooper as Texas and the gorilla.

Costume Designer Michele Friedman Siler expertly incorporated luxurious shiny blacks and reds for the performers, often with torn fishnet stockings, and more middle-class attire for everyone else. Because of doubling characters, costume changes are remarkably smooth.

We won’t forget, we can’t forget the unflinching cautionary tale this enduring musical tells us.

Jane Paradise and Dave Cooperstein. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

The New Jewish Theatre presents “Cabaret” from March 20 to April 13. Please check for showtimes, as several Wednesday shows have been added as well as an extended run. For mature audiences, the show has adult content. The show runs 2 hours and 15 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission. Performances take place at the SFC Performing Arts Center, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. For more information: jccstl.com. Tickets are available online at newjewishtheatre.org or by phone at 314.442.3283.

NJT’s 2025 Season is generously sponsored by Mary Strauss, with Cabaret receiving additional sponsorship from Stellie Siteman and the Siteman Family Foundation.

Alongside the production, NJT hosts special events that will give the audience a special understanding of the iconic musical:

Saturday, April 5 –The Weimar Republic the Rise of Hitler with Helen Turner

Have a conversation with Helen Turner, Education Director for the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, as she presents information about the Weimar Republic and the real-life historical events that provide the backdrop for Cabaret. This event will take place between the matinee and evening performances on Saturday, April 5. Doors will open at 4:30 with the presentation beginning at 5pm. Light refreshments will be provided. The presentation is free, but reservations are required at https://formstack.io/80312

Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

NJT’s Scintillating Drama ‘Red’ Vigorously Paints a Portrait of Artists and the Drive to Create

NJT’s Scintillating Drama ‘Red’ Vigorously Paints a Portrait of Artists and the Drive to Create

By Lynn Venhaus

“What do you see?”

The opening line of “Red” establishes the essence of this brilliant fact-based drama by John Logan.

An invigorating portrait of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko focuses on the singular artist at a crossroads in his career. An astounding Christopher Harris has vividly sketched this mercurial icon with intense physicality and quicksilver verbal jousting.

Rothko, a Russian immigrant who arrived at Ellis Island in 1913 with his Jewish family when he was 10, was known for his uncompromising nature, ambition, obsessiveness, and troubled, restless mind.

In the 1950s, he rose to prominence in the ephemeral art world, and now is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. But as his celebrity grew, so did his doubts about artistic integrity.

From 1949 to 1970, he rose to fame for his minimalist soft-edged, shaded rectangular color blocks on unframed canvases – such as “Lavender and Mulberry,” “Yellow Over Purple,” “Four Darks in Red” and “Orange and Tan,” which produced a variety of emotional responses.

Christopher Harris, as Rothko, and Dustin Petrillo as Ken. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

Through these infinite variations of vibrant divergent color blocks, he opened the power of raw emotions. Striving for depth, he employed layering in painting, and through his bold techniques for color, size and space, he crafted a signature style.

He was sensitive to harsh criticism that abstract art could be painted by 5-year-olds, as this fictional play indicates he was motivated by ideas and mindful of his legacy.

Harris’ Rothko alternates between reflection, frustration and pontification. Wanting to remain relevant and create a memorable work for posterity, yet irked by the monetary reason that went against his principles, he second-guessed a major decision.

He had accepted the largest commission in modern art history – $35,000, his first, from the deep-pocketed Seagrams to produce four large murals to hang in their building at the elite Four Seasons. The new place would become Manhattan’s poshest restaurant.

The time is 1958-59 and the place is a former gymnasium remodeled into an art studio in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City.

Through blunt conversations with his employee Ken (a fictional character that’s a composite of multiple assistants the iconoclast had), he will change his mind. But that defining moment comes after the men have intense and fascinating discussions about art, artists and the drive to create.

Petrillo as the assistant. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

As the eager and earnest assistant, the intuitive young actor Dustin Lane Petrillo delivers another perfectly calibrated performance, following his dynamic turn as Hamlet in St. Louis Shakespeare’s production earlier this year, and was exemplary as the title role in “The Immigrant” at New Jewish Theatre last fall, nominated for a St. Louis Theater Circle Award.

Ken is an aspiring artist and is at first colorless, but we see his shadings emerge as he adapts to the complex and mysterious Rothko’s demands, outbursts and temperament. His rigorous assignments are to mix paint, build frames, stretch canvases – and get lunch, go on errands and whatever else his difficult boss orders.

Over a two-year period, gaining confidence, he begins to challenge Rothko, believing art should reflect change. Rothko’s vulnerability seeps through his façade, and so does his torment.

The tortured artist couldn’t quite reconcile the motives connecting commerce and art, especially rampant corporate capitalism. He wrestled with the role of art in society – décor or thought-provoking?

With this two-hander, the actors are strongest in collaboration – and they must create paintings live on stage, which is both daunting and enthralling. They accomplish it with elan.

Petrillo and Harris. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

They crafted a working relationship that alternated between tempestuous and harmonious, and the duo mesmerized for 90 minutes. You can feel them challenging each other, demonstrated by their mastery of the back-and-forth like they’re lobbing tennis shots in a Grand Slam final.

Harris. who has not only stage experience but also film, television and radio, was last seen in NJT’s “Life Sucks” in 2018. portraying Vanya in this comedic take on Chekhov’s play “Uncle Vanya.”

Taut direction by Alan Knoll makes this tightly controlled atmosphere engrossing. The comic relief is well-timed, and the material richly textured. Knoll had gracefully directed two triumphant Neil Simon comedies for NJT in recent years – “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway Bound.” This show is a tall order, and he’s up to the demands, because to pull all of this together had to be an incredibly arduous task.

During this play, Rothko rails against the status quo, disparaging people who preferred safe pieces suited for “above the mantel,” revealing Rothko’s disdain for his contemporaries and the rising stars of pop art.

Battling depression his entire life, Rothko died by suicide in 1970. He was 66. The play does not include an epilogue, preferring to concentrate on that momentous two-year period of passionate creativity in the late 1950s.

He would go on to cancel the Seagram contract in 1960, and instead donated pieces to the Tate Gallery in London in 1966.

Well-researched and thoughtfully written by Logan, “Red” elevates art appreciation. He is meticulous in conveying Rothko’s strong scholarship in art history, bringing up the effect Rembrandt’s emotive use of light had on him when seeing one of the Dutch masters’ paintings, and other impactful pieces.

Harris. photo by Jon Gitchoff.

The visceral drama won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2010, taking home five other awards including one for Eddie Redmayne as Ken for Best Featured Actor in a Play. (Alfred Molina, who originated the leading role, lost to Denzel Washington for “Fences.”)

The St. Louis-based Fox Theatricals was among the Broadway producers. The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presented the show in 2011, opening its 45th season soon after the play’s triumphs in London and NYC, and it hasn’t been professionally produced regionally since then.

Logan, whose lauded career includes writing plays for 10 years in Chicago before penning the screenplays “Any Given Sunday” in 1999, Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” in 2000, Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” in 2004 and “Hugo” in 2011, the latter three all Oscar-nominated, and two James Bond films for Sam Mendes, “Skyfall” in 2012 and “Spectre” in 2015.

The New Jewish Theatre produced Logan’s chilling first play “Never the Sinner” about killers Leopold and Loeb in 2017.

Scenic designers Peter and Margery Spack, whose painstaking details often stun in breadth and scope in the Wool Studio, have transformed this pliable space into a functional work, with outstanding props collected by Katie Orr. They have replicated, with permission, Rothko-style canvases.

Studio. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

The award-winning designers studied archival photos and accounts to recreate the studio as faithfully as possible in the theater, including an Adirondack chair Rothko favored.

Lighting designer Jayson M. Lawshee has expertly shut out natural light, per Rothko’s notorious edict, while sound designer Justin Smith has astutely selected mood music of preferred classical and period jazz pieces. Michele Friedman Siler, whose period costume designs are notable for their accuracy, outfits the two artists appropriately.

Rothko once wrote: “The tragic experience of catharsis is the only source of any art. Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks.”

This inspired production honors risk takers and spotlights universal truths while presenting an interesting debate about the role of art in society. Featuring two robust performances and exceptional production values, “Red” should not be missed in this stellar environment.

This is not a rehash of your college modern art history class, and hurray for that distinction. The effort that went into every aspect of this stimulating show is obvious – and admirable.

Harris. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.

New Jewish Theatre presents “Red” July 25 through Aug. 11 in the SFC Performing Arts Centers’ Wool Studio Theatre, 2 Millstone Campus Drive, St. Louis. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 4 and 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm. The show is 90 minutes without intermission. Tickets are available by phone at 314.442.3283 or online at newjewishtheatre.org. For more information: jccstl.com/arts-ideas/new-jewish-theatre/current-productions.

As a bonus event, scenic designer Margery Spack will give a presentation on her fascinating research into Rothko’s studio and the designers’ process in translating it for the NJT stage on Sunday, Aug. 4 following the 2 pm performance.