“Cabaret” onstage at Cottage Theatre throughout April

Above: Cast members (and their characters in parentheses) in Cabaret, onstage at Cottage Theatre April 3-26, 2026: Kneeling, Amy Robbins (Fräulein Kost); Center, Larry Brown (Herr Schultz), Nancy West (Fräulein Schneider), Hayden Shoop (Clifford Bradshaw), Sophie Warren-Blades (Sally Bowles), Teddy Nelson (Ernst Ludwig); Rear, Chelsea Lovejoy (emcee).

Edited by Randi Bjornstad

Cottage Theatre takes on a classic-but-dark musical — Cabaret — as the second production of its 2026 season, onstage April 3 through 26. It recreates the atmosphere of 1931 Berlin, Germany, and the famous/infamous Kit Kat Club, scene of jazz, seduction, and scandal. (The Kit Kat Club was not real then, but a reportedly equally kinky establishment called KitKatClub opened opened in Berlin in 1994.)

The setting for the musical recognizes the decadence of the era in Germany, superimposed with the shadow of the emerging and evolving politics and social atrocitites of the Third Reich that led to the outbreak of the Second World War.

The plot and screenplay were based on autobiographical stories by author Christopher Isherwood, and the musical includes songs such as Don’t Tell Mama and the dark Tomorrow Belongs to Me.