Cabaret is a 1966 musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Joe Masteroff, based on John Van Druten’s 1951 play “I Am a Camera,” which was adapted from the short novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.

Cabaret takes place from 1929-1930, a time when Berlin, in the midst of a post-World War I economic depression, is transitioning from a center of underground, avant-garde cultural epicenter to the beginnings of Hitler’s totalitarian regime and the rise of the Nazi Party. With a distinctly Brechtian dose of provocation and a score featuring songs that have become classics of the American Musical Theater, Cabaret is a fierce, meaty musical that pushes the boundaries of the form and literally holds “the mirror up to nature.”