Southern Miss Theatre presented their production of the musical “Cabaret” at the Martha R. Tatum Theatre Nov. 8-11. This was the second show of their 2018-2019 season.
Set in the early 1930s in Berlin, Germany, while the Nazi Party is rising to power, “Cabaret” focuses on the Kit Kat Klub and the romance between one of the club’s performers, Sally Bowles, and an American writer, Cliff Bradshaw.
Carrie Sullivan, a sophomore double major in theatre and dance education, played the role of Fritzie, one of the dancers at the Kit Kat Klub. This instance was her first time being involved with a Southern Miss Theatre production.
Sullivan said that while the musical is fun, it also has a more serious message behind it.
“It’s flashy and showy, but it comes to a point where it gets really serious,” Sullivan said. “It has a really serious message to send out about politics and coping with significant changes in the people and places you love. It’s about art and how you can use art to both cope and to spread a message.”
Jessica Luzardo, a graduate student in the Master of Arts in the Teaching of Languages program, said she enjoyed the performance.
“It was very good,” Luzardo said. “The voices were great. The acting was fantastic. I lost count of how many times I teared up. It was just very moving.”
Library and information science graduate student Emily Hixon said the actors performed their characters well and that “Cabaret” accurately describes the 1930s.
“It had strong performances,” Hixon said. “There’s always a lot of subtext when you see ‘Cabaret’ about the German experience during those times, but now they’re making some commentary about willful ignorance in our culture.”
Freshman psychology major Iyanna Marshall said she knew nothing about the show’s plot prior to seeing the show.
“I thought it was incredible,” Marshall said. “I was enthralled every second. I didn’t know anything about the show going in, other than there would be some adult content, so it was really interesting seeing the story unfold.”
Mario Marset, a junior sociology major said he liked the explicit nature of the show.
“I’m glad it was so vivid because I’m half German myself,” Marset said. “My grandparents were activists during the Cold War and after in Germany. I think it was necessary for people to at least see a representation of what it could have been like as far as the social interactions they had going on.”
Southern Miss Theatre will be holding its Emerging Artists Series from Nov. 13-16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hartwig Theatre. Tickets will be available at the door and southernmisstickets.com
