OnStage: Vegas meets 'Moulin Rouge'

We tend to think of Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s as a sinister era of creeping fascism. Some historians, including Eric Weitz of the University of Minnesota, argue that such a view is too narrow.

In addition to the social and financial instability that marked that era, Weimar Germany was a frontier of artistic innovation and progressive social movements that arrived elsewhere only later in the 20th century, including advancements in labor, women's rights and sexual liberation.

Weitz's 2007 book, "Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy," influenced a theatrical team to do a radically new interpretation of Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret." That version of the musical, a co-production between theater companies in Seattle and San Jose with the Ordway Center, opens Tuesday in St Paul.

"Like so much history, you find out that things are more nuanced and interesting than what gets set in the popular imagination," said Weitz.

Berlin stories

Created by the great songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, "Cabaret" is based on Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" and John Van Druten's play "I Am a Camera." The show follows performers and habitués of the Kit Kat Klub whose lives are about to change as the Nazis take over.

"Cabaret" premiered in 1966 under director Harold Prince and won eight Tony Awards.

"I can't argue with Hal Prince or even Sam Mendes -- they did memorable productions," said co-producer James Rocco of the Ordway. "But their take was basically that this was a hellhole, a dive, and our version is way different. It's Las Vegas meets Moulin Rouge."

Director Bill Berry, who executed the vision for the show, is a fan of Mendes' "heroin-chic" version that bowled over Broadway and toured the country a decade ago. That production featured a palette of dark decadence.

"I saw it 15 times," he said. "But I did not want to re-create the work. No artist wants to do that. So, in doing the research, I came upon a whole new view of Germany during this time."

That revelation was courtesy of Weitz, who chairs the history department at the University of Minnesota. Weitz sees Berlin in the 1920s as a place of path-breaking social progress and artistic promise.

"Right after World War I, German workers won the right to an eight-hour day but they lost it in the '20s," said Weitz, who lives in St. Paul. "Germany had an unemployment-insurance law in 1927, 10 years before the U.S. Berlin was a very vibrant center of Europe, not just of Germany. And what was happening there pointed the way forward for much of the rest of the West."

Group effort

"Cabaret" is part of an alternative Broadway model cooked up by the three companies -- the Ordway, Seattle's 5th Avenue Theater and San Jose's American Musical Theatre. By pooling their resources, they save money but also create something that is bigger than each could do alone.

"We created the sets, costumes, everything from scratch," said Berry. "And by putting it on three seasons, we get to create a work with the quality of the best Broadway shows."

The cast, chosen after auditions in the participating cities plus New York, includes Broadway performer Tari Kelly, who plays Sally Bowles; Seattle denizen Nick Garrison as the Kit Kat Klub emcee; and Twin Citian Tyson Forbes as Ernst Ludwig. Forbes played Thomas Jefferson in "1776" at the Guthrie.

"If we had put this up for just one of our houses, the costs would be great, but we would not have been able to create the work that we've made," said Berry. "Now the show has legs, and would have run for 7 1/2 weeks instead of just two."

Berry and Rocco expect to collaborate again in the future. And they also expect audiences to be wowed. " 'Cabaret' is a great work and it can be updated to reflect the concerns of the time," said Berry. "It deserves to have a lot of razzle-dazzle."

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390