The Metropolis

Twenties Berlin was notorious for its neon signs and automobile traffic, modern department stores and movie palaces, jazz bars and flophouses, theaters and thousand-seat cafés, artists and paramilitaries, rent boys and cross-dressers — and above all, cabaret. Cabaret, based on a play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood, is a 1966 Broadway musical set in this decadent metropolis. In 1972, it spawned a feature film of the same name, starring Joel Grey and (the then-hot) Liza Minnelli. You probably know it by the famous ditty "Mein Herr."

Cabaret opens in the Kit Kat Klub in 1930, as the storm clouds of the Depression and Naziism gather over the teetering Weimar Republic. At the Kit Kat Klub, the performers and patrons, including an American writer, seal themselves off from the encroaching evil outside to indulge in sex and fantasy within those dark, safe walls. This sizzling period piece kicks off the new theater season at the University of Miami’s Department of Theatre Arts (1312 Miller Dr., Coral Gables). Tickets cost $22. For showtimes and tickets, call 305-284-3355, or visit www.miami.edu/ring.
Wed., Oct. 1, 2008