The Carleton Musical Theatre Society (CMTS) opened their production of Cabaret on Feb. 3, their first show as a Carleton club.
Cabaret follows the story of a young man as he moves to Berlin at the start of the 1930s and experiences the world of seedy nightclubs and constant partying.
According to Madie Jolliffe, one of the club’s co-founders and director of the show, Cabaret was “the perfect choice” for CMTS’ first performance.
“The musical director, Chris Santillán, who’s also the [club’s] co-founder and co-president and [is] producing the show, he saw Cabaret a couple times on Broadway when he was there and said ‘Madie, we’ve got to do Cabaret,’” Jolliffe said.
According to Sam Kellerman, a local actor who is playing the role of the master of ceremonies in the upcoming performance, Cabaret is a special type of musical, especially in its method of dealing with the complex issues that faced a pre-Second World War Germany.
“It’s a very important musical. It’s not as frivolous as other musicals . . . It’s a very smart show, it’s a very funny show, it’s a cabaret!” Kellerman said.
Jolliffe said her decision to re-choreograph the whole show to make a different, fresh version of the classic was one of the defining elements of the show.
“I took very important moves that made me think of Cabaret and worked them in in sneaky ways,” Jolliffe said. “The choreography is much bigger . . . We tried to change it up enough to make it a bit more fun.”
“Theatre isn’t a museum piece—it isn’t supposed to be the exact same every time . . . I think that what was done with it was very well done and very smartly done,” Kellerman said.
This production of Cabaret will mark the first show the CMTS has put on since their founding over the summer. Other than practicing for the production, however, the society has organized acting workshops as well as trips to see local theatre shows.
Despite it being their first show, the CMTS has been extremely organized and knows exactly what it wants to accomplish, according to Victoria Rutkowski, one of the performers at the fictional Kit Kat Klub in the show.
“I’ve done a bunch of stuff in the community and [CMTS] even more professional than some of the community theatres,” Rutkowski said. “They know their stuff, they know what they want. They have a vision and they stick to it.”
The decision to start up a musical theatre society grew from Sock ‘n’ Buskin announcing that they were not going to be putting on a musical production in 2016. The CMTS said they seek to support and grow the community of musical theatre lovers both on campus and around Ottawa.
“We want to continue putting on high quality shows, but we do want to create a society with more outings, more workshops, and things that people who aren’t necessarily still in shows can participate in,” Jolliffe said.
“Theatre in Ottawa is there—it just needs to be supported . . . There are so many talented people in the city, not just in school but in older generations,” Rutkowski said. “There’s so much theatre going on—we just need to support it more.”
