Oakland Theater Project’s (OTP) production of Cabaret, John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Tony Award-winning musical, is poised to set a benchmark. Placed in the hands of director and choreographer Erika Chong Shuch, the story plays up love, political unrest, rising antisemitism and fascism, and the dark underbelly of subversive oppression.
The original Cabaret, written and produced in 1966, was set in 1931 Berlin during the last years of the Jazz Age and amid the ascension of Nazism. The action mostly takes place in the gritty Kit Kat Klub. The narrative centers on the unlikely love story of cabaret singer Sally Bowles and novelist Clifford Bradshaw.
Extending romantic themes is the doomed-from-day-one relationship between a German boardinghouse owner and an elderly Jewish fruit vendor. An androgynous Emcee serves as a mercurial “host,” alluring and poisonous in equal measure. Cabaret pulls taught a complex web created by intermingling brilliant, animated entertainment with stories about cataclysmic forces that act upon individuals and within countries.
Since its Broadway premiere, the production has had numerous revivals touched by numerous directors and choreographers. A 1972 film adaptation had Bob Fosse taking on both roles and establishing his own stylistic benchmark in the world of live theater and cinema.
Shuch in an interview described the process she and the cast chose to follow in pursuing OTP’s version. “It’s a mashup of a speculative future and 1930s Berlin,” she said. “We’re taking the broad themes and asking, ‘What are the conditions that would allow the rise of fascism, Nazism—these cycles that seek to eliminate people without power or resources—to repeat themselves?’ We make it personal, individual.”
Shuch admires Fosse’s choreography, but chose to “lean into the contemporary” and develop movement material with the cast that “celebrates their inherent strengths and instincts.” As the choreographer, she became like a collage artist.
“The movement includes very few moments of unison,” Shuch said. “People use unison as a fall-back because it looks good. [Instead] we created a world that amplifies the differences, similarities and true instincts of this cast.” The casting is intentionally bold. “We would not normally have a Nigerian woman playing Nazi sympathizer [Fraulein Kost],” Shuch added, “and I’ve never seen an Asian woman play Sally.”
Sharon Shao, in the role of Sally, is “explosive, weird, charming” and displays self-awareness rooted in deep humanity. James Mercer II pours the full spectrum of his life experiences into his role as Clifford Bradshaw.
Shuch is hesitant to betray her actor’s trust by speaking on those stories, but insists the end result of the personal and honest process is the emergence of a complex character. Similarly, the beastly otherworldliness rooted in tender, maternal expression found in Deanalís Arocho Resto’s Emcee is multifaceted.
“I’m a mother myself, and I say tender care and the willingness to fight to the death are two sides of the same coin,” Shuch said.
Shuch in rehearsals follows a footpath that leads to a culture she and the cast believe could be paralleled in the broader world. When the stage lights come up on each performance, they are warm, welcoming hosts who recognize that people in 2025 enter the space carrying heavy burdens.
“Audiences do not need to be belittled, shamed or schooled,” Shuch said. “It’s a space for shared reflection, a thought experiment taking Cabaret’s big themes and pulling them out to meditate on, together. We’re standing up against oppressive forces in safe spaces to imagine new possibilities. That’s our jobs as artists; to see and hear each other and create conditions that get us falling in love with each other again.”
‘Cabaret’ plays Nov. 21-Dec. 14 at FLAX art & design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. oaklandtheaterproject.org/cabaret
