The ensemble of Cabaret. Photo: Margot Schulman

By DCist Contributor Missy Frederick

Nightclub singer Sally Bowles (Barrett Wilbert Weed) knows disappointment. The stubbornly happy-go-lucky lead singer is the shining light of the Kit Kat Club, a seedy entertainment venue in 1930s Berlin that aims to keep out increasingly oppressive forces growing in that city (namely, the impending threat of the Nazis). In the play, Bowles casts a spell on an American novelist, abruptly disrupting his life as he struggles to find inspiration for his book. As one of the most self-aware Sallys to have taken the stage, Wilbert Weed has the same effect on Signature’s audience.

Bowles is a character that can often feel hollow (especially as the role has been inhabited by countless film actresses trying their hands at Broadway musicals over the 50 decades since the musical’s debut). But Wilbert Weed wears Sally comfortably, laughing and gliding her way through production numbers like the coy “Don’t Tell Mama” or the teasingly seductive “Mein Herr,” and striking up a winning, natural rapport with the club’s attendees. But she really glows during Sally’s testimonial songs: “Maybe This Time,” a heartbreaker where the singer allows herself a glimmer of optimism about her future, and “Cabaret,” her anthem to living in the moment and her realization that ultimately, nothing’s going to change.

Cabaret isn’t just Sally’s story. It’s the story of Frauelin Schneider and Herr Schultz (D.C. theater vets Naomi Jacobson and Rick Foucheux, who have a tender chemistry), a German landlady and a Jewish fruit salesman whose late-in-life budding romance is tested by the Nazis’ growing influence. It’s the story of novelist Cliff (Gregory Wooddell), who watches the political developments in the country with growing unease, even as he finds himself completely distracted by the temptations of Berlin nightlife and swept up in Sally’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge the changing city.

Playing Cliff can be a thankless role; his character is a cipher whose story is overshadowed by the more vibrant characters in the musical. Wooddell’s Cliff is stilted at first, but by the show’s end he makes the audience connect with his character as he faces his own fears and disappointments, particularly during his final, wrenching scene with Wilbert Weed.

But Cabaret is really Berlin’s story. Written in 1966, Kander & Ebb’s musical has stood the test of time as one of the most powerful and unsettling depictions of the Nazis’ rise and how it influenced everyday citizens. Director and choreographer Matthew Gardiner’s production owes much to the showstopper Sam Mendes’ London and Broadway revival that put Cabaret back on the map as an overtly sexy and gutsy show with a poignant message.

The two-level Kit Kat Club, staged here to place the audience in the middle of the action, is almost a character itself, as its dancers and its host weave their way through scenes inside and outside its walls.Within the venue, some numbers have double meaning as well, like the mischievous “If You Could See Her,” where the emcee romances a gorilla (“If you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn’t look Jewish at all.” Damn.)

The host in Signature’s production, Wesley Taylor, is an impish, gleeful figure (and a master of Gardiner’s sharp and jerky, Fosse-influenced choreography). He’s fascinating to watch; though his performance has almost an adolescent sexual energy, there’s also something darker at work underneath, like he could come unhinged at any second. And things do bubble over eventually, as Cabaret winds down and the show concludes with some disturbing (if slightly heavy-handed) imagery. With such a dramatic resolution and such memorable performances, this Kit Kat Club won’t soon be forgotten.

Cabaret runs through June 28 at Signature Theatre. Tickets ($29-$108) are available online here*
*Corrected