Here's an excerpt from the story by my pal Dave Lavender:
The ARTS Renaissance Ballroom has been transformed into a delicious den of debauchery — the rollicking, rowdy pre-WWII German nightclub, The Kit Kat Club.
For its first show of its six show season, ARTS is taking a swing at the campy and colorful late ‘60s classic multiple Tony Award-winning Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. Directed by Gene Anthony with choreography by Coni Anthony, Cabaret (rated about PG-13) will be performed in the Renaissance Ballroom, 900 8th St., Huntington at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 1-2 and at 8 p.m. Feb. 8-9.
Dinner (black bean soup, roast pork loin, mashed potatoes, broccoli, sweet and sour cabbage, rolls, coffee, tea, water and black forest torte) will be served at 6:30 p.m.
Dinner and a show is $30 while general admission tickets are $15. Call 304-733-ARTS (2787). Note that dinner options are sold out for this weekend.
Retired Marshall professor and veteran actor and director, Gene Anthony, said the show ushers in a new era for ARTS as the group has formed a company of 16 actors who’ll be starring (along with some guests) during ARTS season, as well as the fact that ARTS is revamping the ballroom.
“We wanted to not reintroduce but to redefine the ballroom for theater and to make it more theatrical,” he said. “I designed an environmental stage, and this show happens on three different stages with about six different acting areas. That cuts the line of demarcation between the audience and the cast. It’s not an uncomfortable thing but its the ambiance that drags them into it.” Cabaret, with its kinetic cast of dancers, singers (including the English cabaret performer Sally Bowles played by Andrea Parkins) and its dolled-up emcee (played by Michael Naglee) are a perfect intimate show to kick off the re-worked Ballroom, that will host two of the six shows during the ARTS season.
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