Burgess Hill School for Girls played host to the Kit Kat Klub and all its occupants for three stunning sell-out performances. Croft Hall was transformed into the Berlin pre-wartime nightclub, complete with tables, waitresses, a band, an Emcee, Cabaret girls and boys and even a juggler!
Six months of hard work well and truly paid off; the show was a roaring success and the cast, band and crew received standing ovations every night. With superb choreography by Kat Chase and a wonderful band led by the amazing Richard Haslam the performers well and truly shone.
Director Miss Tarratt said, “The process of putting this wonderfully haunting show together was an incredible journey from start to finish for all involved. The entire cast, band and crew should feel extremely proud of themselves for producing one of the best shows the school has seen in recent years.”
Cabaret has had many award winning productions and revivals, most notably the Donmar’s Sam Mendes production of 1994 that later transferred to Broadway with Alan Cumming as the Emcee and the beautiful, late Natasha Richardson as Sally. It was this production that inspired Director and the Burgess Hill School cast.
The show was put together with a cast of drama students from Central Sussex College in Haywards Heath. Miss Tarratt said, ”It is impossible to pick out individual performers as they were all so fantastic, with them all being so professional and producing some breathtaking performances.”
The production, for all its “Cabaret-ness”, did what any good production of this show should do; it asked the audience to look at themselves and wonder if they would have the courage to fight evil, or even the wisdom to recognise it. The audience was prompted to ask themselves, as Fraulein Schneider asks, “What would you do?” The show was great success because, in the Croft Hall, for those three nights, “Life” was indeed “beautiful”.
The cast were:
The Cabaret boys and girls: Bethany Gavin; Phao Wheatley; Rosie Henderson; Megan Hector; Hannah Goodbourn; Bethan Williams; Stephanie Somerville; Freya Jeffries; Mathew Muddell and James Gibson.
The Emcee: Joe Burns.
Sally Bowles: Hebe Taylor-Haw
Cliff Bradshaw: Ben Rogers
Frau Schneider: Samantha Quinn
Herr Schultz: Eden Webber
Frau Kost: Katie Kenward
Ernst Ludwig: Luke Oldfield