How do you feel about artistic expressions of real-world history and conflict? Cabaret is a Broadway musical set in Germany during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was written by Joe Masteroff in 1966. It provides a telling story about the rise of Nazism in Germany. 

On my recent trip to New York, I had the opportunity to see this show. Not knowing even a sliver of what Cabaret was about before seeing it allowed me to enjoy the story thoroughly as it unfolded before my eyes.

Essentially, Cabaret depicts a care-free lifestyle of people at a club in Berlin, The Kit Kat Club. It conveys the club as a place where people can come to leave their worries behind and enjoy the beauties of life. Over time the show conveys conflict developing and how eventually even The Kit Kat Club can’t erase the horrors going on outside of its doors.

In the case of Cabaret, these horrors are the rise of anti-semitism and Nazism in Berlin, Germany. At the conclusion of the show, everyone, even the staff at The Kit Kat Club, has lost their spirit and is left questioning what happened to their country.

Seeing this loss of innocence and joy opened my eyes. It was telling because, even as part of the audience watching the show, I didn’t really notice what was happening until it was right in my face. 

This show speaks volumes about dictatorship and how it can sneak up on you, even if you are paying attention. Adolf Hitler wasn’t necessarily secretive about his plans for Germany, yet he was still able to get so many people on board with his plans, utilizing fear tactics as he went along.

Cabaret, in an artistic way, sends a message to pay attention to what is going on around you. You can’t run away from what’s happening around you by attempting to escape it. In the end, not even the hottest club in Berlin could distract people from the tragedies going on around them.