By Jennifer Kustes

The first impression for audiences waiting for the performance of "Cabaret" is that of a seedy nightclub. The production is staged to make audiences feel as if they are sitting in the Kit Kat Klub in early 1930s Berlin.

A few minutes before the performance begins, a few women drift out on stage and begin limber up for the performance, stretching their muscles and tuning their instruments. They wander listlessly, looking as if they are slightly bored even before the performance begins. They wear camisoles and torn stockings, and sport bruises, a sickly pallor and dark rings under their eyes that imply drug use.

These actors set the atmosphere for the show to follow: the jaded decadence of 1930s Berlin as the Nazi party was rising to power at the start of the Third Reich. It tells the story of a British woman’s romance with an American writer and features such well-known songs as "Wilkommen," "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," "Money," and "Cabaret."

The theme of "Cabaret" is about revealing the human face beneath the greasepaint. Director Sam Mendes says the show is really about the central mystery of the twentieth century, which is how Hitler could have happened. "'Cabaret' uses the entertainment, atmosphere and allure of the club to pull the audience in and show them what they have become part of by sitting and watching it. And that central metaphor is the reason for setting the show in the club. It turns out to be the club that puts on the story rather than a story that contains within it a club," he says.

What the audience becomes part of is the story of Sally Bowles, a second-rate singer at the seedy Kit Kat Klub. The club represents the end of the decadence right before the "cleansing" of Nazi power, according to co-director and choreographer Rob Marshall. It is the type of place where the bruises and needle marks are garishly visible, the drag queens don’t conceal their 5 o’clock shadow, and Sally’s talentless performances betray the club’s third-class status.

Sally Bowles is a character who is eccentric, vulnerable and extraordinary. She is spoiled and selfish, but adorable at the same time. Christopher Isherwood, who first wrote the story "Sally Bowles," wrote, "She was lovable in a way that no human could ever quite be, since, being a creature of art, she had been created out of pure love."

One of the most pivotal roles in the show is the emcee. He oversees the whole show and not just the club, and he creates the atmosphere of the evening. He is a character from the streets, interpreted as a drug addict, with the track marks showing on his body. As the play progresses, with the rise of fascism, he gets more and more debauched.

A crucial part of the atmosphere of the show is the dancing. Marshall choreographed the dance sequences to be expressionistic and angular. His goal was not to make the dancing look slick and good, but to distort it and make it look as if it is happening almost in a third-rate cabaret.

The most versatile roles in the show are those of the six Kit Kat Girls and four Kit Kat Boys. They not only sing, dance and act, but they make up the club band as well. With their risque clothing and provocative moves, they generate the sexual element of the show.

Mendes first staged "Cabaret" at the Donmar Warehouse in London in 1993. The musical is based on the true-life observations of Christopher Isherwood who wrote "The Berlin Stories" between 1929 and 1932. Playwright John van Druten turned the story of Sally Bowles into the play "I am a Camera," which was produced on Broadway in 1952. Playwright Joe Masteroff brought the idea of turning the story into a musical to the attention of Harold Prince, who contacted songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb. The original Broadway production was staged in 1966. The musical also became a 1972 movie starring Liza Minneli as Sally Bowles.

Mendes’ revival of the show is described as so inventive that theatergoers feel they are experiencing something new. Mendes has made it utterly contemporary by going back to the very period that serves as a backdrop for the show. The show’s look of shop-worn sets and garish makeup recaptures the shock of earlier versions. It is darker, raunchier and more disturbing than its predecessors.