An emotional willkommen

Like many of the American musical theater greats, Cabaret is one of those shows that can suffer from style-creep,wherein an unwritten but generally agreed-upon aesthetic tradition grows into self-parody. For John Kander and Fred Ebb’s legendary pre-WWII Berlin-set romantic drama (based on the 1951 play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten and the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood), that usually translates to a Kit Kat Club that’s more of a strung-out haunted house than a cheeky flesh fair anyone would actually want to rain deutsche marks on. Not so in Porchlight’s nachtclub, a sparkling, inviting, exuberant pansexual party (led by Emcee Josh Walker) that puts a hearty emphasis on the “willkommen.”

Cabaret Through 3/5: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3:30 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Thu 2/2 1:30 PM; open caption Sat 1/28 and Sat 2/4 3:30 PM; Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, 773-777-9884, porchlightmusictheatre.org, $45-$77

Establishing that contrast is essential in order for any of the second-act gut punches to land, and in that respect, director Michael Weber, associate director/choreographer Brenda Didier, and music director Linda Madonia leave bruises and draw blood. I found my eyes welling up with spectacle tears long before the first emotional blow, and I suspect that has to do with just how masterfully pieced together these musical theater elements are, from the crystalline vocals to the bombastic ensemble-wide numbers to the intimate conversations between (ahem) “roommates.”

Gilbert Domally, who brings a radical softness to the character inspired by Isherwood, makes for a heart-melting partner with Sally (Erica Stephan, giving a performance for the ages). Even Angela Weber Miller’s and Patrick Chan’s Anhalter Bahnhof-inspired set and lighting design has a sense of gravity and impermanence to it, as if to ask: if brick, studded steel, and heavy cathedral wooden buttresses won’t survive the looming tsunami of inhumanity, what chance do we have?

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