The cast and crew of "Cabaret" with Holocaust survivor Helga Melmed. Provided photo.

On July 30, the Sarasota Players will premiere its production of the award-winning musical Cabaret. The fact that Sarasota's oldest community theater is producing Cabaret is not shocking—Cabaret is one of the timeless classics of American musical theater, filled with incredible musical numbers and topical themes that are always relevant.

How the cast and crew of the Players’ production of Cabaret has approached the show, however, is distinct. Set in post-World War I Berlin, Cabaret follows struggling American writer Clifford Bradshaw, whose quest for inspiration leads him into the sensuous and captivating world of the cabaret. Bradshaw strikes up a romance with cabaret performer Sally Bowles, but as time passes, a once-thrilling stay in Berlin turns sinister as the Nazi party begins to take hold of Germany. This past week the Players substituted a rehearsal for a far more poignant interaction—a conversation with Sarasota resident Helga Melmed, a Holocaust survivor who lost her family in the atrocity and spent much of her adolescence imprisoned in different concentration camps.

“Everyone was very focused and quiet as we first listened to her talk for around 50 minutes,” says Marketing Director Amanda Heisey. “There was a lot of crying at different points for people—I think certain parts of her story resonated differently with each cast member. You realize how important it is to listen to someone who actually saw and experienced these atrocities.”

For director Brian Finnerty and the cast, Melmed’s testimony is a reminder of why the story of Cabaret still matters. In it, some of the characters are faced with a choice—turn a blind eye to the growing darkness and disappear into the world of the cabaret or make a stand against tyranny? The experience of hearing Melmed’s story—of a young girl who, by the time she was liberated at nearly 18-years-old, weighed just 46 pounds—grounds the production in a somber reality. “When you actually hear about it from somebody who has lived through it, it makes it click for you,” says Finnerty. “I think that the cast will go into the show with more empathy and more thoughtfulness about every action they take—there were multiple times when Helga would say something and it was an exact line from the script. Everybody has been handling the material with such care, but hearing her words and knowing who we are playing adds so much to the production.”

July 30-August 3, August 6-10, The Sarasota Players, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 34239

The cast and crew of "Cabaret" with Holocaust survivor Helga Melmed. Provided photo.

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