Forbidden Planet Productions presented “The 8th Annual Musical Cabaret” from Feb. 14-15 at Lisner downstage. The show was directed by Sarah Miller, Max Schwager, Haruka Nakagawa, Jordan Morrisey,Matt Traina,Sean McKinley, Alex Taliaferro,Amber Drew,Juliana Schiffgens, Emily Alexander,Gina Michele DePalo and Alex Copeland.
“We were sold out for each show,” said Corrine Falotico. “It was great to have such a big audience!”
Cabaret is FPP’s annual Broadway review of 10 different theatre musical shows, which features group numbers from a variety of shows. Though Thursday’s show was canceled due to the snowy weather conditions, the cast and the audience remained excited to open on Friday.
“There was a lot of energy as a result of the snow day because everyone was excited to finally present what we worked so hard to create,” said actress Nicole Panoc, who performed in “Matilda Medley” and “Good Morning Baltimore”.
The cast was about 50 people and ranged from first year students to graduate students. The cast rehearsed for three weeks and had formed a tight community. People were often involved in more than one number.
“Cabaret is a great chance for a lot of people to get involved with student theatre, which is amazing,” said Andrea Edman, who performed in “Life is Looking Up” and “Good Morning Baltimore.”
This show was something new in the theatre world here at GW because it had such a large cast and incredible choreography with 12 unique directors. The finale had a dance with elements of acrobatics that the cast had never done before.
“It’s really enjoyable, it’s very inclusive and I think that is the biggest cast that student theater has in every given year,” said Stephanie Brennan. “The audience loves it because you can take in a lot of different shows, and everything is really entertaining.”
Zeke Reed, the artistic director, said that this was an exciting opportunity to explore something new in student theater because it can be complicated to do such a large show.
“It was so exciting for me as someone who has seen all the numbers to finally let people see the way I see it and see it in it completion,” said Reed. “I was just so proud of everyone and couldn’t have done it without every single person involved.”
Executive Producer Andy Lieberman was happy to join the company again after going abroad in the fall. “On a personal level, it was just really rewarding to see the lights go down and people leave excited to come back again,” said Lieberman.