Put down the book and head to Kabarett

“Put down the knitting, the book and the broom” and head to Shaw Festival for Tim Carroll’s Kabarett.

John Kander’s lyrics, famously sung by Liza Minelli in Cabaret, concludes the two-set song-filled Kabarett in Shaw’s Spiegeltent, the perfect venue for songs from 1920’s Berlin. Adorned in dark velvet and mirrors, the Spiegeltent practically evokes the smokey atmosphere of a decadent era.

Oh, to have been a part of Tim Carroll and co.’s listening parties as they strove to pick songs for Kabarett, ones representing the “intense interlude between the carnage of the Great War and the horrors that the Third Reich would bring,” wrote Carroll in the playbill. A time for pleasure. Berlin had become one of two great centres of the Jazz Age. Harlem was the other.

Kristi Frank and Ruthie Nkut perform When the Special Girlfriend, about two young women who enjoy shopping, and, especially, each other’s company.

Shane Carty, JJ Gerber, and Taurian Teelucksingh round out the musicians who perform songs written by Kurt Weill, Friedrich Hollaender and Mischa Spoliansky. Themes of war, emancipation, abortion and gender fluidity are fabulously sung by this quintet.

Even the poetry of Bertolt Brecht appears in Bilbao Song and Lili Marlene. Carroll has chosen songs about unity and solidarity, while at the same time embracing the diversity of sexuality. All vocalists were accompanied by the talented pianist, Benjamin Kersey, in his first season at Shaw.

As the venerable Minelli once sang, “What good is sitting alone in your room. Come hear the Kabarett.”

Kabarett is on until Oct. 12. For tickets visit hawfest.com/playbill/kabarett/