“Cabaret,” a musical originally written in 1966, was certainly on the edgier and raunchier side of musicals from its time. It tells the story of a nightclub in Berlin during the rise of fascism. The leading lady, Sally Bowles, is an English performer at the Kit Kat Club, often performing provocative and bawdy songs. She loves and embraces life as a cabaret performer, living loosely and freely; however, she ends up in an intimate relationship with an American writer, Cliff, soon after being fired from the club. Life slowly turns to chaos as Sally’s flaws and the presence of Nazism become harder to ignore. I was privileged enough to preview the WashU Performing Arts Department’s (PAD) production of the show on Thursday, the last dress rehearsal before opening night.

Dr. Julia A. Walker, chair of the Performing Arts Department, gave a striking speech before the show began. She highlighted how the themes in “Cabaret” and the current events in Israel and Palestine are eerily similar. Walker hopes audience members will be “productively unsettled,” and notice the importance of engaging with performing arts as a whole to both find community and learn from the horrors of the past.

The show opens with “Willkommen,” a suggestive number that breaks the fourth wall and invites the audience into the Kit Kat Club. Here we are introduced to all the cabaret performers, along with the citizen characters in the show. From the moment she is introduced, it is clear that Sally, played by junior Danielle Bryden, is bursting with stage presence. Her acting and overall talent, along with the ensemble’s dancing skills, were the thread that strung my attention throughout the show.

The dance numbers, however cheeky, were a main highlight of the show. The costumes dazzled and the music was vibrant; the dancers alternated between functioning as one unit of performance and expressing character personality. Two songs I particularly enjoyed for their dance numbers were “Willkommen” and “Don’t Tell Mama.”

After intermission, the mask that had been half-concealing the creeping antisemitic elements in “Cabaret” gets ripped off. The songs become less racy, the dancers lose their sparkle, and an ominous air hangs over Berlin. The German characters gain depth as their country falls into fascism and its consequences become real. In comparison, Cliff and Sally seem almost caricatures; Cliff has an undeniable American naivety, and Sally, realizing she is bound to a tragic end, loses herself to her lifestyle. This decline manifests in two songs, “Maybe This Time” and “Cabaret,” causing watchers to reckon with the idea that Sally won’t ever get her happy ending.

The ending of the show is abrupt, and once again forces the audience to meditate not just on Nazism in 1930s Berlin, but also on current events. The arc of the show can be somewhat alarming, seeming to shift suddenly from playful and raunchy to dark and serious, however, that is what makes “Cabaret” a good medium for audience reflection. PAD’s choice of musical was timely and necessary, a chance for all of us to examine how rapidly a harmful ideology can spread, and the havoc it wreaks. The show is only running for the weekends of Oct. 27 and Nov. 3. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 3 and Saturday, Nov. 4 and 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 5.