By day, Faustino Cadiz III works as a vice principal at Wardlaw Elementary in Vallejo. But by weeknights and some afternoons through June 23, he will be one of the denizens of Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub. By doing so, he will satisfy something deep within his emotional core — his “passion for doing theater.
” These days that means as an ensemble member of Center Repertory Company’s 2023-24 season finale, Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret,” at the Lesher for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Adapted by Joe Masteroff from a John van Druten play and Christopher Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories,” the 1967 Tony-winning musical, long a Broadway and national touring staple, is a stimulating, intelligent mixture of live music, theater and dance. Its major numbers include, besides the title tune, “Wilkommen,” “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” “If You Could See Her,” and “I Don’t Care Much” — the latter two sung by the slithery, ringmaster-like Emcee.
It’s all stirred darkly around a theme of a politically misguided society gone horribly wrong in Center REP artistic producer Markus Potter’s staging, with choreography by Jessica Chen, a production with a message for our own politically fraught times. “I’m pretty excited about it,” Cadiz, 33 and a Vallejo native, said during a brief telephone interview Sunday evening. His excitement may be in part because he is also the understudy for lead character Cliff Bradshaw, a budding American writer who fa.
