KU honors program hosts New York City excursion to see classic musical “Cabaret”

Honors students embark on an informative “Cities as Text” trip.

By John Mahoney

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 11 a.m., a group of KU honors program students embarked on a New York City trip to see the classic 1966 musical “Cabaret,” featuring Adam Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho.  

Students were given the opportunity to participate in this ‘Cities as Text’ event and explore NYC during the few hours preceding the show. During this time, students visited various museums, landmarks and restaurants around the city.  

Some students visited the American Folk Art Museum and had the opportunity to view pieces from a new exhibition, Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets. The many textile works as well as oil paintings detail aspects of Santos Reinbolt’s life, from being a black woman, to life on a farm, to her adventures to wealthier cities in search of employment opportunities.  

Nathaniel Dent, a first-year psychology major, heavily enjoyed his time at the American Folk Art Museum, acknowledging the importance and intrigue of the rich history behind the exhibit and some of the other pieces displayed at the museum.  

“My favorite thing about the museum was probably learning of the history behind the art that was in it,” Dent said. 

Other first-year honors students, such as Calista LaPorte and Maggie Salvani, got the experience of wandering the city as well, taking in the grand architecture and comparing their time in NYC to their own homes. 

“I don’t get to go to the city often, so it was very different from what I’m used to,” Salvani said. “To see how big everything is and that there were so many buildings crammed together, and everything was walkable, it was so interesting.” 

“We learned a lot for sure. New York is extremely diverse, every corner you turn is something you’ve never seen before, it was enlightening,” LaPorte said.  

Some students, like Abigail Miller, a senior English with paralegal studies major, had the opportunity to visit The New York Public Library, which she said was an extremely fun and interesting experience. 

“Being in New York was very creatively inspiring, especially for the English part of what I do. Going to The New York Public Library in particular was a very cool experience,” Miller said. “Being in a new environment in general can be very inspiring.” 

Other students went to places such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Chinese in America, The Tenement Museum and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

The classic, highly acclaimed political musical “Cabaret,” was the prime reason students had ventured to New York in the first place, and the show did not disappoint, leaving both students and staff on the trip deeply impacted by the performance and message.  

“Cabaret” tells a story of a cabaret club in Berlin, Germany where performers of different genders and sexual orientations perform and dance for club-goers, embracing their own identities and living their days in bliss. As time goes on, the second world war approaches, and Nazis slowly come into power, shifting the politics and dynamics amongst the main characters in a tremendously chilling lineup of songs and performances.  

“I think it’s really relevant right now, and it’s far different than most shows,” Miller said. “Even though there wasn’t much of a set, just the circular stage, they’re able to convey so much. The message overall is very topical, we’re in a place right now where our country is in a precarious political situation. Cabaret really makes you think about what you’re doing and in what ways you’re giving in.” 

Miller, who garnered some interesting insights on the play thanks to her knowledge of German history and language even managed to clock some further parallels between the show and the state of creativity in post WWII Germany.  

“One of the classes I’ve taken was about German horror, and I did an extra project looking specifically at how the politics of World War I and II affected the horror genre there,” Miller said. “What I found was that so many of the creatives and filmmakers in Germany were exiled and that led to the spread of film in other places. In Cabaret, you can see the dancers shift with their environments and slowly begin to conform to German politics, and it was the same for other creatives at the time, all films being made there were portraying Germany as a good and happy place. It’s an interesting parallel there.” 

Director of the KU Honors Program, Dr. Andrew Vogel, helped orchestrate and chaperone the event and was captivated by the performance. He went on to express the importance of taking in theater, especially shows that are topical and relevant. 

“Theater is important in American culture; It helps to reflect how we as a society see the world around us,” Vogel said. “We picked Cabaret because we’re in such an interesting time politically and there is so much division in this country right now. The fault lines of that play capture the hard things that come when countries allow themselves to become so staunchly politically divided.” 

Furthermore, Vogel went on to add how the city of New York is often at the center of all things political and social when it comes to conflict and community in America. Those reasons, as well as the availability of the play on Broadway, made New York a perfect destination for an Honors “Cities as Text” learning event. 

“New York for me exhibits all the grandeur that America invests in, and it also illustrates so many of the downsides of America society as well,” Vogel said. “Corroding infrastructure, important, complicated social issues; You have massive wealth and terrible poverty living side by side together. But there is also amazing diversity and a rich pool of art and artists. A tremendous community of different cultures supporting each other.”  

Experiential learning, according to Vogel, is a keystone piece in the philosophy of the KU Honors Program, standing as one of the prime factors differentiating the program from others at different universities. Because of this philosophy, study abroad trips, and internships count for honors credit at KU.  

“The goal with experiential learning is to encourage our students to get out into the world and look at everything as it is behaving,” Vogel said. “It’s certainly an invaluable experience to see art that is new to you, try foods you’ve never heard of, talk to people from different places, hear different languages and accents; Then to go about integrating all of this information and your experiences into your work is what makes this an Honors event.”  

Experiential learning is the fundamental reason as to why “Cities as Text” is so important, and many honors students would tend to agree. Abigail Miller even made large connections between her current academic endeavors and “Cabaret” that have ignited new ideas for her work. 

“I’m doing my Honors capstone project right now looking at “The Handmaid’s Tale” and how different pieces of fiction and works of art can be influential for social movements, and I think Cabaret is an extremely good example of that,” Miller said. “Seeing the show and making connections to my current project was something that helped give me more ideas.” 

Andrew Vogel has made it clear that “Cities as Text” is an essential and important part of the overall honors experience, helping to give students real-world experience and learning opportunities. He hopes to host many more of these trips including a possible journey to Washington, D.C. next September for the National Book Festival.  

“Certainly, I’d like to give thanks to the university administration, and specifically the provost for making our trips possible,” Vogel said. “The provost very generously supports a budget where Honors can afford to take a few trips like this a year and develop our experiential learning.”