A REAL `CABARET'; WILSHIRE THEATRE TRANSFORMS INTO A CLUB, AND MUSICAL GETS A STRONGER STORY LINE, TOO.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

It was dubbed ``the Babylon of the world,'' a turbulent city where many foreign tongues were spoken, bizarrely dressed youths prowled the streets at night, and the populace abandoned itself to wild, hedonistic pleasures.

So much for present-day Los Angeles.

Berlin, circa 1932, was a pretty interesting place, too, as the raunchy new national touring production of ``Cabaret,'' which opens a 10-week engagement tonight at the Wilshire Theatre, is about to remind us.

Imported from London's tiny, experimental Donmar Warehouse theater, this ``reinvented'' version of the 1967 musical comes to Los Angeles via Broadway, where it won four 1998 Tony Awards, including best actor, best actress and best musical revival.

It's the brainchild of ultra-hot British director Sam Mendes, who recently scored another risque trans-Atlantic hit with ``The Blue Room,'' starring a seriously dressed-down Nicole Kidman.

With a well-constructed book by Joe Masteroff and a slew of memorable songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb, including ``Maybe This Time,'' ``Tomorrow Belongs To Me'' and the title tune, ``Cabaret'' has enjoyed success from its first Broadway incarnation, to Bob Fosse's Oscar-winning 1972 film version, to a 1987 revival by director Harold Prince, to the current restaging by Mendes and co-director/choreographer Rob Marshall.

This production marks the professional stage debut of actress Teri Hatcher in the role of Fraulein Sally Bowles, the reckless, bohemian British chanteuse who performs at the sleazy Berlin burlesque joint known as the Kit Kat Klub. Norbert Butz also is featured as the Kit Kat's fiendish Master of Ceremonies, and Rick Holmes plays Clifford Bradshaw, the bisexual American writer who falls hard for Sally.

Hatcher, best-known as the savvy Lois Lane of ABC's ``Lois & Clark,'' and for her role in the 1997 James Bond film ``Tomorrow Never Dies,'' will be competing against memories of Liza Minnelli's career-making, Academy Award-winning performance in the 1972 film version, as well as Natasha Richardson's Tony-winning performance from the current production's Broadway run.

But there'll be another glamorous ``newcomer'' in the spotlight tonight: the Wilshire Theatre itself, getting an elaborate makeover for the occasion.

Seeking to eliminate the ``fourth wall'' between viewers and performers, ``Cabaret's'' design team has created an ``environmental'' concept for the show that's intended to make audiences feel as if they're patrons at a seedy, Nazi-era Berlin hotspot.

For several months, construction crews at the Wilshire have been removing rows of orchestra-level seating, installing cabaret-style tables and chairs, repainting walls, hanging fabric, and generally giving the historic art-deco theater the best buffing it's had in years.

When the opening-night crowd enters the theater tonight, some may think momentarily that they've stepped off Wilshire Boulevard and straight into the heart of Alexanderplatz.

``When you walk into the club, at the same time it's a club from the '30s in Berlin, it also could be a club in downtown New York, or the Viper Room (in West Hollywood),'' says Marshall. ``You shouldn't really know where the walls end in the place, but you also shouldn't know, `Where am I?' ''

That disorienting effect reportedly was achieved at the production's previous venues: the Donmar Warehouse in London; the old Henry Miller Theatre on West 43rd Street in New York City; and a former Manhattan opera house that once was home to the notorious disco dance club Studio 54, where ``Cabaret'' transferred last year.

The biggest challenge in creating this ``site-specific'' production, says set designer Brill, is controlling the audience's point of view without turning the space into a kind of Teutonic theme park.

``We've really gone to great effort to really sort of look at every decision that we make,'' Brill says, ``and to see whether we've gone too far, and whether the choice really is about just accentuating the facility to make both the production and the site coincidental, (so) both of them can sort of merge together vs. having wait staff in period clothing and serving beer from steins.''

Audience members will be invited to join the action in other ways, not all of them subtle. A few surprised onlookers may even find themselves dragged on stage to boogie alongside the bruised, bedraggled Kit Kat dancers.

By replicating the debauched mise en scene of the pre-World War II German capital, the production's creators hope to invoke the spirit of ``Cabaret's'' primary source material, Christopher Isherwood's ``The Berlin Stories.'' Written during the 1920s and '30s, Isherwood's collection of semiautobiographical fictional pieces formed a lasting portrait of the colorful characters he encountered during the waning days of the Weimar Republic.

While Hatcher has declined virtually all interview requests until after the show opens, Marshall says she's up to portraying the life of the party, ``a magnet, a bigger-than-life person who everyone else is drawn to.''

``The truth is, Teri Hatcher has been sort of a revelation to us,'' he says. ``She auditioned for us, and I don't know her except for really `Lois & Clark,' and a few of her films, and she's not a stage actress, or she hadn't been a stage actress.

``And it was really a shocking revelation, because she's a natural stage actress and can sing and dance - wonderful accent. I'll tell you, it's always great when somebody has more talent than they've been given a chance to show.''

In the equally critical role of the Emcee, the relatively unknown Butz comes to Los Angeles from Broadway, where he's been playing Roger in Jonathan Larson's ``Rent.''

Like Hatcher, Butz will have big shoes to fill: Joel Grey won a Tony and an Oscar in the role, and Scottish actor Alan Cumming copped another Tony in the current revival.

``(Norbert) had the perfect sensibility for this show,'' says Marshall, ``because there's kind of a downtown, funky decadence that he has as a person that he can bring to his stuff, but he's charming, and scary, and seductive, and of ambiguous sexuality - I mean, he's married with a child, but he can play that.

Like the Wilshire Theatre, the story line of ``Cabaret'' also has been tarted up a bit. For example, Marshall says, it's now easier to address the issue of Cliff's homosexuality (or bisexuality) than it was in the 1960s. Book writer Masteroff ``actually helped us and worked with us on adding things to the book.''

``Here's the thing,'' Marshall says. ``There's a very strong play there. And that's why, when we did it in New York, we hired people mostly who had never done musicals before - because the book is so strong, and we really wanted to bring to life that part of it.

``It's a very well thought-out play, because the first act's very seductive in many ways, and the second act, it's almost as though the doors lock and you feel you can't escape. It's that kind of feeling.''

THE FACTS

What: ``Cabaret.''

Where: Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., one block east of La Cienega Boulevard.

When: Tonight through April 25. Performances 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets: $40 to $72. Available at the Wilshire Theatre box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, online at ticketmaster.com or by calling [phone].

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos

Photo: (1) Teri Hatcher makes her stage debut as bohemian chanteuse Sally Bowles in the L.A production of ``Cabaret.''

(2) The Wilshire Theatre begins its transformation into the Kit Kat ...

(3) The equipment comes out ...

(4) A nightclub begins to take shape ...

(5) ... with tables and chairs for some audience members.