CHAPEL HILL - PlayMakers Repertory Company will end its 2012-2013 main-stage season with the Tony Award-winning musical “Cabaret” April 3-21.

The musical takes the audience inside the tantalizing world of The Kit Kat Klub in 1930s Berlin, where beguiling, self-destructive chanteuse Sally Bowles lives with no thought for tomorrow. The decadence of the nightclub under the sway of its flamboyant Emcee becomes a shattered mirror reflecting a society spiraling toward disaster with the rise of Hitler’s Nazis.

All performances will be in the Paul Green Theatre in UNC’s department for dramatic art on Country Club Road. Show times will be 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and Sunday, April 7; 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 6 and 20; and 2 p.m. Sundays.

The book for “Cabaret” was written by Joe Masteroff. The show features music and lyrics by the legendary songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb. The production to be presented by PlayMakers was originally co-directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall (“Chicago”) and directed by Sam Mendes.

PlayMakers’ production will be directed by Joseph Haj, the theater’s producing artistic director, who also helmed PlayMakers’ 2011 hit musical “Big River” featuring The Red Clay Ramblers.

Haj calls “Cabaret” “one of the defining musicals of all time.”

“It broke new ground in musical theater, intertwining social history between the World Wars with dazzling entertainment in new and dangerous ways,” Haj said.

“Cabaret” will feature Obie Award-winner Taylor Mac as the lasciviously charming Emcee. He started the New Year Off-Broadway in the title role of Bertoldt Brecht’s “Good Person of Szechwan,” in a performance The New York Times praised as “magnetic,” calling Mac “a terrifically gifted singer.”

Lisa Brescia, who will play Sally Bowles, was most recently seen in Theatre Raleigh’s production of “August: Osage County.” She has appeared on Broadway as Donna in “Mamma Mia!” Elphaba in “Wicked” and Amneris in “Aida.”

Mark Hartman is music director for the production. His Broadway credits include “Sondheim on Sondheim,” “Avenue Q,” “Miss Saigon” and “1776.”

To purchase tickets, call 919-962-PLAY (7529) or visit playmakersrep.org. Tickets are $15 to $50.