He was born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y. -- "Where the arts do not thrive so much," he said -- but Vince Oddo has managed to succeed in theater in spite of his perceived culturally bereft hometown.

By dint of passion, hard work, readiness and an element of luck, he found himself last fall in a Manhattan rehearsal space, where a casting call for a national touring production of "Cabaret" was being held.

"I was actually coming from another audition," said Oddo, 22, adding that he knew the casting director from a previous audition.

He landed the part of young American writer Clifford Bradshaw. Since Jan. 12, he has been on the road with Windwood Theatricals, an East Coast-based troupe which makes a stop Saturday at the Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre.

Curiously, Oddo produced the Tony Award-winning show a couple of years ago, and, speaking Monday by phone from El Paso, Texas, where he was to perform that night, he said, "The whole time I wanted to be Cliff."

In the musical -- a Kander and Ebb affair made into an Oscar-winning film in 1972 and famous for its songs and stories of Weimar-era Berlin -- Sally Bowles, a young, naive middle-class woman from London, decides to move in with Cliff, a gay man who is living in a boarding house and trying to finish a novel. She is working as a singer in the city's notorious and seedy Kit-Kat Club, aspiring to live the decadent life that the German cultural capital is known for. Sally eventually gets pregnant by Cliff.

In time, she and Cliff befriend Fraulein Schneider, the boarding house matron; Fraulein Kost, the cheerful whore; and Herr Schultz, the gentle, graying fruit merchant and a Jew.

It is the early 1930s and the Weimar Republic -- troubled by political instability brought on by the global economic collapse of the Great Depression -- has come to an end with the rise of Adolf Hitler, who has suspended the Weimar constitution and begun to lay the groundwork for World War II and the Holocaust.

The play largely centers on the lives of the boarders and how they react in the face of impending horrors. Sally, however, ignores the sounds of the Nazi tumult in the streets, but the others cannot.

Of Cliff's homosexuality, Oddo, a graduate of State University of New York, Fredonia, said, "I believe he was in denial at first. (Early in the musical) he is wondering what's the right thing to do? Would his family approve of his lifestyle?"

At 6 feet 1 inch tall, 200 pounds and a former football player, he admits he may not fit the average director's image of Cliff but he relishes the part.

While some "Cabaret" directors envision a production suffused with sex -- or the suggestion of sex -- the Windwood Theatricals director has stressed "body language -- how we carry ourselves" to create a convincing ambiance onstage, said Oddo.

Winner of the best musical Tony in 1966, "Cabaret" includes, besides the famous title tune, songs such as "Wilkommen," "Don't Tell Mama," "Money, Money," "If You Could See Her" and "Perfectly Marvelous," a duet Oddo shares with Oakley Boycott, who portrays Sally. Zac Mordechai plays the androgynous Emcee.

Growing up, Oddo was always interested in music and theater, crediting fifth-grade teacher "Mr. Duncan, who pretty much forced me to be in 'Brigadoon'," for launching what has turned out to be a budding professional career.

At SUNY, he majored in opera but eventually switched to musical theater, which, he quipped, did not require German diction classes.

As part of a bus-and-truck show, Oddo, his fellow cast members and crew members travel to a new city, usually small or midsize, each night. After leaving El Paso, the company travels to New Mexico, then to Bakersfield and northward to Vacaville later this week.

The tour ends in Montana on June 3, when Oddo plans to return to New York City, America's cultural capital, to audition for replacement roles in "Mamma Mia!" and "Jersey Boys."

If you go

What: 'Cabaret'

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre, 1010 Ulatis Drive, Vacaville

Tickets: $49

Info: 469-4013 or www.vpat.net