Set in 1929–1930Berlin during the twilight of the Jazz Age as the Nazis rise to power, the musical focuses on the hedonistic nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around American writer Clifford Bradshaw's relations with English cabaret performer Sally Bowles. A subplot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub, and the club itself serves as a metaphor for ominous political developments in late Weimar Germany.
The original Broadway production opened on November 20, 1966, at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City and became a box office hit that ran for 1,166 performances. The production won eight Tony Awards and inspired numerous subsequent productions around the world as well as the 1972 film of the same name.
The events depicted in the 1966 musical are derived from Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood's autobiographical tales of his colorful escapades in the Weimar Republic.[1][2] In 1929, Isherwood visited Weimar-era Berlin during the final months of the Golden Twenties.[3] He relocated to Berlin to avail himself of boy prostitutes and to enjoy the city's orgiastic Jazz Age cabarets.[4][5] He socialized with a coterie of gay writers that included Stephen Spender, Paul Bowles,[a] and W.H. Auden.[8] At the time, Isherwood viewed the rise of Nazism in Germany with political indifference[b] and instead focused on writing his first novel.[11][12]
In Berlin, Isherwood shared modest lodgings with 19-year-old British flapperJean Ross,[c] an aspiring film actress who earned her living as a chanteuse in lesbian bars and second-rate cabarets.[14][15] While room-mates at Nollendorfstrasse 17 in Schöneberg,[16] a 27-year-old Isherwood settled into a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old German boy,[17][18] and Ross became pregnant after engaging in a series of sexual liaisons.[19][20] She believed the father of the child to be jazz pianist and later film actor Peter van Eyck.[20] As a favor to Ross, Isherwood pretended to be her heterosexual impregnator in order to facilitate an abortion of which Ross nearly died due to the doctor's incompetence.[20][21][22] Visiting the ailing Ross in a Berlin hospital, Isherwood felt resentment by the hospital staff for, as they assumed, forcing Ross to undergo the abortion. This event inspired Isherwood to write his 1937 novellaSally Bowles and is dramatized as its narrative climax.[23][24]
While Ross recovered from the botched abortion, the political situation rapidly deteriorated in Weimar Germany as the incipient Nazi Party grew stronger day by day.[25] "There was a sensation of doom to be felt in the Berlin streets", Spender recalled.[25][26] As Berlin's daily scenes increasingly featured "poverty, unemployment, political demonstrations and street fighting between the forces of the extreme left and the extreme right",[27] Isherwood, Ross, Spender, and other British nationals realized that they must leave the politically volatile country as soon as possible.[28]
Julie Andrews was offered the role of Sally Bowles, but her manager refused due to the character's immorality.
In early 1963, producer David Black commissioned English composer and lyricist Sandy Wilson to undertake a musical adaptation of Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera.[34] Black hoped that singer Julie Andrews would agree to star in the adaptation, but Andrews' manager refused to allow her to accept the role of Sally Bowles due to the character's immorality.[35] By the time Wilson completed his work, however, Black's option on both the 1951 Van Druten play and its source material by Isherwood had lapsed and been acquired by rival Broadway producer Harold Prince.[36] Prince wished to create a gritty adaptation of Isherwood's stories that drew parallels between the spiritual bankruptcy of Germany in the 1920s and contemporary social problems in the United States at a time "when the struggle for civil rights for black Americans was heating up as a result of nonviolent but bold demonstrations being held in the Deep South."[37]
Prince hired playwright Joe Masteroff to work on the adaptation.[38] Both men believed that Wilson's score failed to capture the carefree hedonism of the Jazz Age in late 1920s Berlin.[36] They wanted a score that "evoked the Berlin of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya."[36] Consequently, Prince invited the songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb to join the project.[36] Kander and Ebb envisioned the work as a dramatic play preceded by a prologue of songs describing the Berlin atmosphere from various points of view. As the composers distributed the songs between scenes, they realized the story could be told in the structure of a more traditional book musical, and they replaced several songs with tunes more relevant to the plot.[36]
For the musical adaptation, playwright Joe Masteroff significantly altered Isherwood's original characters.[39] He transformed the English protagonist into an American writer named Clifford Bradshaw; the antisemitic landlady became a tolerant woman with a Jewish beau who owned a fruit store; they cut various supporting characters and added new characters such as the Nazi smuggler Ernst Ludwig[e] for dramatic purposes.[41][42] The musical ultimately expressed two stories in one: the first, a revue centered on the decadence of the Kit Kat Klub, for which Hal Prince created the Master of Ceremonies (Emcee) character played by Joel Grey; the second, a story set in the society outside the club, thus juxtaposing the lives of the characters based on Isherwood's real-life associates and acquaintances with the seedy club.[43][44]
In fall 1966, the musical entered rehearsals.[45] After viewing one of the last rehearsals before the company headed to Boston for the pre-Broadway run, Prince's friend Jerome Robbins suggested cutting the songs outside the cabaret, but Prince ignored his advice.[45] In Boston, lead actress Jill Haworth struggled with her characterization of Sally Bowles.[46][47] Critics thought Sally's blonde hair and white dress suggested a debutante at a senior prom instead of a cabaret singer, so Sally became a brunette before the show opened on Broadway.[46][47]
Prince staged the show in an unusual way for the time.[48] As the audience entered the theater, they saw the curtain raised, exposing a stage with only a large mirror that reflected the auditorium.[49][50] Instead of an overture, a drum roll and cymbal crash introduced the opening number. The show mixed dialogue scenes with expository songs and standalone cabaret numbers that provided social commentary. This innovative concept initially surprised audiences.[51] Over time, they discerned the distinction between the two and appreciated the rationale behind them.[51]
Synopsis
Act I
{{{annotations}}}
The Kit Kat Klub is intended to evoke the many Weimar-era cabarets in Berlin.
At the twilight of the Jazz Age in Berlin, the incipient Nazi Party is growing stronger. The Kit Kat Klub is a seedy cabaret – a place of decadent celebration. The club's Master of Ceremonies (Emcee)[f] together with the cabaret girls and waiters, warm up the audience ("Willkommen"). Meanwhile, a young American writer named Clifford Bradshaw arrives via a railway train in Berlin. He has journeyed to the city to work on a new novel. Cliff encounters Ernst Ludwig,[e] a German smuggler who offers him black market work and recommends a boarding house. At the boarding house, the proprietress Fräulein Schneider offers Cliff a room for one hundred reichsmarks, but he can only pay fifty. After a brief debate, she relents and allows Cliff to live there for fifty marks. Fräulein Schneider observes that she has learned to take whatever life offers ("So What?").
When Cliff visits the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee introduces an English chanteuse, Sally Bowles, who performs a flirtatious number ("Don't Tell Mama").[g] Afterward, she asks Cliff to recite poetry for her, and he recites Ernest Thayer's mock-heroic poem "Casey at the Bat". Cliff offers to escort Sally home, but she says that her boyfriend Max, the club's owner, is too jealous.[h] Sally performs her final number at the Kit Kat Klub aided by a female ensemble of jazz babies ("Mein Herr"). The cabaret ensemble performs a song and dance, calling each other on inter-table phones and inviting each other for dances and drinks ("The Telephone Song").[i]
The next day at the boarding house, Cliff has just finished giving an English lesson to Ernst when Sally arrives. Max has fired her and thrown her out, and now she has no place to live. Sally asks Cliff if she can live in his room. At first he resists, but she convinces him to take her in ("Perfectly Marvelous"). The Emcee and two female companions sing a song ("Two Ladies") that comments on Cliff and Sally's new living arrangement. Herr Schultz, an elderly Jewish fruit-shop owner who lives in the boarding house, gives a pineapple to Fräulein Schneider as a romantic gesture ("It Couldn't Please Me More"). In the Kit Kat Klub, a young waiter starts to sing a song – a patriotic anthem to the Fatherland that slowly descends into a darker, Nazi-inspiredmarching song ("Tomorrow Belongs to Me"). He initially sings a cappella, before the customers and the band join in.[j]
Months later, Cliff and Sally are still living together and have grown intimate.[c] Cliff knows that he is in a "dream", but he enjoys living with Sally too much to come to his senses ("Why Should I Wake Up?"). Sally reveals that she is pregnant, but she does not know who is the father and decides to obtain an abortion. Cliff reminds her that it could be his child and tries to convince her to have the baby ("Maybe This Time").[k] Ernst enters and offers Cliff a chance to earn easy money – picking up a suitcase in Paris and delivering it to a client in Berlin. The Emcee comments on this with the song "Sitting Pretty" (or, in later versions, "Money").
Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider has caught one of her boarders, the prostitute Fräulein Kost, bringing sailors into her room. Fräulein Schneider forbids her from doing so again, but Kost threatens to leave. Kost reveals that she has seen Fräulein Schneider with Herr Schultz in her room. Herr Schultz saves Fräulein Schneider's reputation by telling Fräulein Kost that he and Fräulein Schneider are to be married in three weeks. After Fräulein Kost departs, Fräulein Schneider thanks Herr Schultz for lying to Fräulein Kost. Herr Schultz says that he still wishes to marry Fräulein Schneider ("Married").
At Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz's engagement party, Cliff arrives and delivers the suitcase of contraband to Ernst. Sally and Cliff gift the couple a crystal fruit bowl. A tipsy Schultz sings "Meeskite" ("meeskite", he explains, is Yiddish for ugly or funny-looking), a song with a moral ("Anyone responsible for loveliness, large or small/Is not a meeskite at all").[l] Afterward, seeking revenge on Fräulein Schneider, Kost tells Ernst, who now sports a Nazi armband, that Schultz is a Jew. Ernst warns Schneider that marrying a Jew is unwise. Kost and company reprise "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", with more overtly Nazi overtones, as Cliff, Sally, Schneider, Schultz, and the Emcee look on.
Act II
{{{annotations}}}
The musical is set against the backdrop of Nazism's rise in Germany which reaches a climax at the end of the second act.
The cabaret girls – along with the Emcee in drag – perform a kickline routine which eventually becomes a goose-step. Fräulein Schneider expresses her concerns about her impending nuptials to Herr Schultz, who assures her that everything will be all right ("Married" (reprise)).[m] They are interrupted by the crash of a brick being thrown through the glass window of Herr Schultz's fruit shop. Schultz tries to reassure her that it is merely rowdy children making trouble, but Fräulein Schneider is now afraid.
Back at the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee performs a song-and-dance routine with a woman in a gorilla suit, singing that their love has been met with universal disapproval ("If You Could See Her"). Encouraging the audience to be more open-minded, he defends his ape-woman, concluding with, "if you could see her through my eyes... she wouldn't look Jewish at all."[n][44] Fräulein Schneider goes to Cliff and Sally's room and returns their engagement present, explaining that her marriage has been called off. When Cliff protests and states that she can't just give up this way, she asks him what other choice she has ("What Would You Do?").
Cliff begs Sally to leave Germany with him so that they can raise their child together in America. Sally protests and claims that their life in Berlin is wonderful. Cliff urges her to "wake up" and to notice the growing social upheaval around them.[b] Sally retorts that politics have nothing to do with them and returns to the Kit Kat Klub ("I Don't Care Much").[o] At the club, after another heated argument with Sally, Cliff is accosted by Ernst, who has another delivery job for him. Cliff tries to brush him off. When Ernst inquires if Cliff's attitude towards him is because of "that Jew at the party", Cliff attacks him – only to be beaten by Ernst's bodyguards and ejected from the club.[p] On stage, the Emcee introduces Sally, who enters to perform again, singing that "life is a cabaret, old chum," cementing her decision to live in carefree ignorance ("Cabaret").
The next morning, a bruised Cliff is packing his clothes in his room when Herr Schultz visits. He informs Cliff that he is moving to another boarding house, but he is confident that these difficult times will soon pass. He understands the German people, he declares, because he is a German too. When Sally returns, she announces that she has had an abortion, and Cliff slaps her. She chides him for his previous insistence on keeping the baby, pointing out it would be a "terrible burden" for a child knowing it was the only reason the parents were together. Cliff still hopes that she will join him in France, but Sally retorts that she has "always hated Paris." She hopes that, when Cliff finally writes his novel, he will dedicate the work to her. Cliff leaves, heartbroken.
There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany – and it was the end of the world.
On the railway train to Paris, Cliff begins to compose his novel, reflecting on his experiences: "There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies ... and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany – and it was the end of the world and I was dancing with Sally Bowles – and we were both fast asleep" ("Willkommen" (reprise)). In the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee welcomes the audience once again as the ensemble reprises "Willkommen" but the song is now harsh and discordant.[q] The Emcee sings, "Auf Wiedersehen... à bientôt..."[r] followed by a drum roll crescendo and a cymbal crash.[s]
Musical numbers
Every production of Cabaret has modified the original score, with songs being changed, cut, or added from the film version. This is a collective list featuring all songs from every major production.
"Willkommen" (reprise)/"Finale Ultimo"–Emcee, Cliff, and Company
Song modifications
Many songs planned for the 1966 production were cut.[63] Three excised songs – "Good Time Charlie", "It'll All Blow Over", and "Roommates" – were recorded by Kander and Ebb, and the sheet music published in a collector's book.[64] Sally sang "Good Time Charlie" to Cliff as they walked to Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz's engagement party, mocking Cliff for his gloominess.[62] At the end of the first act, Fräulein Schneider sang "It'll All Blow Over," expressing her concerns about marrying a Jew, while Cliff voiced his worries about Germany's emerging Nazism.[65][66] In the song, Sally declares that all will turn out well in the end.[65] "Perfectly Marvelous" replaced "Roommates" and serves the same plot function of Sally convincing Cliff to let her move in with him.[62][67]
The 1972 film added several songs, notably "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time" which were included in later productions.[63] The latter song had been written by Kander and Ebb for the unproduced musical Golden Gate.[68] The later 1987 and 1998 Broadway revivals also added new songs such as "I Don't Care Much".[69] In the 1987 revival, Kander and Ebb wrote a new song for Cliff titled "Don't Go".[70] In the 1998 revival, "Mein Herr" replaced "The Telephone Song", and "Maybe This Time" replaced "Why Should I Wake Up?".
Originally, the Emcee sang "Sitting Pretty" accompanied by the cabaret girls in international costumes with their units of currency representing Russian rubles, Japanese yen, French francs, American dollars, and German reichsmarks.[70] In the 1972 film, the Emcee and Sally Bowles sang "Money, Money" instead of "Sitting Pretty." The film soundtrack briefly played "Sitting Pretty" as orchestral background music. In the 1987 revival, they presented a special version that combined a medley of both money songs, and they incorporated motifs from the later song into the "international" dance that featured "Sitting Pretty." In the 1998 revival, they used only the later song written for the film. This version included the cabaret girls and carried a darker undertone.
Productions
Original Broadway production
The original production featured Jill Haworth (left) as Sally Bowles, Joel Grey (center) as the Emcee, and Lotte Lenya (right) as Fräulein Schneider.
The original Broadway production was not an instant success according to playwright Joe Masteroff due to its perceived immoral content.[49] "When the show opened in Boston," Masteroff recalled, "there were a lot of walkouts. Once the reviews came out, the public came back."[49] At the time, actor Joel Grey was merely fifth-billed in the show. Nevertheless, audiences were hypnotized by Grey's sinister performance as the Emcee.[75]
In contrast, Jill Haworth's performance as Sally was less well-received and was criticized for its blandness.[76] Emory Lewis, the reviewer for The Morning Call, wrote that "Jill Haworth, the lovely English actress who played Sally Bowles on opening night, was personable, but she was not sufficiently trained for so pivotal a role. And her voice was small and undramatic. Her performance threw 'Cabaret' out of kilter."[47]
The musical premiered in the West End on February 28, 1968, at the Palace Theatre with Judi Dench as Sally, Kevin Colson as Cliff, Barry Dennen as the Emcee, Lila Kedrova as Fräulein Schneider and Peter Sallis as Herr Schultz. It ran for 336 performances.[79][80] Critics such as Ken Mandelbaum have asserted that "Judi Dench was the finest of all the Sallys that appeared in Hal Prince's original staging, and if she's obviously not much of a singer, her Sally is a perfect example of how one can give a thrilling musical theatre performance without a great singing voice."[81]
Sam Mendes (left) directed the 1993 London revival of Cabaret with Alan Cumming (right) as the Emcee. Cumming would return as the Emcee for the 1998 and 2014 Broadway Revivals.
In 1993, Sam Mendes directed a new production for the Donmar Warehouse in London.[84][85] The revival starred Jane Horrocks as Sally, Adam Godley as Cliff, Alan Cumming as the Emcee and Sara Kestelman as Fräulein Schneider.[86] Kestelman won the Olivier for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical, and Cumming was nominated for an Olivier Award.[citation needed] Mendes' concept was different from either the original production or the conventional first revival,[84] particularly with respect to the character of the Emcee. The role, as played by Joel Grey in both prior productions, was a sexually aloof, edgy character with rouged cheeks dressed in a tuxedo. Alan Cumming's portrayal was highly sexualized, as he wore suspenders around his crotch and red paint on his nipples.[87] Staging details differed as well. Instead of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" being performed by a male choir of waiting staff, the Emcee plays a recording of a boy soprano singing it. In the final scene, the Emcee removes his outer clothes to reveal a striped uniform of the type worn by the internees in concentration camps; on it are pinned a yellow badge (identifying Jews), a red star (marking Communists and socialists), and a pink triangle (denoting homosexuals). Other changes included added references to Cliff's bisexuality, including a brief scene where he kisses one of the Cabaret boys.[88] "I Don't Care Much," which was added for the 1987 Broadway revival, was maintained for this production, and "Mein Herr" was added from the film.[citation needed]
Natasha Richardson portrayed Sally Bowles in the 1998 revival, and Neil Patrick Harris later starred as the Emcee after Alan Cumming departed the role.
There were a number of changes made between the 1993 and 1998 revivals, despite the similarities in creative team. The cabaret number "Two Ladies" was staged with the Emcee, a cabaret girl, and a cabaret boy in drag and included a shadow play simulating various sexual positions.[88] The score was re-orchestrated using synthesizer effects and expanding the stage band, with all the instruments now being played by the cabaret girls and boys. The satiric "Sitting Pretty", with its mocking references to deprivation, despair and hunger, was eliminated, as it had been in the film version, and where in the 1993 revival it had been combined with "Money" (as it had been in 1987 London production), "Money" was now performed on its own. "Maybe This Time", from the film adaptation, was added to the score.[88]
A revival opened in the West End at the Savoy Theatre on October 3, 2012, following a four-week tour of the UK, including Bromley, Southampton, Nottingham, Norwich and Salford.[93]Will Young played the Emcee and Michelle Ryan portrayed Sally Bowles.[94]Siân Phillips, Harriet Thorpe and Matt Rawle also joined the cast. The production was made by the creative team behind the 2006 London revival, but with new sets, lighting, costumes, choreography and direction.[citation needed]
In August 2013 the show went on tour in the UK, again with Young as the Emcee, Siobhan Dillon reprising her role of Sally and Lyn Paul joining the cast as Fräulein Schneider.[95] The same production toured the UK again in autumn 2017 with Young as the Emcee and Louise Redknapp as Sally.[96] Another UK tour began in autumn 2019 starring John Partridge as the Emcee, Kara Lily Hayworth as Sally Bowles and Anita Harris as Fräulein Schneider.[97]
In September 2013 Roundabout Theatre Company announced plans to return the company's acclaimed 1998 production to Studio 54 in New York.[98][49] For this, the show's third Broadway revival, Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall reprised their respective roles as director and co-director/choreographer to recreate their work from the earlier production. Alan Cumming starred again as the Emcee while Academy Award-nominee Michelle Williams made her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles.[99] On October 7, 2013, Tony Award nominees Danny Burstein and Linda Emond joined the cast as Herr Schultz and Fräulein Schneider.[100] The production began a 24-week limited engagement with previews from March 21, 2014, with opening night on April 24, 2014, but the engagement was extended.[101]Emma Stone replaced Michelle Williams as Sally from November 2014 to February 2015,[102] Critics praised Stone's performance for her interpretation of the hard-drinking sybarite Sally Bowles "as a flaming flapper, the kind hymned by F. Scott Fitzgerald and embodied by the young Joan Crawford in silent movies."[103]Sienna Miller took over the role on March 29, 2015, remaining through to the show's closing.[104][105]Alan Cumming continued in the role of the Emcee until the show's final curtain.[106][107]
The production toured the US from January 2016 with Randy Harrison as the Emcee and Andrea Goss (who played Frenchie in the Broadway production). They were later replaced by Jon Peterson and Leigh Ann Larkin.[108]
2021 West End revival
Kit Kat Club (Playhouse Theatre) Marquee in London
Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley starred as the Emcee and Sally Bowles in a West End production directed by Rebecca Frecknall, designed by Tom Scutt, choreographed by Julia Cheng, with lighting design by Isabella Byrd and sound design by Nick Lidster.[109] The production also featured Omari Douglas as Cliff, Liza Sadovy as Fraulein Schneider, Elliot Levey as Herr Schultz, Stewart Clarke as Ernst and Anna-Jane Casey as Fraulein Kost.[110][111] Produced by Underbelly and Ambassador Theatre Group,[112] and billed as Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, the production began previews November 15, 2021 at Playhouse Theatre, which was reduced to a 550-seat capacity with an intimate in-the-round stage and table seating for some audience members, in effect transforming the theater into a Weimar-era nightclub.[113][44] The run was extended to October 2022. The production led the 2022 Olivier Award nominations with 11 nods,[114] including Best Musical Revival, Best Actor in a Musical for Redmayne and Best Actress in a Musical for Buckley.[114] The production won seven awards and set a record as the most award-winning revival in Olivier history and the first production to receive awards in all four eligible acting categories.[citation needed]
The 2021 West End production transferred to the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway, with previews from April 1, 2024, ahead of a gala night on April 20 and press night on April 21.[121] As in the West End production, the August Wilson Theatre was refurbished as the "Kit Kat Club" with an intimate in-the-round staging.[122] Redmayne reprised his role as the Emcee with Gayle Rankin and Ato Blankson-Wood co-starring as Sally and Cliff.[123]Bebe Neuwirth, Steven Skybell, Natascia Diaz, and Henry Gottfried play Fraulein Schneider, Herr Schultz, Fraulein Kost, and Ernst Ludwig, respectively.[124][125][126] The production was nominated for 9 Tony Awards,[127] winning one for Best Scenic Design.[128] Since September 16, 2024, Adam Lambert and Auli'i Cravalho have played the Emcee and Sally.[129]
Since 2003, international stagings of the show, many influenced by Mendes' concept, have included productions in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Portugal, Greece, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Serbia, South Africa, Spain and Venezuela.[citation needed] A 2008 production at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Avon Theatre in Canada, designed by Douglas Paraschuk and directed by Amanda Dehnert, featured Bruce Dow as the Emcee, Trish Lindström as Sally, Sean Arbuckle as Cliff, Nora McClellan as Fräulein Schneider and Frank Moore as Herr Schultz.[130] The Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, included Cabaret in its 2014 season.[131] The production, which ran from April 10 – October 26, 2014 at the Festival Theatre, was directed by Peter Hinton with choreography by Denise Clarke. It featured Juan Chioran as the Emcee, Deborah Hay as Sally, Gray Powell as Cliff, Benedict Campbell as Herr Schultz, and Corrine Koslo as Fräulein Schneider; it was influenced by Mendes' 1993 revival.[citation needed]
A 2017 revival played in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, starred Paul Capsis as the Emcee and Chelsea Gibb as Sally. The production mixed elements of the Mendes production, such as its version of "Two Ladies" and its portrayal of a gay Cliff, with the colorful art design of the original (the Emcee is in full makeup and clothed) and most of the additional songs from the 1972 film (with the exception of "Mein Herr").[132]
Cast and characters
Actors must be named first in the Productions section in a long-running production, with a citation to appropriate sources, before being placed in this section.
Original Broadway cast and later notable performers[133]
Character
Description
Original Broadway Cast
Other notable performers in long-running, noteworthy productions
The first recording of Cabaret was the original Broadway cast album with a number of the songs either truncated (e.g., "Sitting Pretty"/"The Money Song") or outright cut to conserve disk space.[81] When this album was released on compact disc, Kander and Ebb's voice-and-piano recordings of songs cut from the musical were added as bonus material.[81] According to Mandelbaum, the 1968 London cast recording features "a more accurate rendering of the score" and includes the Act One finale "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" reprise, the second-act finale as performed in the theatre, and a number of other previously unrecorded bits and pieces."[81] It was released in the UK and reissued on the CBS Embassy label in 1973.
The 1972 movie soundtrack with Liza Minnelli is much re-written and eliminates all but six of the original songs from the stage production.[81]
Both the 1986 London and 1998 Broadway revival casts were recorded.[81] A 1993 two-CD studio recording contains nearly the entire score, including songs written for the movie and for later productions and much of the incidental music. This recording features Jonathan Pryce as the Emcee, Maria Friedman as Sally, Gregg Edelman as Cliff, Judi Dench as Fräulein Schneider, and Fred Ebb as Herr Schultz.[citation needed] The cast recording of the 2006 London revival at the Lyric Theatre includes James Dreyfus as the Emcee and Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally.[citation needed]
In addition to these recordings, cast albums for French, Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Austrian, Dutch, Mexican, and German productions have been released.[81]
Kander and Ebb were a highly successful American songwriting team consisting of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb. Known primarily for their stage musicals, which include Cabaret and Chicago, Kander and Ebb also scored several movies, including Martin Scorsese's New York, New York. Their most famous song is the theme song of that movie. Recorded by many artists, "New York, New York" became a signature song for Frank Sinatra. The team also became associated with two actresses, Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, for whom they wrote a considerable amount of material for the stage, concerts and television.
John Harold Kander is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb, Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard "New York, New York". The team also received numerous nominations, which include five additional Tony Awards, two Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.
Fred Ebb was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera.
Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the Jazz Age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".
Cabaret is a 1972 American musical period drama film directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse from a screenplay by Jay Presson Allen, based on the stage musical of the same name by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff, which in turn was based on the 1951 play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten and the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. It stars Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Marisa Berenson, and Joel Grey. Multiple numbers from the stage score were used for the film, which also featured three other songs by Kander and Ebb, including two written for the adaptation.
Beatrice "Bebe" Jane Neuwirth is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Known for her roles on stage and screen, she has received two Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and two Drama Desk Awards.
John William Van Druten was an English playwright and theatre director. He began his career in London, and later moved to America, becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observations of contemporary life and society.
Flora the Red Menace is a musical with a book by George Abbott and Robert Russell, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The original 1965 production starred Liza Minnelli in the title role in her Broadway debut, for which she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. This was the first collaboration between Kander and Ebb, who later wrote Broadway and Hollywood hits such as Cabaret and Chicago.
Lyn Paul is an English pop singer and actress. She came to fame as a member of the international chart-topping pop group the New Seekers in the early 1970s. She has more recently found success and critical acclaim starring in the long-running West End musical, Blood Brothers.
Goodbye to Berlin is a 1939 novel by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood set during the waning days of the Weimar Republic. The novel recounts Isherwood's 1929–1932 sojourn as a pleasure-seeking British expatriate on the eve of Adolf Hitler's ascension as Chancellor of Germany and consists of a "series of sketches of disintegrating Berlin, its slums and nightclubs and comfortable villas, its odd maladapted types and its complacent burghers." The plot was based on factual events in Isherwood's life, and the novel's characters were based upon actual persons. The insouciant flapper Sally Bowles was based on teenage cabaret singer Jean Ross who became Isherwood's friend during his sojourn.
The Berlin Stories is a 1945 omnibus by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood and consisting of the novels Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939). The two novels are set in Jazz Age Berlin between 1930 and 1933 on the cusp of Adolf Hitler's ascent to power. Berlin is portrayed by Isherwood during this chaotic interwar period as a carnival of debauchery and despair inhabited by desperate people who are unaware of the national catastrophe that awaits them.
I Am a Camera is a 1951 Broadway play by John Van Druten adapted from Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, which is part of The Berlin Stories. The title is a quotation taken from the novel's first page: "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." The original production was staged by John Van Druten, with scenic and lighting design by Boris Aronson and costumes by Ellen Goldsborough. It opened at the Empire Theatre in New York City on November 28, 1951 and ran for 214 performances before closing on July 12, 1952.
Sally Ann Triplett is a British singer and actress. She participated in two editions of the Eurovision Song Contest and West End productions.
Joe Masteroff was an American playwright.
"Cabaret" is a song from the 1966 musical of the same name sung by the character Sally Bowles. It was composed by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb.
Sally Bowles is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross. The character debuted in Isherwood's 1937 novella Sally Bowles published by Hogarth Press, and commentators have described the novella as "one of Isherwood's most accomplished pieces of writing." The work was republished in the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin and in the 1945 anthology The Berlin Stories.
Jean Iris Ross Cockburn was a British journalist, political activist, and film critic. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), she was a war correspondent for the Daily Express and is alleged to have been a press agent for Joseph Stalin's Comintern. A skilled writer, Ross worked as a film critic for the Daily Worker. Throughout her life, she wrote political criticism, anti-fascist polemics, and socialist manifestos for a number of disparate organisations such as the British Workers' Film and Photo League. She was a devout Stalinist and a lifelong member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Megan Lawrence is an American actress best known for her roles on Broadway. Among other honors, she has been nominated for a Tony Award. She has also appeared Off-Broadway, in regional theatre and on television.
"Willkommen" is a song from the 1966 musical Cabaret. It is performed by The Emcee. The music was written by John Kander; the lyrics by Fred Ebb.
"Maybe This Time" is a song written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, popularized by Liza Minnelli in the 1972 film Cabaret.
References
Notes
↑ Paul Bowles was an American writer who wrote the novel The Sheltering Sky.[6] After meeting the author in Berlin, Isherwood appropriated his surname for the character of Sally Bowles.[7]
1 2 Jean Ross later claimed the political indifference of the Sally Bowles character more closely resembled Isherwood and his hedonistic friends,[9] many of whom "fluttered around town exclaiming how sexy the storm troopers looked in their uniforms."[10]
1 2 Isherwood claimed he and Ross "had a relationship which was asexual but more truly intimate than the relationships between Sally and her various partners in the novel, the plays and the films."[13]
1 2 The character of Ernst Ludwig shares similarities with Isherwood's acquaintance, Gerald Hamilton, an unscrupulous smuggler who inspired the fictional character of Arthur Norris.[40] Like the fictional character which he inspired, Hamilton was a "nefarious, amoral, sociopathic, manipulative conniver" who "did not hesitate to use or abuse friends and enemies alike."[40]
1 2 The phonetic term "Emcee" is specifically used by playwright Joe Masteroff in the musical's script.[135]
↑ Isherwood insisted Sally be depicted as a mediocre singer to reflect Jean Ross' lack of vocal talent: "She sang badly, without any expression, her hands hanging down at her sides – yet her performance was... effective because of her startling appearance and her air of not caring a curse of what people thought of her."[52]
↑ According to Isherwood, Sally Bowles should not be interpreted as a tart.[53] Sally "is a little girl who has listened to what the grown-ups had said about tarts, and who was trying to copy those things".[53]
1 2 "Telephone Song" was cut in the 1993, 1998, 2012, 2014 and 2021 revivals, replaced by "Mein Herr".
1 2 For the 1998 and 2014 revivals, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" was changed from an ensemble number by the cabaret waiters to a gramophone recording of a boy soprano singing the song, with the leading player speaking the last words.[61]
1 2 "Maybe This Time", popularized by the 1972 film, was added to stage revivals in 1998, 2012, 2014, and 2021.
1 2 "Meeskite" was cut in the 1993 1987, 1998, 2012, 2014 and 2021 revivals.
1 2 "Married" (reprise) was cut in the 2012 revival.
↑ The line "if you could see her through my eyes... she wouldn't look Jewish at all" was intended to illustrate how easily prejudice is accepted. However, boycott threats from Jewish leaders in Boston led Ebb to write an alternate line, "She isn't a Meeskite at all."[54]
1 2 "I Don't Care Much" was added for the 1987, 1993, 1998, 2012, 2014 and 2021 revivals.[62]
↑ Although the musical depicts Clifford Bradshaw as staunchly anti-racist, Christopher Isherwood was alleged to be an antisemite.[55] According to biographers, Isherwood was "fairly anti-Semitic to a degree that required some emendations of the Berlin novels when they were republished after the war".[55]
↑ In some versions of the show, Herr Schultz, Fräulein Schneider, and Sally repeat lines from earlier in the show espousing their views: Schultz's belief that he will survive, Schneider choosing safety in the face of oppression, and Sally choosing to ignore politics as she sings a brief reprise of "Cabaret".
↑ In the 1998 revival, the Emcee strips off his overcoat to reveal a concentration camp prisoner's uniform marked with a yellow Star of David and a pink triangle, and the backdrop raises to reveal a white space with the ensemble standing within.[57]
↑ Several productions feature a finale with a white space flashing with a strobe effect, implying the cabaret performers – except for Sally who is not standing in the white space – will fall victim to Nazi atrocities towards the Jews and gays.[58]
↑ The character Bobby replaced one of the ladies in "Two Ladies" for the 1998 and 2014 revivals.
↑ "Don't Go" replaced "Why Should I Wake Up?" in the 1987 revival but was removed from the score afterwards.
↑ "Money, Money", a song from the film, was blended with "Sitting Pretty" in the 1987 revival. It replaced "Sitting Pretty" in the 1998, 2014 and 2021 revivals.
↑ Isherwood 1976, pp.3–8: In March 1929, Isherwood joined W. H. Auden in Berlin. Impressed by the city, Isherwood returned again soon after and stayed for several years until the rise of the Nazis.
↑ Moss 1979: Isherwood frequented "the boy-bars in Berlin in the late years of the Weimar Republic.... [He] discovered a world utterly different from the repressive English one he disliked, and with it, the excitements of sex and new subject matter."
↑ Isherwood 1976, Chapter 1: "To Christopher, Berlin meant Boys... Christopher was suffering from an inhibition, then not unusual among upper-class homosexuals; he couldn't relax sexually with a member of his own class or nation. He needed a working-class foreigner. He had become clearly aware of this when he went to Germany in May 1928."
↑ Allen 2004: "The real Isherwood... [was] the least political of the so-called Auden group, [and] Isherwood was always guided by his personal motivations rather than by abstract ideas."
↑ Stansky 1976: Isherwood was a "self-indulgent upper middle-class foreign tourist" who was "a good deal less dedicated to political passion than the legend has had it."
↑ Lehmann 1987, p.18: "Jean Ross, whom [Isherwood] had met in Berlin as one of his fellow-lodgers in the Nollendorfstrasse for a time, when she was earning her living as a (not very remarkable) singer in a second-rate cabaret."
↑ Isherwood 1976, p.63: "Jean moved into a room in the Nollendorfstrasse flat after she met Christopher, early in 1931."
↑ Parker 2005, pp.205–206: "...a sixteen-year-old Berliner named Heinz Neddermeyer... Isherwood realized that he 'had found someone emotionally innocent, entirely vulnerable and uncritical, whom he could protect and cherish as his very own.' In other words, he had found the person for whom he had been looking in all his relationships with adolescents."
1 2 3 Parker 2004: "An affair with a Jewish musician called Götz von Eick, who subsequently became an actor in Hollywood under the name Peter van Eyck, led to her becoming pregnant, and she nearly died after an abortion."
↑ Izzo 2005, p.144: "The abortion is a turning point in the narrator's relationship with Sally and also in his relationship to Berlin and to his writing".
↑ Parker 2005, p.219: In contrast to Stephen Spender's prescient realization of impending doom, Isherwood near the end of January 1933 "was complaining somewhat unpresciently to Spender that situation in Germany seemed 'very dull.'"
↑ Parker 2005, p.221: "Isherwood recognized that he could not remain in Berlin much longer and on April 5, the day measures were brought in to ban Jews from the teaching professions and the Civil Service, he arrived back in London, bringing with him many of his possessions."
↑ Parker 2005, p.220: Commenting on these dramatic change of events in Germany, Isherwood wrote to a friend that roving Nazi gangs could now murder anyone with impunity, and "it is illegal to offer any resistance".
↑ Garebian 2011, p.16: "David Black, a producer, had commissioned the show and sparked the interest of Julie Andrews, but the star's manager refused Andrews... to play such a part as Sally Bowles".
Bannister, Rosie (June 26, 2013). "Will Young returns to emcee Cabaret tour". WhatsOnStage. London. Retrieved September 9, 2013. Will Young is set to reprise his role of Emcee in a UK tour of Rufus Norris's production of Cabaret, which will open at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 28 August 2013.
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