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Image:CabaretSleep.jpg 1986 London revival with Wayne Sleep The first West End production opened on February 28 1968 at the Palace Theatre with Judi Dench as Sally and Lila Kedrova as Fräulein Schneider. There have been three major London revivals: in 1986, with Wayne Sleep as the Emcee directed by Gillian Lynne; in 1993, a critically-acclaimed limited run at the Donmar Warehouse, with Alan Cumming as the Emcee directed by Sam Mendes; and in 2006, at the Lyric Theatre with Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally, James Dreyfus as the Emcee, and Sheila Hancock as Fräulein Schneider. After 18 previews, the first Broadway revival, again directed by Prince and choreographed by Field, opened on October 22 1987 at the Imperial Theatre, eventually transferring to the Minskoff to complete its 261-performance run. Joel Grey received star billing as the Emcee, with Alyson Reed as Sally, Gregg Edelman as Cliff, Regina Resnik as Fräulein Schneider, and Werner Klemperer as Herr Schultz.
1998 Broadway revivalThe second Broadway revival was a transfer of the Mendes-directed Donmar Warehouse production. Co-directed by Mendes and Rob Marshall and choreographed by Marshall, it opened after 37 previews on March 19 1998 at the Kit Kat Klub, housed in what previously had been known as Henry Miller's Theatre. Later that year it transferred to Studio 54, where it remained for the rest of its 2377-performance run, becoming the third longest-running revival in Broadway musical history, third only to Oh! Calcutta! and Chicago. In addition to Cumming as the Emcee, the cast included Natasha Richardson as Sally, John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff, Ron Rifkin as Herr Schultz, and Mary Louise Wilson as Fräulein Schneider.
Image:Alan Cumming Cabaret.jpg Alan Cumming as the Emcee in the 1998 Broadway revival Several subsequent productions of the play have followed the Mendes version fairly closely, including a 2006 production staged in language at the Folies Bergère in Paris. SynopsisSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Act One The action opens in the Kit Kat Klub, a decadent, seedy cabaret in 1930s Berlin. A neon sign reading "Cabaret" lights up. The Klub's Master of Ceremonies, or Emcee, together with the cabaret girls and waiters, welcomes the audience to the club ("Willkommen"). The action then cuts to a train station downtown, where Clifford Bradshaw, a young American writer comes to Berlin in the hopes of finding inspiration for his new novel, is arriving on the evening train. On the train, he meets Ernst Ludwig, a German who offers Cliff work if he ever needs it. He also recommends a boardinghouse for Cliff to live in. Cliff arrives at the boardinghouse, run by Fräulein Schneider. She charges Cliff one hundred marks for the room; he can only pay fifty. After a brief argument, she relents and lets Cliff live there for fifty marks. Fräulein Schneider then says that she has learned to take whatever life offers ("So What?"). Afterward, Cliff remembers that Ernst mentioned a cabaret—the Kit Kat Klub— and decides to visit it. At the Klub, the Emcee introduces a British singer, Sally Bowles, who then performs for the cabaret's audience ("Don't Tell Mama"). Afterward, she calls Cliff on the phone and talks to him. She asks him to recite poetry for her; he recites Casey at the Bat. Cliff offers to take Sally home, but she says that her boyfriend Max (the club's owner) is too jealous. The cabaret ensemble then performs a song and dance, calling each other on inter-table phones and inviting each other for dances and drinks ("The Telephone Song"). The next day, the scene is at Cliff's apartment. Cliff is working on his book when Sally arrives; she tells him that Max has thrown her out and she has no place to live, asking him if she can live in his room. At first he resists, saying she would be "much too distracting," but she convinces him (and Fräulein Schneider) to take her in ("Perfectly Marvelous"). Directly after this scene, the Emcee and two female companions sing a song ("Two Ladies") that comments on Cliff and Sally's unusual living conditions. The action moves to Fräulein Schneider's apartment. Herr Schultz, an elderly Jewish fruit-shop owner who lives in the boardinghouse, has given Fräulein Schneider a pineapple as a gift ("It Couldn't Please Me More"). This scene is the beginning of Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz's romance. The next scene takes place in a beer garden. A youth begins singing a hymn to the Fatherland ("Tomorrow Belongs to Me") a cappella, with others joining him, including the Emcee (at the last line). Months later, Cliff and Sally have fallen in love. Cliff knows that he is in a "dream," ignoring the reality of life on the outside, 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 with whose child. She reluctantly decides to get an abortion, though she dreads going back to "that greedy doctor." Cliff reminds her that it could be his child, and convinces her to have the baby. Ernst then enters and offers Cliff a job--delivering a suitcase to his "client"--which Cliff accepts; he thinks it is easy money. The Emcee and the cabaret girls comment on this with a song praising money ("Sitting Pretty", or in later versions "Money") and a dance routine based on the currencies of different countries. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider has caught one of her boarders, Fräulein Kost, bringing sailors into her room. Fräulein Schneider forbids her from doing it again, but Fräulein Kost threatens to leave. She also mentions that she has seen Fräulein Schneider with Herr Schultz in her room. Herr Schultz saves Frau Schneider's reputation by telling Frau Kost that he and Frau Schneider are to be married in three weeks. After Kost leaves, Frau Schneider thanks Herr Schultz for lying to Kost. Herr Schultz, however, says that he was serious, and proposes to Frau Schneider ("Married"). The next scene is Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz's engagement party, at Herr Schultz's fruit shop. After Cliff arrives and delivers the suitcase to Ernst, Herr Schultz sings "Meeskite" (Meeskite, he explains, is Yiddish for ugly or funny-looking) a song with a moral ("Though you're not a beauty it is nevertheless quite true,/there may be beautiful things in you..."). Afterward, looking for revenge on Fräulein Schneider, Fräulein Kost tells Ernst, who now sports a Nazi armband, that Herr Schultz is a Jew. Ernst warns Fräulein Schneider that marrying a Jew may not be wise. The act ends with a reprisal of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," led by Fräulein Kost and sung by the whole cast save Cliff, Sally, Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. Act Two After the cabaret's band plays the "Entr'acte," the cabaret girls, along with the Emcee in drag, perform a kick line routine which eventually becomes a goose-step. Fräulein Schneider expresses her concerns about their union to Herr Schultz, who assures her that everything will be all right. They then reprise "Married", but the song is interrupted by the crash of a brick being thrown through the window of Herr Schultz's fruit shop. Fräulein Schneider is afraid that the gesture might represent malicious intent, but Schultz assures her that it is just children making trouble. Fräulein Schneider then goes to Cliff and Sally's room and returns their engagement present, explaining that her marriage has been called off. When Cliff protests, saying that she can't give her fiancé up, she asks him what other choice she has ("What Would You Do?"). Back at the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee performs a song-and-dance routine with a girl in a gorilla suit ("If You Could See Her") and sings of how their love has been met with universal disapproval. Encouraging the audience to be more open-minded, he defends his ape-woman with the last line "if you could see her through my eyes,/ she wouldn't look Jewish at all," a statement which is met with much laughter and applause from the patrons. Meanwhile, Cliff informs Sally that he is taking her back to his home in America so that they can raise their baby together. When Sally protests, declaring how wonderful their life in Berlin is, Cliff angrily tells her to "wake up" and take notice of the growing unrest around them, to which Sally retorts that politics have nothing to do with them or their affairs. Following their heated argument, Sally returns to the club to perform again, this time singing the song "Cabaret", which, though often performed as a show-stopping number, is imbued in its original context with a heavy irony and desperation bordering on hysteria. As Sally finishes the song, she breaks down and hurls her microphone to the ground. When Sally goes back to her and Cliff's room, Cliff asks where her fur coat is. She answers, evasively, that she left it at the doctor's. He asks her if she's sick, but she says she is not— and then mentions how much she hates "that greedy doctor": She has had an abortion. Cliff slaps her. Sally, devastated, says that she had hoped their relationship wouldn't end like this, because it is the first time she has really cared about anyone. Cliff says that he is leaving for Paris in the morning, still hoping that she will join him. But Sally says that she's "always hated Paris." Cliff leaves, heartbroken. The next scene switches to Cliff on the train to Paris. He begins to write his novel, reflecting on his experiences: "There was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany. There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies. It was the end of the world, and I was dancing with Sally Bowles— and we were both fast asleep." He then begins to sing "Willkommen". The Emcee joins him and then overtakes him, as the scene shifts from the train car to the Kit Kat Klub. The Emcee continues the song, but the scene is now lit more darkly and it is revealed that the Emcee is dressed in Nazi regalia. The cabaret ensemble reprises the tune as before, but it is now harsh and violent instead of extroverted and sleazy. "Willkommen" is interrupted three times by other songs from the show— first a ghostly "Meeskite", as Herr Schultz's reasurring comments from before echo and fade, then "So What", in which Fräulein Schneider rationalizes her breakup with Herr Schultz ("After all, what am I? A German."), and finally "Cabaret," as Sally appears beside the Emcee. However, her song soon fades away as well. The Emcee slowly sings, "Auf Wiedersehen, à bientôt," then the final, spoken "Good night." The lights go out, while the "Cabaret" sign lights up. Spoilers end here.
Original song listAct I
Act II
Of the prologue of songs originally planned, only "Willkommen" remained. One of the dropped numbers, "I Don't Care Much," was included in the movie version and restored to subsequent stage revivals. "Roommates" was replaced by "Perfectly Marvelous", but largely serves the same purpose, for Sally to convince Cliff to let her move in with him. "Good Time Charlie" was to be sung by Sally to Cliff while they are on their way to Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz's engagement party, with Sally mocking the overly dour and pessimistic Cliff with the lines "You're such a Good Time Charlie/What'll we do with you?/You're such a Good Time Charlie/frolicking all the time..."). "It'll All Blow Over" was planned for the end of the first act: Fräulein Schneider is concerned that marrying a Jew might not be wise, and Cliff is concerned about the city's growing Nazism. In the song, Sally tells them both that they have nothing to worry about and that all will turn out well in the end. She eventually convinces Cliff and Fräulein Schneider to sing the song with her. (Both this song and "Roommates" are occasionally underscored by the ostinato rhthym of the piece.) These three deleted songs were recorded by Kander and Ebb, and the sheet music for the songs was included in The Complete Cabaret Collection, a book of vocal selections from the musical. RecordingsImage:CabaretStudioCast.jpg 1999 studio cast recording In addition to these recordings, cast albums for the Greek, Israeli, Italian, Austrian, Dutch, and two German productions have been released [1]. Broadway awards and nominations1966 production
1987 revival
1998 revival
ReferenceOpen a New Window: The Broadway Musical in the 1960s by Ethan Mordden, published by Palgrave (2001), pages 152-161 (ISBN 0-312-23952-1)
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