Cabaret (Musicals 101): Know the Score

You know what they say about those who don't learn from history.

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[Greasyyyhair]

In my personal opinion Alan Cummings was the best M.C. He was the right amount of creepy, sexy and emotional. His ending made my heart stop. When he opens that coat and his face drops....

[irisw]

In the stage play version I saw, at the end the cast gathered and a gas chamber lifted from the ground, spilling out smoke and it was honestly likely one of the most horrifying things i've ever seen. the fear on their faces, the heartbroken voice of the mc and the emptiness in his face caused everyone in the theater to felt uncomfortable and desperately wanted to look away and ignore it but we couldn't and I think that was perfect for the shows message, that when everyone turned away and ignored the uprising of the nazis in the play we couldn't, we were forced to watch in horror knowing what was coming.

[Blaqjaqshellaq]

In the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" number, I like the detail of the old man who doesn't get it--or maybe he understands it all TOO well!

[jenniferschillig]

Natasha Richardson, in the revival, played that verse in the title song not as a resigned "carpe diem" moment, but as a horrified realization of her probable demise. "She was the ever seen..."

There are those that say (not without reason) that Liza Minnelli was actually too GOOD for the movie role. As Sally's supposed to be written, she's a mediocre talent who's deluding herself about her chances in the entertainment world and who's never going to get out of that dingy nightclub. But with a talent like Liza's, you wonder why Sally's still stuck in that fourth-rate dive when she could be headlining in Paris or New York! Jill Haworth in the original cast and Natasha Richardson in the revival are decent singers, but downplay their voices so they don't seem TOO talented.

[ye-average-artist]

This musical hitting different in 2020-

[isaacthomas]

This is my absolute favorite musical. Thank you for this video, I try explaining to people how jarring this musical is and no one really pays me any attention.

[YungM.D.]

“You still think you can control them?” Is such a simple yet powerful line in the Tomorrow Belong to Me segment. Just completely destroys the idea that passive indifference is a good response to political movements with destructive agendas.

[theedspage]

It doesn't help that these dangerous dictators are proficient as selling themselves as "saviors of mankind", turning would believers into cult members. Excellent choice of topic, Diva.

[teresesanchez]

I remember when I first saw this show last year on the current tour, and it really changed me. When the emcee took off his jacket in the gas chamber I just burst out in tears. Ever since then Cabaret has become one of my favorite shows and I feel everyone needs to see this show. But i do prefer the darker tones of the revival more than the film and the original production.

[Greycap]

Cabaret is a really good musical.
I am a german and in germany we had a huge variety of versions of that show.
I saw a version once, where they changed the kitkat club into one of the cabarets that made daily shows against the nazis. German directors change the play to the cabaret History of the town the show is staged. And that's also why the show is so good.

[DieHardAlien]

I saw the CABARET revival with Alan Cumming and Emma Stone. It was one of the best experiences I had in my life! The songs, characters, tone, plot/story, acting/performances, score, and set design were beyond breathtaking and perfectly done, especially the second half of the show.

[EpsilonA]

in the stage version i saw, some of the characters took off their shoes onstage and left a pile in the middle of the stage. even members of the orchestra got up from their seat (the orchestra was on the stage also) and took off their shoes. They walked off into the gas chamber and the pile of shoes was left on stage as the curtains were drawn. it was haunting. there were no bows afterwards either, just silence. a gut punch. i didn't care too much for the movie version, but thats just me.

[whyiseverynametake]

i think the 1993 version with alan cummings really reflects the change from the weimar republic to facism. at the beginning with the male dancers and male and female clientele shows that the club reflects the progressiveness of the weimar republic, also the avant garde-ness of it all. then in the willkomen reprise you can see the male dancers behind bars and the emcee has the pink triagle

[karinarest]

My dream is to do cabaret. Whether tackling Sally Bowles, or dancing in the ensemble... ugh would be amazing!!

[samuelglass]

The very last shot against the mirrored backdrop is STILL nightmare fuel. And you know what's even SCARIER? You posted this clip three years ago, going on four, and it's not lost ONE bit of relevance. In fact, it's MORE important NOW.

[willd.]

forever torn between my love for "tomorrow belongs to me" and the knowledge that it's a nazi anthem

[superapplesauce]

My college is putting this show on next semester for obvious reasons.

[michaelpalmieri]

An interesting thing about the song "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes":

That final lyric where the emcee sings about his gorilla girlfriend ("But if you could see her through my eyes/she wouldn't look Jewish at all") is different from the version that Joel Grey sang in the original stage production from 1966. Instead, the emcee sings "But if you could see her through my eyes/she isn't a meeskite at all."

"Meeskite" is a Yiddish word that refers to someone who is ugly or funny-looking. The use of the word in the song was a sarcastic allusion to an earlier scene where Sally and her boyfriend Cliff decide to throw a party to celebrate the engagement of Cliff's landlady to Herr Schultz, a grocer. After having too much to drink, Schultz decides to sing a song called "Meeskite, " which is about a Jewish boy who is absolutely ugly:

"Meeskite, meeskite,
Once upon a time, there was a meeskite, meeskite,
Looking in the mirror,
he would say 'What an awful shock;
I've got a face that would
stop a clock!' "

The song goes on to relate how the "meeskite" (his name is never mentioned) meets a young girl named Pearl while attending Hebrew school. To his suprise, he discovers that Pearl is a bigger meeskite than he is! In fact, he even runs off to his grandfather and says "in that screechy voice of his/you told me I was the homeliest/well, Gramps, you're wrong/Pearl is... and that is the reason why/I'm going to love her until I die."

So, the two meeskites get married and a year later, Pearl announces that she's going to have a baby. For nine months, she goes through her pregnancy, worrying about how her new child will look (the relatives are worried as well), but incredibly enough, the baby turns out to be "gorgeous" ("All the relatives 'ahhed' and 'oohed, '/'he ought to pose for a baby food' "). The moral of the story: "Though you're not a beauty/it is never the less quite true/there may be beautiful things in you/...
Anyone responsible for loveliness large or small/
is not a meeskite at all."

Because the song mentions a Yiddish word as well as a Hebrew school, it comes as a shock to some of the guests, who didn't know that Herr Schultz was a Jew. In fact, some of them are now members of the Nazi Party, including an acquaintance of Cliff, who openly wears a swastika on his arm.

Apparently, "meeskite" was added to the "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes" number to emphasize that the lady gorilla in the song supposedly represents the Jews, and that the message of the tune is that if a Gentile is allowed to marry a Jew, then perhaps a human should be allowed to marry an animal. It also may represent the tragic fact that Herr Schultz's romance with his Aryan ladylove is doomed right from the start, since the Nazis will never permit marriages between Jews and non-Jews.

For some reason, the "Meeskite" number was left out of the film version of "Cabaret, " so the producers of the movie decided that it thus wouldn't make sense to use it in the "If You Could See Her" song, which was why the lyric was changed from "she isn't a meeskite at all" to "she wouldn't look Jewish at all." Even so, the message is the same, that the Jews are no better than apes.

Significantly enough, in his book "Mein Kampf, " Adolf Hitler wrote that the Aryans had to remain a "pure" race by avoiding marriages to non-Aryans, like Jews and Slavs. In this way, any children that they would have will be "images of the Lord and not monstrosities halfway between man and ape." Obviously, Hitler himself believed that non-Aryans were more akin to apes than to humans.

[shifra]

I’m Jewish, and when I saw this for the first time I was questioning my sexuality. This musical gave me the chills and the ending still sticks with me. I could connect to the characters to easily for my comfort, but I guess that was the point

[TokyoBlue]

Good summary. This is exactly why I get so frustrated and angry that so many people are so complacent and apathetic that they don't bother to vote, or even keep themselves informed about what's going on in the world.