Hello, darlings!!
Currently, I am playing the in the pit of a great musical, Cabaret. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Cabaret was one of my favorite musicals when I was younger. I also mentioned how I was obviously oblivious to the neutron star level gravity of the plot.
Cabaret, the Broadway show, was based on a collection of short stories in a book called The Berlin Stories, written by Christopher Isherwood in 1945. The stories also made their way into a stage play called I Am a Camera, in 1951. The Broadway show was first produced in 1966, featuring the brilliant score and lyrics from John Kander and Fred Ebb. You remember Kander and Ebb from Chicago? Of course, you do.
The film version, directed by the irrepressible Bob Fosse, was released in 1972. It starred Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, and Michael York. There are differences between the original Broadway production, the film and the 1999 Broadway re-production. For the film, three new songs were written, one of which, Maybe This Time, sounds an awful lot like Funny Honey from Chicago. Of the new songs, Money, Money was later worked into future stage performances due to its popularity. Such is the power of marketing...and it is a catchy tune.
The rise of Nazi party in 1930s Berlin is a dark and disturbing theme that winds itself around the plots of the stage shows and the film. As most anyone with half a brain and pulse can tell you the horrific results of the National Socialist movement, seeing history foreshadowed in the film and in the stage show is sincerely chilling. Cabaret is also a musical that dares to portray bisexuality, homosexuality, abortion, senseless violence, and the seedy underbelly of life in a nightclub. It is a non-typical, PG-13 (at least), bawdy stage spectacle that provokes thought and reflection. That is truly great art.
