Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome... to the Son of SDMB Musicals CABARET thread

Cafe Society
1

While this is specifically about the multiple Oscar winning film adaptation of Cabaret, I hope my lords and ladies will forgive if I digress into the stage musical as well as it is almost impossible, for me anyway, to view it in a vacuum. Cabaret is unique from 1776, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, and other stage-film adaptations in that it’s amorphous; it’s undergone several minor and a couple of very major changes. I can’t think of another musical in which all of the following is true:

1- The film version has many differences from the stage musical on which it was based
2- The stage musical on which it was based is completely different now from the one that was premiered in 1966 (with Bert Convy! Can ya believe it?!)
3- The revamped stage version that played Broadway in the late 1990s-early 21st is also significantly different from the movie version
4- Both the film version and the revamped version are terrific
5- There are not 1 but 2 actors so identified with the (basically) same role as Joel Grey and Alan Cummings are with the Emcee (the closest comparison I can think of being Topol and Zero Mostel’s identifications with Tevye, but even then to those of us who’ve never seen more than video snippets of Mostel I’ll wager we think Topol 5:1 over Zero)

So, for those who like concision and are of the TLDR bent, I’ll tell you now you can skip this part. There are going to be 3 OPs. This is the first. They will be:

1- The prehistory of Cabaret (i.e. up to the 1972 film)
2- The history of Cabaret (from 1972 to present)
3- The film Cabaret (i.e. examined on its own without comparison to other sources and adaptations)

I will have them all three finished no later than tomorrow, possibly tonight, can’t say.

1: The Pre-History of CABARET (by a historian who hasn’t read the primary sources)
So, a brief history of the story of Cabaret before we get into the movie itself.

Berlin Stories (which I will confess I have never read) is a book of two novellas and some short stories by Christopher Isherwood. I honestly don’t know how autobiographical they were, but they were definitely autobiographical to some extent. Isherwood did live in a boarding house in Berlin as the Nazis were coming to power, he did give English lessons, he did meet an actress/singer of at best moderate talent on whom, along with other sources (and I’m sure some imagination) Sally Bowles was based,he did frequent seedy cabarets (about which more in a moment), and he was sickened by and did leave in part because of the increasing violence against Jews. One day I must read this book, but for now obviously I’ll table it as unimportant for this thread.

So, after the war Berlin Stories became a successful play called I Am a Camera (which I will confess I have never read) and that play became a movie (which I will confess I have never seen) in which Julie Harris starred as Sally Bowles and Laurence Harvey played Christopher Isherwood . Not having read or seen this I won’t speak to the issue of differences from the source material that I also haven’t read, but I will mention that the character of the writer is named Christopher Isherwood and not Cliff Bradshaw, and Shelley Winters appears as Natalia Landauer, a character who to my knowledge is not in any of the musical stage adaptations (but is in the movie). If anyone has seen this movie or play I’d love to know how different it is.

I have, however, read and seen a production of the Kander and Ebb musical as it was produced in 1966, and I’ve listened to the Bert Convy/Jill Haworth soundtrack. (The best numbers are by Lotte Lenye and the ubiquitous and delightful “world’s busiest sweet old Jewish guy” Jack Gilford as Frau Schneider and Herr Schulz.) It was a decidedly… okay… book, with, of course, great songs. And I can speak with how it differed from the source material and the film to some degree.

Christopher Isherwood was openly gay and at least as openly English. Eventually he became not English by moving to California and becoming a US citizen, but he stayed gay, even surprising many of his friends and colleagues when he was almost 50 by taking up with an 18 year old beach bum named Don Bachardy. In one of those “there’s hope for us all” stories his friends were probably more surprised (or dead) when Isherwood and Bachardy were still together 33 years later. (Bachardy is an artist and did many portraits of Isherwood, including several nudes in his final years; if you like pics of fat naked old men, consider this your link to Lucky Street.)

I mention Isherwood’s orientation and nativity not as trivia but because it’s important to the story of the play. (Bachardy, who I’ll confess I’ve never lived with, is trivia.) Isherwood, who is presumably the basis for Cliff Bradshaw, was English and gay. Jean Ross, one of the inspirations for Sally Bowles, was English as well. (Frau Schneider and Herr Schulz were also based on actual characters.)

So while I can’t speak for Camera, in the first adaptation of the musical Cabaret (hereinafter referred to as “the Convy”), Cliff Bradshaw is an American writer living Berlin. He is also straight. He falls in love with Sally Bowles, a moderately talented lounge singer at the seedy nightclub where he hangs out; Sally is English. They have an affair (unlike Isherwood and Ross, who never did). Sally becomes pregnant, entertains the notion of marriage, but ultimately has an abortion, and the couple breaks up. (That one sentence is about the only constant through all of the musical’s incarnations.)

The musical was a big hit on Broadway and ran for almost three years. It won two performance Tonys, one for Peg Murray (the prostitute Fraulein Kost) and several more for the writers and producers (though not Best Musical). The breakout star was, of course (to all musical lovers at least) Joel Grey as the Master of Ceremonies.

In the play as in the movie an enigmatic character with no real character development (intentionally and effectively), and that too would remain similar, though the character that’s not developed changes substantially of course. (For those who have seen Camera, is he a major character in them? What about in the book?)

So, the play was a success, the movie rights were acquired. They kept the Nazis and the names Sally Bowles and Cliff Bradshaw, but pretty much all else changed. And the result was great.

Next up, Part 2.

*Her name was Jean Ross if you’re interested and she was at least as different from the musical character as she was similar. Among other things, unlike the apolitical Sally, Jean was a political activist in Berlin and after, eventually becoming a Communist back in her native England.

*More pointless trivia: The role of Cliff was later taken by Ken Kercheval, bk4 Cliff Barnes on Dallas.

2

Part 2: The History of Cabaret

I haven’t read about the decisions and decision makers in making the film, but I have to say that they had balls. The film was shot in 1971/1972 when about the only exposure gays had in major American films was as guys paying Jon Voight for quickies and Stonewall was as recent as the Anna Nicole Smith funeral games (not that the two have any similarity). But, let’s start with the more basic changes:

I’ll get into “Fosse Fosse Fosse” more with Part 3, but for starters Fosse decided to not make it a musical but a film with music. There is no sung dialogue and no singing that would not take place in real life- all numbers are performed on a stage in the cabaret. That was a major change from the stage play that actually helped since I’m not sure many of the book numbers especially would have worked on screen.

The storyline is largely reworked even before we get into nationality and sexuality. Most of the major characters from the Convy version are either gone or reduced to ciphers: Frau Schneider is basically a walk-in, there’s a Herr Schulz but he’s an anti-semitic third rate pornographer (ala Julius Streicher) rather than a Jewish love interest for Schneider and a minor character at that, Frau Kost is mentioned and seen but is little more than an extra, and Nazi pal Ernst Ludwig is gone altogether.

Gone are all of the book songs: Schneider & Schulz’s Pineapple Love Song, So What?, Married, Meeskite (I loved this number on the cast recording, if only for Gilford), What Would You Do? (also a favorite). They’ve also cut some of the Kit Kat Club songs: Don’t Tell Mama, The Money Song (NOT “money makes the world go around” but an earlier and much lesser number), I Don’t Care Much). However, they’ve replaced them with some great ones-

Money (Makes the World Go Around)

Auf Wiedersehen Mein Herr

Maybe This Time

So I ain’t complaining.

Some of the plotlines from the Convy are flip flopped.

Isherwood/Cliff is now Brian Roberts, who unlike Convy’s Bradshaw is English, and who also unlike Convy’s Bradshaw is gay (or bisexual with a gay preference). Sally Bowles (Minnelli of course) is, unlike previous incarnations, American, and also unlike previous incarnations- this girl’s got real talent. Joel Grey of course is along as Master of Ceremonies, and he’s also got talent, and sophistication.

The other flip-flop is that instead of an aging Jewish man/Gentile woman romance it becomes a young Jewish woman/Gentile man romance (I know I know, but we’ll get to the ‘reveal’ in part 3), Fraulein Landauer who appeared in Camera.

And of course there’s the new love interest, Maximilian. Does anybody know if he figured in the earlier non-musical books or adaptations? More about him in the “film as stand alone” part.

Anyway, it was a damned brave choice to make Brian bisexual/gay in 1972, especially since warts and all he’s a likable character.* The Kit Kat Club is a much classier establishment here than in the stage musical as well: most people would pay to see Minnelli’s Sally and Grey’s MC perform, unlike the third rate dive portrayed in the original (or the transvestite and “anything goes” bars of Isherwood).

So the movie was a hit. (It’s amazing it was brought in for $6 million, but again- the movie on its own is part three.) The play is revived throughout regional productions, but it’s revived again with the straight/American Bradshaw instead of Isherwood or Brian. It was revived on Broadway in the 1980s with Tony and now Oscar winner Grey, who’s again nominated for a Tony (doesn’t win) as is Werner Klemperer as Herr Schulz (the Jewish fruit merchant and not the pornographer). It’s a success but not a huge one- it’s been done before and it’s a bit of a let down after the movie I would imagine.

Then the Second Cumming of CABARET. Sam Mendes. Damn. To quote the gay and neither American nor English husband of Liza Minnelli, “Everything old is new again.”

Retrograde comparison of the two M.C.s (1:15 is the switchover if interested)
(Must run- so this is part 2A and I’ll be back with part 2B, which will be shorter).

*Hal Holbrook and Martin Sheen played a gay couple dealing with Holbrook’s son from a former marriage learning of their relationship in a TV movie that year entitled That Certain Summer. Not sure what was in the water that year as far as “gays ain’t so bad”, but I’m glad, though it went on vacation for a while.

3

Wow, Sampiro, I knew you were the man for the job.

I watched the movie – for the first time in years, possibly for only the second or third time since I saw it several times in the theater upon its release more than 35 years ago – yesterday, and also watched the very sketchy “extras” on the disk, which included a brief piece about converting the original show to the movie. Here were the questions I came out of those viewings with:

Question: What are the main differences between the pre-movie version, the movie version, and the post-movie version? And it sounds like Sampiro is in the middle of giving a delightfully detailed answer to that question.

An obit after Natasha Richardson’s recent death referred to her appearance as Sally in the most recent stage version, mentioning specifically that she played her as someone who couldn’t sing very well, to which I thought, well, yeah, the story actually makes a lot more sense if she can’t sing very well.

Question: How is the movie distorted by the fact that Liza Minnelli can sing? (Not entirely related question – how cool is it that the Firefox spell check knows how to spell Minnelli?)

Question: Did anyone see the Natasha Richardson version? How was she?

Question: In the versions where Sally doesn’t sing very well, which songs does she have, and how are those different being sung by someone who doesn’t sing very well?

Michael York (who, by the way, is still damned yummy), in one of the extras, refers to the fact that in the movie, unlike the show, Brian has no songs. (He tells an anecdote about being ambushed on the David Frost show with the opportunity to sing some of the shows from the stage version.) This was presumably in part because MY couldn’t sing, and in part because Fosse [a name, BTW, that Firefox does not recognize] moved all the songs to the cabaret. (Side question: which is the chicken and which is the egg there – actor and role?) Question: Do any songs that were originally Brian’s appear in the film, or did they all just disappear? What kinds of songs did he have?

And some minor questions specifically about (or at least evoked by) the movie version:

Question: Did anyone else notice how much Liza was channeling her mom in “Maybe This Time”? (I recently – on Easter Eve, actually – watched Easter Parade for the first time in several years, and was delighted to discover that the version I own, which came in a boxed set of miscellaneous musicals that someone gave me a few years ago, had some serious extras, including the “American Masters” bio of Judy, who I ended up having way more sympathy for after watching the bio. [Shades of Edith Piaf].)

Not entirely unrelated question: Why do some women marry gay men, sometimes repeatedly? In the final number, with that ugly purple jumpsuit, I was looking at Liza’s tits, wondering which was the one that David Gest used to sleep cradling.
And a couple of comments in the form of statements, though they’re certainly suitable for discussion –

What a strikingly beautiful film this is, visually – Fosse’s eye is amazing, and whoever edited this was an outstanding collaborator to him.

That said, it wasn’t a particularly subtle film – and I’m really not sure whether that is a strength or a weakness of it. Still thinking about this point – will say more later.

Sorry for the interruption – I look forward to the rest of Sampiro’s brilliant OP.
ETA: I just noticed that Sampiro and I joined during the same month, making us … some kind of siblings? How cool is that?

4

I’m interested in the discussion, but can only comment on the film. So I just wanna say that:

The shot during “Wilkommen”, where the camera dollies back down the line of Kit Kat girls, as they snap their heads toward the camera, is possibly my favorite shot in all of cinematography.

And Liza in that little black hotpantsuit in “Mein Herr” was the ultimate hummina-hummina moment of my teenage years.

And I think I love Fosse about as much as any straight male can.

5

I saw the film and the restaged version.

I will say, though, that the song “If You Could See Her” is the most chilling song ever written. It’s so powerful that most versions bowdlerize the last line to spare audience sensibilities.

6

Definitely THE most uncomfortable scene in the movie, for me, because I kind of saw where it was going (confirmed by that last line).

7

I dunno … I think it’s entirely plausible that a person can be a talented singer and still be a failure working in dives. I think it doesn’t matter to the character whether the actress can sing well, although personally in that case I’d prefer the good singer.

8

I’m not saying anything about Natasha Richardson’s talent – the reference commented on how hard it is for a good singer to portray a bad one – I’m talking about Sally Bowles. If she – the character – is untalented, it adds a whole 'nother level to her delusion.

9

Apologies for dangling, but between slow computer and unexpectedly having to work today for a sick co-worker I haven’t had a chance to complete. Still don’t, but will tonight. I just popped in to give these links to the revamped version for those who haven’t seen it.

Each of the following is Wilkommen from the revamped Broadway/Studio 54 version, the difference being who’s playing them.

Alan Cumming

Neil Patrick Harris

Adam Pascal

Raul Esparza

John Stamos

Natasha Richardson as Sally in the revamp (she actually had to tone down her natural singing talent as Sally was supposed to be not that good, which caused some critics to say she couldn’t sing.)

Mein Herr

Maybe This Time

Tom Bosley and Mariette Hartley (70s sitcom standards both) were among those who played
Schulz and Schneider
Neil Patrick Harris in the Two Ladies Number- this one really emphasizes how raunchy the new show was (in fitting with a dive transvestite/gay/anything goes bar in 1931 Berlin, where the shows would probably have been way raunchier). When I saw the road show of this in Macon Georgia several people walked out after this scene.

10

Ya, I know. :slight_smile: I just don’t think it makes much of a difference whether Sally is great or bad. A twist, sure, but I don’t think a bad Sally is a better character than a good Sally.

11

Thanks for those links, Sampiro. I don’t have much to say about the movie – I’m not actually a big fan, not because I avidly dislike it or anything, just feel rather unmoved by its story and music. But I can certainly appreciate the performances, especially live ones.

I think of the Emcee videos, my favorite versions are Alan Cummings, who’s delightfully diabolical and dead sexy, and really knows how to move that yummy body of his; Raul Esparza, who’s quite similar though less engaging and more sinister (but adds a fabulous voice); and – and this is the big surprise for me – John freakin’ Stamos, of all people. Stamos was funny, not a dancer by any stretch but the pipes are good (then again, I knew that ever since he played Blackie Parrish on General Hospital) and most importantly, he was freewheeling and by far the most playful of the group. More along the lines of Joel Grey but far more sexual and flamboyant. His improvs (if such they were) seemed natural and right on target for that role.

Least impressive was Adam Pascal, who frankly bored me. Most disappointing, if only because I have seen much better performances from him, was Neil Patrick Harris. In fairness, the recording was hella bad and his face was indistinct. He does have a good voice and knows how to move. But he had neither the impish charm of Stamos or the somewhat threatening power of Esparza or the whole awesome package – and perhaps I intend the double entendre – of the fabulous Alan Cumming.

Loved the performances by Natasha Richardson, especially Maybe This Time. Don’t really like the song so much, but she sells the hell out of it, and makes it more touching/vulnerable than Liza’s. Liza’s a force of nature in the role, and with her personality, charm and talent it is a bit strange that her Sally’s not the toast of Berlin. Natasha’s Sally is game but I think you can understand her being stuck in the somewhat squalid nightclub.

Anyway. My favorite moment of Caberet is the creepy Tomorrow Belongs to Me. Oh, and Money Makes the World Go Around. And Mein Herr, which is addictive to sing. Hm, I seem to like more music than I realize. Heh. Still, not one of my top ten musicals, though I can certainly understand its popularity. Thanks again for the clips.

12

Apologies again for the delay, but this sitting (not this post) will finish it and open the floor. Let me quickly wrap up the revised CABARET:

It had its detractors and still does. As I mentioned, when I saw the revamped version in a road show in Georgia there were people who were furious. Even though the newspaper ads and the theater had “not appropriate for children” and “this is much raunchier than the movie” disclaimers many people took this as another way of saying “great family outing” and were very offended by the simulated acts of sex (all of them surreal, mostly in Two Ladies and Money Money) and the very brief nudity at the end of Act I (when the MC drops his pants to feature a swastika on his bare bum). However, most of the audience gave a standing ovation at both productions I’ve seen in the Deep South.

This seems true elsewhere as well. The Convy production of Cabaret ran just under 3 years, the 1980s revival ran just over 6 months, and the 1998 revival at (the former Studio 54) ran for 6 years- longer than the two predecessors combined.

As mentioned it was a lot more graphic and had a lot more gay content restored most of the book numbers from the original (Meeskite stayed gone. It was sung in the original at the Schneider/Schulz engagement party (which is when Ernst realizes Schulz is a Jew) but in the reimagining is replaced with a chilling reprise of Tomorrow Belongs to Me which brings me to the other point about the revival:

The original play (and other sources) inspired the movie which, I think unique (at least in degree) for a movie-stage musical, returned the compliment by influencing the stage musical. In the original play Tomorrow Belongs to Me is sung by the male wait staff of the Kit Kat Club, and though still about the rise of Nazism and not quite a throwaway number it has little bite. In the movie (which I’ll get to next) it is of course the chilling number that is almost operatic in its impact of what is happening to Germany. One of the movie inspired changes made to the play was that the reprise of it (the first being a surreal gramophone recording) is clearly influenced by the movie to show the madness spreading over the land.

Also, Kander and Ebb as mentioned wrote several new songs for the movie and scrapped several old ones. Some of the songs were the most popular. When the play returned in the 1980s it was basically the same as the 1960s version (even to Joel Grey) save that the original Money Song had been replaced by the far more popular Money Money (Makes the World Go Around) song from the film. In the Millennium edition they incorporated Mein Herr, the ominous Tomorrow placement*, and Maybe This Time (a Minnelli standard now).

So it’s a very inbred and e’er evolving show that may or may not be the same when its revived next. And it’s interesting and I’ve spent way too much time talking about it. So what’s a little more:

I have to mention the ending of the most current show, though I’ll spoiler it since it’s a shocker for those who haven’t seen it (and though it’s no longer on B’way or tour it’s done by regional and college and {weirdly} high school groups). The MC has always been a lecherous omnisexual character, and there are hints at other things about him. In the original, after you learn from Herr Schulz that meeskite is a Yiddish word meaning a terribly ugly/skinny/just generally “to’ up from the flo’ up” person, the MC sings while dancing with his gorilla partner “If you could see her through my eyes… she isn’t a meeskite at all” (changed to “she wouldn’t look Jewish at all” when Meeskite was dropped).
A non-spoiler set-up: in the new play whenever you see the M.C. he’s usually wearing a leather overcoat which he doffs to reveal some outlandish attire or lack of underneath (the shirtless [with visible track marks] festooned nipple look of Wilkommen, the underwear of Two Ladies, drag, etc.). So anyway, the new play has, appropriately for the time/place of its setting, a Brechtian ending. After Cabaret is sung he comes out.

The stage goes white [theatre talk for bare stage, houselights up] save for a backdrop reminiscent of a shower wall, and when the MC doffs his coat he’s wearing a concentration camp uniform with a pink triangle and a Star of David

and he does the down tempo "auf wiedersehen, abientot, goodnight* moment the show has always ended on. It’s the biggest buzz kill in theater, but also brilliant. And also the most dissed part of the show- many critics and audience members have hated it. Luckily the curtain call comes next so you’re taken out of the moment a bit.

And finally before ending, just a very quick anecdote about the Alan Cumming version that I love that has nothing to do with the movie. Each night the MC chooses a member of the audience to dance with during the intermezzo. There would be some sexual double entendre (“a good woman is like a good bar- liquor in the front and poker in the rear”) and ass grabbing and the like. The MC being decidedly bisexual now, Cumming would some nights choose a woman from the audience and some nights a man. Some people weren’t very good sports about it of course, and some were, and you never knew which you had.

One night Cumming chose as his dance partner a man- an old man with a moustache- and when he took him up onstage the crowd went wild. Cumming thought it was the absurdity of it being such a dignified old man dancing with this track marked German drag queen character, but the old man played along with it great. When Cumming grabbed the old man’s ass the old man grabbed his back and the crowd roared. Cumming began to suspect the audience knew something he didn’t.
Cumming is a Scot who originated the MC role in London before coming to America and this was his first American stardom. Like most Americans are with British pop-culture we know the names of the super popular TV shows and popular movies and have the same film stars and the like but there are super famous Brits that most Americans wouldn’t know and super famous Americans that most Brits wouldn’t know, so Cumming didn’t even get the applause and wild laughter when he asked the old man “So vot ist your name dearie?” and the old man answered, truthfrully,

“Walter Cronkite… and that’s the way it is.”

No video unfortunately, but the story’s in articles by Cumming and mentioned by him in several interviews.

13

I agree on both. Pascal is just… way too… RENT I suppose. It’s odd because in real life he considers himself a metal rocker first and actor second, but he brought no wildness or charisma or presence to the character.

I think Harris is a dreamboat in most things and he wasn’t terrible in this, but to paraphrase Simon Cowell’s ‘karaoke’ line he was sort of like “very good Community College production performance”. It’s not really him; I suspect part may be that he was years closer to Doogie then and may have been trying to exorcise the child-star. He’d never in a million performances make you forget Cumming. In fact, while I know they have the same script and wardrobe of course, they all come off as if they’re imitating Cumming. (Harris is much better in other musicals, including Assassins [though I much preferred the original cast to the revival cast].)

Alan C. did the near impossible. He took on a role from a man who originated it, who won a Tony for it, who won an Oscar for it, who was indelibly bound to it (you don’t think of one without thinking of the other), and he made it his own, even without film. I’m not familiar with a case where that’s ever happened before; nobody will ever think “Lou Diamond Philips was at least as definitive a King Mongkut as Yul Brynner” or “Harvey Fierstein, his Tevye was as good as Topol’s”, but with Cumming and Grey- it’s impossible for me to choose. It’s almost like they’re playing two different characters.

A quick piece of info just in case there are any non rabid musical buffs who don’t know: CABARET is an older full-sister of CHICAGO; both are Kander/Ebb composed and Fosse choreographed. Both also feature second-rate nightclub singers of the same decade as major characters also (though I think Chicago is set just before the Depression as opposed to Cabaret which is a couple of years later). I think the family resemblance is most felt in When You’re Good to Mama- very Cabaret (and almost klezmerish) beat.

Also, Renee Zellwegger (Roxie Hart in the film Chicago) has negotiated to play Sally Bowles in a film remake of Cabaret. The idea seems to be dead or in drydock, but talk of the remake does come up periodically.

14

Sampiro, I believe that the song “Married” is actually in the movie. I haven’t watched the movie in a long time, but I seem to recall that it came from a phonograph recording. A woman was singing it in German. That is how it is listed on the original soundtrack album – by its German name – then in parenthesis it says “(Married).”

But for some reason, I know the English version of it too. Beats me.

Thank you for going to the trouble of doing this. It’s an extraordinary film. What did get the Oscar that year?

The “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” scene is amazing. There are all sorts of ways that this movie takes the viewer by surprise --yet they are not plot twists.

I was watching a televised version one night. It got down to the very last of the movie. The camera begins its pan from the MC to the audience. Important final shot. The station broke for commercial and then came back to finish the pan. I couldn’t believe it. Worse commercial break ever!

15

That’s true. It’s often done with book songs dropped from the musical. I think Perfectly Marvelous is played on a radio also (the music).

16

I think I saw Richardson do this at Studio 54 – I saw the show there twice, about a year apart. I remember being very impressed.

The movie is great – I think that it is for me the only movie musical adaptation which is actually better than the (original) stage production. The Studio 54 production was perhaps even better than the movie, though, as an experience. One of my favourite Broadway experiences ever.

‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me’ in all versions give me the chills. I prefer the songs from the movie overall.

17

And I have lied once more. I have to make one more comment about the stage version, and that is to say that I LOVE Cliff’s final lines in the play as he’s leaving Berlin and writing his book.

**And now meine damen und mein Herren, madames et messieurs, ladies… and gentleman, the CABARET movie thread.

**
So since I’ve spent several posts talking about Isherwood and the musical and non-musical stage versions, I’ll talk only about the movie in this one and start with something a lot more relevant: my mother’s baby picture. It was made around 1937 and airbrushed from the b/w copy at the same time and it hung first in my grandparents’ house and then in my mother’s bedroom. And the first time I saw Cabaret it freaked me out a bit because the androgynous Nazi youth from Tomorrow Belongs to Me reminded me so much of my mom’s baby picture. She said it reminded her of mine. Of course both of us said “He could slip unnoticed into one of our family reunions couldn’t he?”.

So perhaps it’s this personal connection that first made me think this was such a powerful scene, but I don’t think that’s the only reason. It’s hard for me to describe just how brilliant I think this 3 minutes is.

Everybody on this board, regardless of when or where they grew up, has the Nazis as a touchstone. They’re the boogie men, the incarnation of evil itself, monsters, as subhuman in our reality as the Jews were in their mythology. It’s for understandable reasons of course: WW2 is about as close as any war has ever come to Good versus Evil; today Hitler and the Third Reich could hardly have been less nuanced had they been created by Tyler Perry, so it’s impossible to imagine them objectively.

However,

[Rod Serling]Imagine if you will…[/Rod Serling]

that you grew up

[Narrator]In a world[/narrator]

where somehow you never heard of the Third Reich, and you have no idea what that symbol on the Hitler Youth boy’s arm is or what the extended right arm salute means or who or what these people represent. You have no idea what came after this- you don’t know about the Reichstag fire or Krystallnacht or the Blitzkrieg or the Holocaust, the historical and political context are as alien as those of some world in the writings of a sci-fi writer you’ve never read. And with absolutely no preconceptions or prejudices, watch the song again.

Tomorrow Belongs to Me scene

Those rising for the song would come off as the good guys. The song is haunting, simultaneously a lullaby and an anthem. It’s full of hope. That innocent sweet childlike androgynous face is somewhere between angelic and fairylike, yet there’s nothing remotely cartoonish about the scene or the people. It’s clear from the lyrics, from their expressions, from their enthusiasm, that these people aren’t intrinsically evil, they aren’t necessarily stupid, but they have been through hell and seen things they wish they could erase and were in the Underworld, and now they’re alive again.
Some of the individual expressions and closeups on the extras are brilliant: the ruddy middle aged fat guy, the obviously shy (or bitter) but now overcoming it young girl, the little bitty girl who can’t possibly know what this is about but is singing along. And again without historical context this is anything but a Disney villain number or even a more “morally ambiguous” Javert/Fagin/The Engineer number but far more like Do You Hear the People Sing or When You Walk Through A Storm with an oom pah pah beat; it’s not ominous but uplifting. And again, without context from history or the movie, the old man who doesn’t rise seems less like “the quiet voice of reason being outshouted by demagogery” than a killjoy embittered old fart, while Maximilian and Brian seem like a rich jerk and an egghead who already viewing themselves as superior won’t lower themselves to some rabble pleasing number.

And in 3 minutes without once mentioning Hitler or anything else the rise of Nazism is explained and filmed as clearly as in most 3 hour documentaries.

More in a moment (my computer is demanding to be rebooted).

18

This is a better demonstration of Alan Cumming’s Wilkommen. Perhaps it’s not fair to judge based only on a little video, but Alan Cumming annoyed me. I liked the John Stamos version, though he can’t dance, and it pointed up for me the problem with AC – but it’s still hard for me to articulate. Stamos, Harris, and Joel Gray all seem to get it; they act like MCs, not for the hypothetical cabaret crowd, but for the show’s audience, who need to be brought slowly into the central conceit of the show – that these people are trying like crazy to pretend that Germany’s not going to hell in a handbasket. For that to work, the gilding has to be intact, so it can wear off later in the show. Cumming’s performance yanked me right out of the scene, with his bellowing and “walk like an Egyptian” posing, and especially the way he throws away lines like “I bet you do!”

I don’t know. I haven’t seen the show or read the script; maybe it’s not supposed to have the same arc as the movie. Maybe the videos I saw were not filmed in a venue where Cumming was abe to work the crowd a little. But for me, “Wilkommen” is where MC fools the audience into thinking he’s more than a hack, that the desperate frivolity of that sad little club is continental elegance, and that the orchestra really is beautiful.

ETA: And NOW Sampiro is coming in with his discussion of the movie – bravo, by the way! – and making at least part of my post look kinda stupid. We’ll see how it holds up…

19

And how powerful was that scene you asked? I just realized that the person who posted it on YouTube is a white supremacist.:smack: (I didn’t notice it because I just typed in the keywords Tomorrow Belongs Cabaret and it’s what came up.) Here’s a better link to a non w.s. site. I’ll email a mod to change out the other one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUwpLyIDIJw&feature=related

Anyway, Cabaret is a great movie musical for people who don’t like musicals. The songs are just like the songs in Ray or Walk the Line- sung by characters who are professional entertainers singing onstage. But you already know that, so let’s break it down into other components.

Wilkommen/Intro- is a great montage of the surreal world of the Kit Kat Club with real life workaday “in rehab” Berlin (that will get darker and more surreal of course). And we’re introduced to the characters (if only visually).

The Master of Ceremonies
While I love Cummings’ take, the main thing I don’t like about it is that it subtracts from the memory of just how freaking great Grey was. Is there any actor who can do more with a mannequin like leer than this guy? His little imp of a M.C. is less surreal than in the revised versions but every bit as demonic and conveys the omnisexuality/satyr quality without the vulgar dance moves with guys (which I’m not complaining about in the new versions). Of course you could write a dissertation about what he symbolizes re: decadence and decay (and yet at the same time somehow maintaining an emergency stash of dignity and sophistication), and the fact that Grey is about as far away from the Aryan notion of an ideal man (short, dark haired, effeminate, weak seeming, Semitic features) though he’s no more vulgar than the rising Nazis, but I’ll leave that for other posters should they desire.

Sally Bowles- God where do you begin to discuss Liza Minnelli in her prime playing the green nailed diva herself? Strangely beautiful, talented as a singer and a dancer, sexy body. Taking away the singing and dancing (for in most of the movie she’s doing neither) she still deserved the Oscar, for she did a helluvan acting job. We’ve all known people like Sally: they have to be the center of attention or all hell breaks loose, they love to shock (and rarely have any idea that often the person they’re talking to probably can top their most shocking lie with a reality).
And she’s a very complex character. She’s self obsessed- but genuinely sweet to others. Talented and craving of success— she thinks, she’s not really sure. She’s needy, but also independent and driving people off willfully. Then there’s the gossamer quality of her ego/drive/gall/self-esteem, for like gossamer (in its literal meaning the silk that makes a spider’s web) it’s simultaneously one of the toughest and strongest of all subjects, and it can be blown apart by a breeze.
One thing I thought interesting is that in the movie Sally’s “practically an ambassador” father is real. Who knows what the truth is of how important or successful he is of course, but he is at least successful enough to be an American with business in Berlin, and she obviously does adore him. There’s hints of a very interesting back story with this Sally.

Brian- To me the least interesting character, though a great performance. My favorite line is when Sally asks him the non-sequitur shock value question “Have you ever had sex with a midget?” and he replies in completely unruffled Englishman “Yes but it wasn’t a lasting relationship”. I also like when he allows himself to be led astray: the screaming as the train goes by for instance, and ultimately the seduction.

That sex scene is interesting. Brian is at most bisexual, he really identifies as gay and says as much (he’s tried women twice and it seems not to have been pleasurable for either party) and yet he changes his spots for Sally for a moment. A discussion question: what do you think it is about her that does this? Her looks? Her availability? Her strength or her weakness? What drives the attraction from his end (other than her body driving him wild with desire)?

For that matter what do you think draws her to him? He’s nice, but not a saint. He’s smart but that hardly seems what she’s really into. He’s nice looking but not compared to Maximilian, or even Fritz, plus he’s broke and his interests (writing, German culture, politics, academic pursuits) couldn’t be farther off from her interests (theater, Sally, movies, Sally, performing, Sally). And yet the affair is completely convincing, especially with York and Minnelli’s chemistry.

One of my theories: Sally sees in Brian, who is a writer, a shot at immortality that her career will probably never bring her. She wants to be remembered and famous and spread broad and larger than life, and Brian can help her reach that and “fix” her if only fictionally. Or perhaps I’m overintellectualizing it- it could well be that his “body drives her wild with desire”. (Must admit York doesn’t do it for me- too skinny- but I can see where he would).

Conclusion momentarily.

20

Since this is already too long by far I’ll wrap it up with some non-sequitur observations.

The Fritz-Natalia Romance- sweet, but I prefer Schneider/Schulz. I actually was surprised when he revealed he was Jewish the first time I saw it. And I thought the dog was a horrible but necessary touch.

Maximilian/Brian/Sally- I liked it, but it was the least true seeming thing about the piece.

I suppose part of it is that I’ve known so very few bisexual men: I’ve known a lot of gay guys who fool around with women and marry before settling down openly and having sex exclusively with men on the side. I know that “Sally Montag/Brian Dienstag” guys exist, but… his attraction to Sally struck me a bit false. Still though, I like the fact that they both realize they’re his playthings and he’s moved on and that they’re the world’s worst golddiggers simultaneously (and you can symbolize the decadent aristocratic past with him). And Helmut Griem was a hottie.

My absolute favorite moments, aside from Tomorrow Belongs to Me of course, were the juxtaposition of Cabaret numbers with the action outside. Sometimes it perfectly complimented the action (Money when they’ve met Maxie Millions or Maybe This Time when she begins her affair with Brian [later replicated in the play]). What I really loved though was when it was sharp contrast (no clip, but the savage beating of the club owner [or manager] by Nazis in retaliation for kicking them out to a silly lederhosen slapping number by the M.C. and the girls, or most famously Sally singing the title number, the movie’s most upbeat and joyous piece when she’s lost the man she loves and Hell on Earth is rising).

I love the disturbing “huh?” ending- the mannequin faces in the distorted mirror, the M.C. just leaving the stage after a lackluster “good night”, the unfinished drum roll. I’ll admit when I first watched it I didn’t like it since I was more used to Golden Age musicals (clear closing) but in retrospect it wouldn’t have been right to end it this way.

With all movies and stories I have the vice of having to write the sequel in my mind. For this one, and divorcing the characters from their real life counterparts (from whom the split is already almost complete mitosis anyway), my sequel:

Brian- goes back to England by way of Prague and other stops, gets an academic job, lives a discreetly openly gay life, speaks out constantly against Nazism but with a Cassandra Complex until the war, then people forgot he ever spoke against it to begin with. Works in the war effort (too old in his late 30s/early 40s for military service but does what he can). Eventually becomes a writer of academic renown (the kind that you read in Norton’s Anthology, forget as soon as you’ve written the paper or done the final, and far more people known the name than the work and in time precious few know the name). Perhaps communes occasionally with Maximilian and Fritz but never sees Sally again, though he does use her in his fiction.

Fritz/Natalia- Natalia of course doesn’t have the sense to leave but luckily Fritz “pounces” her into it since he sees the handwriting on the wall so they become refugees (well-to-do at first though far more modest as their funds deplete) one step ahead of the Nazis. Wind up in England, then America. Not a particularly happy marriage as Fritz is a womanizer and seeks to better deal her but never does, but ultimately content.

Maximilian- drifts through Europe, taking assignments in Italy to get away from the Nazis. Never refugees but manages to keep his hands clean by feigning loyalty to the Nazis enough and playing his title enough to keep himself safe but never doing anything that will ultimately get him indicted for war crimes. His looks and fortune fade a bit and he has constant affairs and lives in separation from his wife but generally his life is a not totally unpleasant waste.

Sally- leaves Berlin before the war, continues her career abroad with mainly mediocrity and the occasional success, finally returns to the U.S… Marries and does the housewife thing unhappily for a while, devotes herself to the war effort when she “retires” from stage but sings every chance she gets. Still loves to shock. In later life LOVES to tell how she lived in Berlin as the Nazis were rising, and of course how she saw everything that was going to happen before anyone else did and helped sabotage the Nazi rise until she was in danger of discovery and had to leave, and confides in everyone that Hitler was the lousiest lay she ever had but that whatever else you might say about him Göring gave great head. Drinks a lot and lonely, lives in NYC, never sees Brian again, but perhaps has a couple of briefly happy age inappropriate affairs as she ages and finds any excuse (community theater or PTA events [not that she has kids]) to sing.

And the M.C.- well, he’s Joel Grey, so I hope he gets out, comes to America, has a daughter who’s a flash in the pan, and gets a house next to pal Larry Hagman in Malibu. Probably not, but…

So I’ll turn it over to y’all.

Auf wiedersehen…

Abientot…

.