# Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome... to the Son of SDMB Musicals CABARET thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936 "2009-05-01T04:37:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936/41 "2009-05-03T19:24:28Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Why not? Sorry, that should have said “neither were either of the eligible original songs.” They were eligible but not nominated (which is particularly inexplicable when you see the [obscurities](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79L310U7wIk&feature=PlayList&p=07AFB8EE917EF10C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=104) that [made the cut](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DnZzDFR6Vc)). ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936/42 "2009-05-03T19:49:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I love Jane Horrocks (bk4 _Little Voice_ or _Absolutely Fabulous_) and think she may be the best of the stage Sallys (at least on YouTube). She comes in at 2:35 in [this clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOn8dX-PKk4&feature=related). The MC in that clip is great, too. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936/43 "2009-05-03T20:12:04Z")
Awesome Jane Horrocks, she’s great in just about everything she’s done. > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > The MC in that clip is great, too. Isn’t that Alan Cumming? ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936/44 "2009-05-03T20:37:38Z")
…But for _Mein Herrs_ I think you really [gotta go with Miss Minelli](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX-24Zm0bjk). I mean … yowsa. I know Sally’s supposed to be mediocre but if being great means we get performances like that, it’s totally worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936/45 "2009-05-03T21:42:37Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Sorry, that should have said “neither were either of the eligible original songs.” They were eligible but not nominated (which is particularly inexplicable when you see the [obscurities](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79L310U7wIk&feature=PlayList&p=07AFB8EE917EF10C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=104) that [made the cut](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DnZzDFR6Vc)). Not only do I not recognize those songs, I’ve never even heard of those movies! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936/46 "2009-05-03T22:20:38Z")
> [@choie](#): > > Awesome Jane Horrocks, she’s great in just about everything she’s done. Have you ever heard of an album called [The Further Adventures of Little Voice](http://www.amazon.com/Jane-Horrocks-Further-Adventures-Little/dp/B00004Z51R)? It’s sort of a companion album to the soundtrack to _Little Voice_. More songs in more voices in combinations that they never did in life. Like Judy Garland, Billie Holliday, Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Bassey, and Marlene Dietrich in a grand melee version of “Hello, Dolly”. And guest singers, too, like Ewan MacGregor and Robbie Williams (and a good but kind of creepy dead/alive duet with Dean Martin). > [@](#): > > Isn’t that Alan Cumming? Yes, easily the best MC since Joel Grey. Delightfully creepy and menacing. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936/47 "2009-05-21T14:02:18Z")
As I mentioned above, I finally got curious enough to read Isherwood’s _Berlin Stories_, the ultimate source of all things _Cabaret_. They’re mostly disjointed snippets, though some of the characters weave in and out – one of the more important of which, a young man named Otto, who doesn’t appear in _Cabaret_ at all. The original Sally is very young, only 19, and (as noted above), British. > [@](#): > > She was the daughter of a Lancashire mill-owner. Her mother was a Miss Bowles, an heiress with an estate… > Sally had one sister, named Betty. “She’s an absolute angel. I adore her. She’s seventeen, but she’s still most terribly innocent. Mummy’s bringing her up to be very county. Betty would nearly die if she knew what an old whore I am. …” Isherwood describes her at their first meeting (which is arranged by Fritz, who has a thing for her): > [@](#): > > Sally laughed. She was dressed in black silk, with a small cape over her shoulders and a little cap like a page-boy’s stuck jauntily on one side of her head… > [she asks to borrow the phone] > As she dialled the number, I noticed that her finger-nails were painted emerald green, a colour unfortunately chosen, for it called attention to her hands, which were much stained by cigarette-smoking and as dirty as a little girl’s. She was dark enough to be Fritz’s sister. Her face was long and thin, powdered dead white. She had very large brown eyes which should have been darker, to match her hair and the pencil she used for her eyebrows. A few days later, he and Fritz go to see her perform: > [@](#): > > I was curious to see how Sally would behave. I had imagined her, for some reason, rather nervous, but she wasn’t, in the least. She had a surprisingly deep husky voice. She sang badly, without any expression, her hands hanging down at her sides – yet her performance was, in its own way, effective because of her startling appearance and her air of not caring a curse what people thought of her. Her arms hanging carelessly limp, and a take-it-or-leave-it grin on her face, she sang: > Now I know why Mother > Told me to be true; > She meant me for Someone > Exactly like you. > > There was quite a lot of applause. The pianist, a handsome young man with blond wavy hair, stood up and solemnly kissed Sally’s hand. Then she sang two more songs, one in French and the other in German. These weren’t so well received. (The pianist is the one who gets Sally pregnant, though he’s out of the picture before the abortion.) There’s also a spree with Sally and Christopher and a rich guy, who’s an alcoholic named Clive (an American, I think, though it’s not entirely clear). Clive takes them out drinking and shopping, and there’s talk of him taking them around the world, but he then disappears abruptly, leaving only a brief note: > [@](#): > > In the envelope were three hundred-mark notes. These, the fading flowers, Sally’s four pairs of shoes and two hats (bought in Dresden) and my six shirts were our total assets from Clive’s visit. At first, Sally was very angry. Then we both began to laugh: > “Well, Chris, I’m afrain we’re not much use as gold-diggers, are we, darling?” Natalia Landauer appears in a separate story – again, marginal overlap between the literary and cinematic versions. (Though her catchphrase, “Well, I’m sorry then, I can’t help you,” comes from Isherwood – and there is a meeting between her and Sally that goes predictably badly.) The literary Natalia ends up going to Paris to study art, and marrying there. A more important Landauer is one who doesn’t appear in _Cabaret_ at all – her cousin, who runs the family business, with whom Christopher becomes emotionally involved. Overall – the stories are interesting to a _Cabaret_ fan to see what’s used and what isn’t, and how. They also have way more, and more directly, about the political environment at the time – Isherwood sympathizes with the Communists, who are damned close to invisible in _Cabaret_, though of course crucially important to understanding the actual politics and history of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936/48 "2009-05-22T17:53:12Z")
As you see various people being swept up in the emotion (or not, in the case of the old chap who is obviously troubled by it), one person looks out of place (IMO). The fedora guy who appears to simply be giving it a look of mild curiosity. Since Fosse’s not alive any longer to tell us where or not that person in particular meant anything special, it’s all speculation. But, if I’m watching this correctly, you actually see him again, in a distance shot, moving to a different seat. When you consider how meticulously that sequence is filmed and edited, that’s not likely to be coincidence, that you first see him watching (but not caught up), then just shifting to a better(?) vantage point. He just seems to be out of place, as though maybe he symbolizes a foreigner who’s just watching the building hysteria from a distance. I’d welcome any thoughts on the subject. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wilkommen-bienvenue-welcome-to-the-son-of-sdmb-musicals-cabaret-thread/494936.md?page=2)