Cabaret

I saw a local production of Cabaret the musical. Apparently the plot is very different from the film with Liza Minnelli, as the film writers decided to adapt Christopher Isherwood's novel rather than the musical. (I didn't know that there was a previous novel, a previous play and film called I Am A Camera, or that Sally Bowles was based upon an actual person.) It seems that all incarnations of these Berlin-set stories have really different plots due to censors wanting changes to the sexual and moral content. It's interesting how "based on a true story" can be warped with each adaptation so that it becomes wholly fictional.

Anyway, the musical I saw had really good singers and dancers. So much so that I really resented that during a later argument, Cliff tells Sally that she'll only be able to get another job if she sleeps with a nightclub owner, implying that she's not a good singer at all. (I also didn't like him slapping her over the abortion, but I suppose that's an artifact of the 1966 musical, or the sexism of the 1930s setting, when men could get away with such abuse and yet still be the sympathetic hero.) I also really cared about the subplot with the landlady and the Jewish grocer. They had a lovely romance, but their marriage got called off due to the rise in anti-semitism and fascism. They thought the Nazis wouldn't really take over everything, and so refused to leave Germany, just like Sally Bowles refused to leave. The transformation of the Kit Kat Club from playful hedonism to dead-eyed, goose-stepping propaganda is really disheartening. How insidious that "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" song is. One of the Kit Kat dancers purposely starts singing it at the engagement party to hurt the landlady and grocer; such a casual and sinister threat. Later, the emcee's line revealing that the gorilla dancer is supposed to depict a Jewish person--so horrible and cutting.

Also I finally got context over that strange line in the "Cabaret" song about Elsie, "the happiest corpse I'd ever seen" and that Sally made up her mind "When I go, I'm going like Elsie." It is a dark, dark line, and the actress delivered it as though Sally were manic and overwrought, but feigning cheerfulness. She essentially wants to die of too much pills, alcohol, and sex. Such despair. Then it ends with Cliff leaving Germany and finally starting his novel reminiscing about happier times in the club, gone forever. I'm surprised that with such dark themes that the musical has been so successful and popular, rather than some kind of niche drama. I mean, didn't George Takei's musical about a Japanese interment camp close after only a few months? Well, it was a thought-provoking, well-produced musical. I'm glad I went to see it.

ETA: Stephen Robinson reviewed a production of Cabaret in his area last year. He's now moved to his own Substack.