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"CABARET" IS BASED ON THE ORIGINAL STORIES WRITTEN BY CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD CALLED "THE BERLIN STORIES"
Background
Sandy Wilson , who had achieved success with The Boy Friend in the 1950s, had completed the book and most of the score for Goodbye to Berlin , his musicalization of I Am a Camera , when he discovered producer David Black's option on both the 1951 Van
Druten play and its source material by Christopher Isherwood had lapsed
and been acquired by Harold Prince . Prince commissioned Joe Masteroff to work on the book, and when the
two men agreed Wilson's score failed to capture the essence of
late-1920s Berlin, John Kander and Fred Ebb were invited to join the
project. The new version was initially a dramatic play preceded by a
prologue of songs describing the Berlin atmosphere from various points
of view. As the composers began to distribute the songs between scenes,
they realized the storycouldbe told in the structure of a more
traditional book musical , and they replaced some of the songs with tunes more relevant to the
plot. Isherwood's original characters began to change as well. The male
lead became an American writer who teaches English; the anti-Semitic
landlady was transformed into a tolerant woman with a Jewish beau, Herr
Schultz, who owned a fruit store; two language students were eliminated;
and two loathsome but integral characters - prostitute Fräulein Kost
and Nazi Ernst Ludwig - were added to the mix. The musical ultimately
became two separate stories in one, the first a revue centered on the decadence of the seedy Kit Kat Club, the second a story set in the real world in which the club existed. [ 1]
After seeing one of the last rehearsals before the company headed to Boston for the pre-Broadway run, Jerome Robbins suggested the musical sequences outside the cabaret be eliminated. Although Prince ignored his advice, Bob Fosse did just that when he directed the film adaptation. In Boston, Jill Haworth struggled with her characterization of cabaret performer Sally Bowles.
She was a blonde dressed in a white dress that suggested senior prom more than tawdry nightclub. Prince's staging was unusual for the time.
As the audience filled the theater, the curtain was already up,
revealing a stage containing nothing but a large mirror reflecting the
auditorium. There was no overture ; instead, a drumrolland cymbal crash led into the opening number. The
juxtaposition of dialogue scenes with songs used as exposition and
separate cabaret numbers providing social commentary was a novel concept
that initially startled the audience, but as they gradually came to
understand the difference between the two, they were able to accept the
reasoning behind them. [ 2]
[edit ] Productions
[edit ] Original Broadway production
After 21 previews, the original Broadway production, directed by Harold Prince and choreographed by Ron Field , opened on November 20, 1966 at the Broadhurst Theatre , eventually transferring first to the ImperialBroadway before finally completing its 1,165-performance run. The opening night cast included Jill Haworth as Sally, Bert Convy as Cliff, Lotte Lenya as Fräulein Schneider, Jack Gilford as Herr Schultz, and Joel Grey as the Emcee, with Edward Winter and Peg Murray in supporting roles. Replacements later in the run included Anita Gillette as Sally, Ken Kercheval and Larry Kert as Cliff, and Martin Ross as the Emcee. and then the
[edit ] 1987 Broadway revival
After
18 previews, the first Broadway revival, again directed by Prince and
choreographed by Field, opened on October 22, 1987 at the Imperial Theatre , eventually transferring to the Minskoff to complete its 261-performance run. Joel Grey received star billing as the Emcee, with Alyson Reed as Sally, Gregg Edelman as Cliff, Regina Resnik as Fräulein Schneider, and Werner Klemperer as Herr Schultz. The song "Don't Go" was added for Cliff's character.
[edit ] 1998 Broadway revival
The second Broadway revival was a transfer of the Sam Mendes-directed Donmar Warehouse production. Co-directed by Mendes and Rob MarshallHenry Miller's Theatre . Later that year it transferred to Studio 54 , where it remained for the rest of its 2377-performance run, becoming the third longest-running revival in Broadway musical history, third only to Oh! Calcutta! and Chicago . In addition to Alan Cumming as the Emcee, the original cast included Natasha Richardson as Sally, John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff, Ron Rifkin as Herr Schultz, and Mary Louise Wilson as Fräulein Schneider. and choreographed by Marshall, it opened after 37 previews on March 19,
1998 at the Kit Kat Klub, housed in what previously had been known as
This production featured a number of notable replacements later in the run: Jennifer Jason Leigh , Joely Fisher , Gina Gershon , Deborah Gibson , Teri Hatcher , Melina Kanakaredes , Jane Leeves , Molly Ringwald , Brooke Shields , and Lea Thompson as Sally; Michael C. Hall , RaúlEsparza , Neil Patrick Harris , Adam Pascal , Jon Secada , Norbert Leo Butz and John Stamos as the Emcee; Boyd Gaines as Cliff; Tom Bosley , Dick Latessa , Hal Linden , Laurence Luckinbill , and Tony Roberts as Herr Schultz; and Blair Brown , Polly Bergen ,Mariette Hartley and Carole Shelley as Fräulein Schneider.
Mendes'
conception was a very different show than either the original
production or the rather conventional first revival. The most
significant change was the character of the Emcee. The role, as played
by Joel Greytuxedo with rouged cheeks. Alan Cumming 's portrayal was highly sexualized, wearing suspenders (i.e. braces) around his crotch and red paint on his nipples .[ 3] The cabaret number "Two Ladies" was staged with the Emcee, a cabaret girl, and a cabaret boy in drag and included a shadow play simulating various sexual positions.[ 4] The score was entirely re-orchestrated, utilizing synthesizer effects and expanding the stage band, with all the instruments now
being played by the cabaret girls and boys. The brutally satiric
"Sitting Pretty", with its mocking references to deprivation, despair
and hunger, was eliminated entirely, as it had been in the film version,
and replaced with "Money". "I Don't Care Much", which was cut from the
original production, was reinstated, and "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This
Time", written for the film adaptation, were added to the score.[4] Staging details differed as well; instead of "Tomorrow Belongs To Me"
being performed by a male choir, the Emcee plays a recording of a boy soprano singing it. Most dramatic of all was in the final scene in which the
Emcee removes his outer clothes to reveal a striped suit of the type
worn by the internees in concentration camps on which were pinned a yellow badge (identifying a Jewish prisoner) and a pink triangle (denoting a homosexual prisoner). Other changes included added references to Cliff's
bisexuality, including a brief scene where he kisses one of the Cabaret
boys.[ 4] , in both prior incarnations, was an asexual, malevolent character in a
The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical .
[edit ] Original West End production
The first West End production opened on February 28, 1968 at the Palace Theatre with Judi Dench as Sally, Barry Dennen as the Emcee and Lila Kedrova as Fräulein Schneider.
[edit ] West End revivals
London 1986 Revival Production
There have been three major London revivals: in July 1986, at the Strand Theatre [ 5] with Kelly Hunter as Sally, Peter Land as Cliff and Wayne Sleep as the Emcee directed and choreographed by Gillian Lynne ; from December 1993 to March 1994, a critically-acclaimed limited run at the Donmar Warehouse [ 6] directed by Sam Mendes , with Alan Cumming as the Emcee, Jane Horrocks as Sally Bowles, Adam Godley as Cliff and Sara Kestelman as Fraulein Schneider; and in September 2006 (previews) at the Lyric Theatre directed by Rufus Norris,[ 7] opening with Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally, James Dreyfus as the Emcee, Harriet Thorpe as Fraulein Kost and Sheila Hancock as Fräulein Schneider (winningaLaurence Olivier Award for best supporting actress). Replacements in the cast have included Kim Medcalf and then Amy Nuttall as Sally, Honor Blackman and Angela Richards as Fräulein Schneider, Julian Clary and then Alistair McGowan as the Emcee. This production closed in June 2008 and began touring the UK in 2008 into 2009, with a regional company starring Wayne Sleep as the Emcee and Samantha Barks as Sally Bowles (later replaced by Siobhan Dillon ).
[edit ] Other
Several
subsequent productions of the play have followed the Mendes version
fairly closely, including a 2003 production staged in Spanish at the Teatro Nuevo Alcalá in Madrid directed by B.T. McNicholl and starring Natalia Millán as Sally (later replaced by Marta Ribera ), Asier Etxeandia as the Emcee (later replaced by Armando Pita and
Víctor Masán) and Manuel Bandera as Cliff (later replaced by Jesús
Cabrero and Iván Campillo), and a 2005-2006 Mexican production, directed by Academy Award nominee Felipe Fernández del Paso and starring Itatí Cantoral, Fernanda
Castillo, Kika Édgar and Chantal Andere in the role of Sally, and Luis
Fernando GuzmánandBruno Bichir as the Emcee. There was also a 2006
production staged in French at the Folies Bergère in Paris with Claire Perot as Sally Bowles, Fabian Richard as Emcee and Geoffroy Guerrier as Cliff, and a 2008 production at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario . There was also the Australian Sam Mendes production in 2002 starring Toby Allen , Judi Connelli and Nadine Garner . The role of Sally was played by Tina Arena in Sydney, and Lisa McCune in Melbourne. Since May 13, 2009 a production of Cabaret is being staged in Lima, Peru at the Teatro Segura, directed by Mateo Chiarella, and starring Marco Zunino as Emcee and Gisela Ponce de León as Sally.
In June 2009, Cabaret was produced by Houston's Theatre Under the Stars for a two week engagement at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts . Leslie Kritzer starred as Sally Bowles.[ 8]
In August–October 2010, Cabaret was performed at the American Repertory Theater , directed by Steven Bogart and starring singer/songwriter Amanda Palmer (formerly of the Dresden Dolls ) as the Emcee.[ 9]