Cabaret-- a Discussion- Page 4
Cabaret-- a Discussion
#75re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/27/05 at 11:44pmWasn't the swastika red?
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#77re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/27/05 at 11:50pmSomebody posted on the last page that it was blue. The swastika (not just in the show - always) is red.
insomniak
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/7/04
MikeH
Understudy Joined: 9/8/04
#79re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/27/05 at 11:58pm
One of my favorite anecdotes from our production was the "Tomorrow" scene. In the revival, I believe that it was just the Emcee and a record player, correct? Anyway for ours we had the Kit Kat Band elevated over the stage, so with that there were various walkways/platforms available for unique staging purposes.
For that one scene instead of a record player, we actually had a little boy with a boy scout uniform on come to the lip of the stage (small intimate theater). He was lit by one dim pinspot directly above and everything else was black. The way he was lit, you couldn't see his face- really creepy. Anyway, he sings three verses or so of the song and right when he goes " tomorrow belongs-" the pinspot goes off and the Emcee is revealed on one of the upper catwalks backlit by a greenish light in shadow and goes "To Me!". It was sooo creepy and no matter how many times I saw it, it gave me chills. The audience jumped each time.
#80re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 12:00am
Wow. That IS creepy.
I think the orchestra in the revival was there, but the lights were dimmed - there were all of those catwalks and things. The orchestra was above the stage, too. Emcee was center stage, crouched behind the record player.
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#81re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 12:01am
LOL! We put an insomniak to sleep.
Perhaps the sudden sight of his butt made me cross-eyed; I defer to your butt paint selection.
#82re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 12:04amLOL! It was probably the lighting.
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#83re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 12:08amThat Tomorrow Belongs to Me thing sounds terrifying. I'm gonna have nightmares. :O
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#84re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 12:37am
Great thread!
The cabaret soundtrack(yes, soundtrack) was my first exposure ever to musical theatre--my aunt used to play it as she drove me to nursery school and I fell in love w/ it. Very funny how much more I've learned about it since then...
Couple of things...the disturbing thing...I guess the finale as well but since I would want my answer to include all versions of the show, I would definitely have to say Tomorrow Belongs To Me. The way it's so easily started, and everyone joining in and the hypnotizing way...I mean esp. more so in the movie, seeing children sucked in...just terrifying(and I too loved and well still do this song before knowing it's meaning).
The cabaret itself...like Hal Prince said in the PBS series, Cabaret took place in two worlds--the real one and "limbo"(Kit Kat Club.) Everything that was shown in the club commented on things going on in the real world. Obviously, "If You Could See Her," but others as well(keep in mind I only saw the stage show once so most of the stuff I mention esp. involving songs are prob more from the soundtrack which I know better).
Someone made a great point in showing that both Sally and the Cabaret really stood for the Germans who did nothing just lived a pleasant life, ignoring what was happening to the Jews. The connection between the two completely come together in Sally's rendition of "Cabaret." The idea that life's a cabaret, a breeze, we don't need to be "political."
I personally found a big difference at least between Joel Grey's movie Emcee and the revival Emcee. Joel Grey's emcee I really did feel was more of an instigator, embracing everything going on, quietly commenting on it, getting people to go the cabaret, the place where no troubles are, and just seemed to be enjoying everything going on. For awhile I thought the same of the revival emcee until the end, when I realized he wasn't the instigator, but the victim. Nice twist.
Fav song...Mein Herr and Cabaret, ever since I was little...I loved "belting"(not that I can now and however I sang when I was younger) those tunes out and still do.
Seeing the show...once...Jon Secada and Melina. I thought they were fine, but I've become more critical since then, and have nothing to compare it to, but I still enjoyed it. I remember wishing Melina would sing a bit better but than enjoyed her "Cabaret." I really remember liking Jon. ::shrugs::
One last thing...it's really weird, though I love the movie soundtrack, I think I like the book of the show much better than the script of the movie. I dunno, I like the story between Herr Schultz and Fraulein errr shoot can't remember names...well yeah. I liked that story better than the younger couple story told, and just...eh lots of stuff.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
melynnee
Swing Joined: 3/25/05
#86re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 1:05am
I think I perhaps saw the same PBS special (it was like 5 in the morning, I've been trying to figure out what it was ever since!). I've been doing a lot of research on Sally Bowles (I'll be playing the character in September) and after reading Christopher Isherwood's book, I've come to find her very naive. She really has a self-imposed ignorance toward the world, politics, etc. Isherwood said this great quote about her, "I only knew that she was lovable in a way no human could ever quite be, since, being a creature of art, she had been created out of pure love."
I also saw in that PBS thing someone (wish I remembered who) talking about Sally's decision to have the abortion. They suggested it comes at the end of Cabaret... "I made my mind up back in Chelsea, when I go I'm going like Elsie..." and so forth. In considering this, I definitely think Sally makes a flighty decision (as insomniak suggested) to keep herself from sitting alone in her room and so on.
And MikeH... that's hella creepy!!
#87re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 1:45am
I love the parallel of Sally and Fraulein Schneider in that they both decide to try and wait out the Nazis. Their decisions come from very different places but draw the same conclusion.
I think the reason Sally gets an abortion is threefold. 1. Cliff pissed her off and she wanted to hit him where it would hurt the most and having had abortions before she knew she could handle doing it again. 2. She was dumb enough to think that the Nazi thing wouldn't affect her and she wanted to keep her job at the club. 3. It was a way of claiming independence, making her own choice.
On another note, We were rehearsing the Finale tonight and I realized something. I may be dense for not seeing it before. The whole finale is the book the Cliff writes. He starts it out and it segues to the Emcee. Cliff did get his novel, and escaped with his life.
"You know just because you put a smiley face after it doesn't change the fact that it was an a-hole comment." ~ Sumofallthings
Updated On: 7/28/05 at 01:45 AM
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#88re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 10:57amMikeH, it was a gramaphone (I think like a phonograph). Just informing. :)
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#89re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 11:50am
I was right about having a nightmare. I dreamt that I was watching Cabaret in a theater. It got to the 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me' song and I felt like leaving the theater for a few seconds for some reason. (It was a dream)
But when I went to the doors, they were locked! From the outside! I asked a person what was going on, but he just smiled creepily and gave the Nazi salute!
I started panicking, but decided to wait untill the end of the play. Big mistake.
The end was the one where the stage fills up with smoke and the Emcee and the dancers die. But in my dream, the whole room filled up with smoke! And it was the real stuff! Zyklon B!
Then I woke up. :o
Interpret that as you will. (Come to think of it, that sounds like a great book!)
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#90re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 12:31pm
Gads, Emcee. Are you young enough to have lived through that before?
Dreadfully eerie. What a nightmare.
Updated On: 7/28/05 at 12:31 PM
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#91re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 12:35pm
Good thing it was just a nightmare. And it gave me inspiration for a novel!
Isn't it ironic how Cliff got the inspiration for his book in the worst way? (Kinda like me!}
CurtainUp
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/9/04
#92re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 1:05pm
Never seen it but Ive listend to the OBC and read the libretto, and my friend saw it the week before it closed with Egan and Pascal. I got chills from reading it.
I always surmised that Sally got the abortion because she didn't want to deal with reality - she wanted life to be a fantasy that was her cabaret, and what would symbolize the strifes, ups and downs of reality more than a child?
*Sorry, I knew she aborted it, I was just having a brain fart. I guess I meant I surmised why she didn't HAVE it-sorry*
Rosencrantz: "Be happy - if you're not even HAPPY what's so good about surviving? We'll be all right. I suppose we just go on."
- from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Updated On: 7/28/05 at 01:05 PM
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#93re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 1:36pm
She did abort the baby. Too bad. 
I wonder what gender it would have been?
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#94re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 2:24pmWho do you think the father of the baby was?
melynnee
Swing Joined: 3/25/05
#95re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 3:15pmEmcee4Ever, there actually was a production done at Illinois State University (and I'm sure it's been done elsewhere) years ago that sounds a bit like your nightmare. Except the whole dying thing. :) In this one, come intermission, they had actors dressed as Nazis at the doors and refused to let anyone out. Can you imagine?! Has anyone else heard of productions where this was done? Do you think it is unneccesary and over the top, or do you think it drives home the point?
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#96re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 3:29pm
... Really?
:O
I think it drives home a point, but is a bit unsettling. What if someone had to go to the bathroom? 
#97re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 4:34pmScrew the bathroom I'd need to get a double at the bar. Besides, fire code will not allow for that actually.
"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds."
~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#99re: Cabaret-- a Discussion
Posted: 7/28/05 at 7:16pmIn our production we aren't going to have a curtain call. The show will end witht he Emcee center with at star of David on his chest a Nazi flag droping in and fade lights to th sound of bambs. Then House lights up and it's over.
"You know just because you put a smiley face after it doesn't change the fact that it was an a-hole comment." ~ Sumofallthings
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