Musical "Cabaret": content, video, interesting facts, history

Musical "Cabaret"

"Welcome to the Cabaret!" - for a phrase that starts and ends a legendary musical performance, is worth more than a solemn invitation to immerse yourself in the history of one cereal institution. Behind simple words there is a proposal to plunge into the world, unsustainably balancing on the verge of a moral apocalypse, which Germany was in the 1930s. Having become one of the most popular in the history of the musical "Cabaret" - stage metaphor that displays a dark page of world history through the prism of human relations.

Summary of the musical "Cabaret" and a lot of interesting facts about this work, read on our page.

Summary of "Cabaret"

Cliff arrives in the capital of Germany. He intends to stay in the city for a while in order to gain inspiration and start writing a novel. Almost immediately, the writer met Ernst. German helps him settle in a cheap boarding house. The hostess of the rooms favorably makes the guest a small discount, noting his poor financial situation.

One evening, Cliff goes to a cabaret. There, in an atmosphere of casual fun, he notices an attractive girl, the soloist of the troupe, and offers to hold her after the performance. However, the beauty refuses, explaining that her boyfriend Max, the owner of the institution, is extremely jealous. However, the very next day, she comes to the threshold of Clifford's house, asks him to let her live: Max expelled her and deprived her of work. Bradshaw agrees to let the girl and negotiates with the hostess.

It takes a month. Clifford fell in love with Sally and was glad that they lived together. Suddenly, the girl announces that she is pregnant, but is going to have an abortion. Cliff convinces her friend to save the child. In an attempt to make more money, the American agrees to fulfill Ernst's instructions to deliver the package from Paris to Berlin.

At this time, Freulein Schneider notices that her guest led the sailor into the room. Knowing about the dubious reputation of Fraulein Coast, the hostess, under the threat of eviction, strictly forbids the girl to drive men into the house. In retaliation, she accepted to blackmail the owner of information that she allegedly secretly meets with a Jew, the owner of a fruit shop. Mr. Schulz stands up for the lady and openly announces that he is ready to marry. The courtesan is going to take revenge and tells Ernst, who has long joined the Nazi party, that the hostess of the boarding house intends to marry a Jew.

The situation in society is heating up: the anti-Semitic movement is gaining momentum. Fraulein Schneider intends to terminate the engagement: she is afraid. Clifford is also worried about the political situation. He persuades Sallie to leave for France, but she refuses, not wanting to leave the usual life. After a quarrel with his beloved, Cliff leaves and meets Ernst. A quarrel arises between former comrades over political views and unfair treatment of Mr. Schulz, the argument ends with a fight.

The next day, Bradshaw begins to collect things. Sally comes in and says that she got rid of the baby, Clifford slaps her and leaves. Sally returns to the cabaret, Clifford in the train takes to write the lines of the new novel: "There was a cabaret, and there was an emcee, and there was a city called Berlin in a country called Germany, and it was the end of the world ..."

A photo:

Interesting Facts

• In the original production on Broadway, the lead role went to actress Jill Hayworth. The girl had to fight for the right to become a star of the musical. The creators believed that the image of the blonde, which at that time was the actress, is more suitable for scenes of school balls. To transform into Sally, Gill dyed her hair dark: the fatal dancer had to be exclusively a brunette.
• There is no overture in the musical content, but the original intention implied the presence of a prologue consisting of separate sketches of the life of Berlin society, presented from various angles. However, later there was a rejection of such a decision in favor of a more precise following of the storyline.
• The heroes of Isherwood's work have found a different reading. The main character became not only a writer, but also a teacher of English (he gave lessons to his new acquaintance Ernst). The owner of the boarding house became a model of tolerance, not even daring to express anti-Semitic views. The additional narrative line was based on the actions and motifs of the new heroes: the ambitious young Nazi Ludwig and the courtesan.
• "Wherever people are, horrible things can always happen potentially!" - so claimed producer. In confirmation of the words, he provided a photo from the magazine "Life", in which young people of Aryan appearance, similar to the Nazis, were captured, they shouted and demanded something. Earlier, the director received an answer to the question of who the Americans were filmed, and the photo refers to the illustrations of public protests that took place on the streets of Chicago in 1965. Director Prince desperately wanted to create a musical that would not lose its close connection with reality would be relevant and not limited to correlation with a particular era.

• At the premiere, when the curtain was just raised, the audience saw a huge mirror and the complete absence of other decorations. In reflection, the public watched themselves. Only then followed the opening of the Cabaret (in every sense).
• The most provocative song was the one that was included in the stage for entertainers in the 2nd act. The contents of the number imply the following: Emsie dances with a gorilla, grimaces and performs the song "If You Could See Her". It contains the line "If you could look at it with my eyes, she would not look like a Jew at all." The filmmakers wanted to shock the public, show people how easily German activists and propagandists perceived and spread the idea of ​​anti-Semitism, and later on brought it to a fatal, disastrous absolute. However, in America, after the first notions, unrest began, led by leaders of the Jewish communities. The line from the song has disappeared, but is present in the film.

Best numbers

"Willkommen"- the composition for the cabaret ensemble, performed in the first and second act. In the final, the music sounds different: there are notes of threatening assertiveness. The recognizable rhythm of the march, the inclusion of the leading part of percussion instruments from the orchestra, the development of a melody at a permanent crescendo - all this becomes a harbinger of tragic events, who are about to overwhelm Europe with a bloody wave.

"Willkommen" (listen)

"Tomorrow belongs to me"- a song starting a capella with a cabaret waiter’s solo and ending with an ensemble of artists. A mood change occurs within the same number: a patriotic song becomes a hymn to a radical party that increases influence.

"Tomorrow belongs to me" (listen)

"The money song"- a song by cabaret participants, sounding as a commentary on the actions of Clifford, who agreed to perform an assignment of dubious quality for money. The composition is one of the most famous, but it appeared in a production only in 1987. Until this time, the episode was decorated with a number with the participation of cabaret dancers "Sitting Pretty".

"The Money Song" (listen)

"Cabaret"- Sally's song, where the girl fixes her decision to be content with imaginary, but habitual and desired freedom for her, she intends to stay in a cabaret, give up a new life with her lover in Paris.

"Cabaret" (listen)

The history of the musical "Cabaret"

Christopher Isherwood in 1939 wrote a novel, which later became the literary base for a popular musical. The piece was called "Goodbye Berlin!". In 1951, John Van Druten put on a play based on this novel and called it “I am the Camera”.

Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff worked on the verse form and the libretto. The music was written by John Kander, who later, in 1975, managed to create music for the next performance, which later became legendary, talking about the musical "Chicago".

Theater producer Harold Prince acquired the rights to stage a play by Van Druten when British composer Alexander Wilson was already working on adapting the work. At that time, the Englishman owed his creative success to the musical "The Boy Friend", which conquered the audience in 1954.

Prins was the first to invite the librettist to his team. Together, analyzing Wilson’s score, they decided that it did not adequately convey the atmosphere of the plot and the mood that prevailed in Berlin in the late 20s and early 30s. Soon the offer to write music came to Kander, and he, in turn, preferred to work in tandem with Ebb. This creative union has already managed to establish itself as productive when, in 1965, they presented their creation in the genre of the musical "Flora - Red Threat".

The work process was marked by multiple changes, refinements and ... an innovative approach. First of all, the composer abandoned the musical introduction. The performance began with drumming, which marks the beginning of the first number. The basis of "Cabaret" was based on a fundamentally new concept: the story developed through the numbers that made up the program of the club. Thus, a kind of fractal, a kaleidoscope, appeared in which the plot show was part of the basic presentation.

Production history and screen version

The premiere of the musical took place on Broadway, November 20, 1966. It was a sensation, an instant success determined the further fate of the production: it became the dominant repertoire of theaters in London and New York. The production of Prince survived 1165 hits and was awarded 8 Tony statuettes, one of which was awarded for winning the Best Musical nomination. Another Broadway production, first shown in 1998, was recreated 2,300 times.

Robert Louis Voss in 1972 shot the film Cabaret, where the main role was brilliantly performed by Liza Minnelli. For a long time, Sally became associated for many with the very appearance of this American actress. The film became a cult, in 1973 received 8 Oscars from the Academy of American Cinema and 3 Golden Globes. The creators, while working on the picture, focused on displaying political overtones, trying to provide the audience with a genuine decadence style drama that hides behind a name promising frivolous entertainment.

Awarded many prestigious awards musical "Cabaret" "secured" his immortality in the history of the genre. As in any other musical performance, built on the sequence of music and choreographic numbers, the plot, which the artists develop using the available means of expression, invariably emerges on the frontal plan. The story told in the "Cabaret" is a kind of window that allows you to look into the past to reflect on the present.

The English classic compared life with a game. Would it not be justified to compare it with a cabaret, where guests who want to forget themselves are afraid to face reality and prefer to have fun in the child of vices, confusing day to night, virtue with sins and compassion with weakness?