Musicals are emotions summarized. Big ideas, blunt feeling. We love to listen to a musical that tells us we're worthy of love, no matter who we are. Then there's Cabaret, a musical that hates you. Hi, I'm Jay! I've been to two live performances of Cabaret including the 2024 revival, read the original "Goodbye to Berlin," memoir, and read the script of "I am a Camera." I've watched both movies, and so many tutorials, and have loved Cabaret since I was a little kid-- dancing with Liza Minnelli to 'Mein Herr.' But why? Sally is a character no one should look up to, but audiences do. I want to break down the history of her character and find out why she's such a magnetic character despite her flaws. I'll also talk about MC: a role that's played as either scheming, enticing, or controlling, switching the personality based on the actor playing the role. First, what's the story? If you haven't seen Cabaret yet, I've posted links below to a few recommendations. But here's a quick summary of the core story: An aspiring author named Chris comes to Berlin arriving for its open-minded culture in the nightife of the city although if you asked him he'd tell you he was working on a novel. "Well, I'm sort of working on the general idea..." Chris comes to Germany during the Weimar Republic, sandwiched between either World War in 1929. He considers himself a camera. Quite passive, not thinking, recording the events of the day-to-day. He meets this exciting but desperate girl named Sally who's supposedly an heiress, and is currently a singer at the nearby Kit Kat Club hoping to prove herself and become a real actress. They make a friend or two, some of whom are Jewish. Tensions rise, groceries are expensive, hate appears in little ways around the city-- and our marginalized friends are being threatened, then attacked. Suddenly everyone's either with the party or against the party. But that's not really important to us. Our main characters are busy with their own lives. Sally wants to be a famous actress. Chris wants to be a writer both want cash to burn. We focus on us, on our day-to-day tragedies. For one, Sally's pregnancy that she terminates. After a while, we lose track of what's going on politically-- we are just so busy. Now that the Nazis are in power, we realize our plans might be completely out of reach. Are they possible still, or have we really just missed the point? Now that we've taken a quick tour of the show, we're going to chat about Miss Sally Bowles, the MC, and the evolution of a show that just keeps on giving. First, I give you international sensation [Sally Bowles!]. In 1939 Mr. Christopher Isherwood publishes his memoirs. He writes one story about this larger-than-life girl he knew, a source of inspiration who he writes into the book as Sally Bowles. She's maybe 19, full of life, excited to enjoy herself and become an actress. She's not very aware of politics though, and prefers coming up with schemes to get into high society. Jean Ross was identified by Chris Isherwood as his inspiration for Sally Bowles. Jean was an author, a dancer, and a film critic. Like Sally, she originally moved to Germany to become a film actress, sang in a cabaret, and had an abortion. She abhorred Nazi ideology so much though, that she became a political activist. As I describe Jean here, you might be thinking to yourself, "That doesn't sound like Sally at all." And you'd be right. While some basic facts of Jean's personality are accurate, her complex relationship with politics was completely ignored when writing Sally. Jean is censored, and instead we're left with her enthusiasm, her youth, and her naivety. But that makes sense, since the goal of Sally as a character was to show how even serious personal tragedy could leave people unchanged. And that may be true for our self-proclaimed camera, Mr. Isherwood, but for Jean who was a correspondent during the Spanish Civil War a year before the novel was published and was involved in political advocacy til the day she died, her narrative doesn't quite fit Chris's script. Jean hated her portrayal in the film, and Chris only revealed her identity to the world after she died for fear of retaliation. Truthfully, while Jean was her inspiration, I think Sally Bowles is a more accurate portrayal of Christopher Isherwood in a book written from his own perspective. Sally is indifferent to politics, and self-absorbed, and that was the point of her character. Sally isn't an accurate reflection of Jean beyond her enthusiasm, but she is a great portrayal of Chris's prejudice and disinterest. She's an even better representation of the German people's compliance during the rise of fascism. In the original memoirs and in the play/movie "I am a Camera," the teenage Sally we meet is very naive and eager to shock you from painting her nails green to openly talking about her promiscuity. She isn't desperate though, and she chooses not to be aware of what's going on in Germany. The play tries to make a break for Broadway, but it can't find a direction. Director Hal Prince, playwright Joe Mastroff, and the rest of the development team decide to pivot the show to focus on the world around Sally and Chris to give it purpose. He gives the characters a greater sense of foreboding, more awareness, and Cabaret is born. "Who wants to see a show about Nazis and abortions and anti-semitism, this is a musical for God's sake." Enter the Broadway musical "Cabaret" Sally isn't just out to shock you, she's also grown up a little. Strangely, in most ways she seems entirely the same. Sally prioritizes Sally, and though she has no talent she struggles to keep performing at all costs. Like others in the play, she's a woman trying to get by. She keeps her mouth shut in an effort to float with the times while her friends sink into the icy depths of circumstance. Though she's our leading lady, Sally Bowles is not a hero. Sally is a friend of yours: so self-absorbed she can't notice or forces herself not to notice that her world is turning for the worse, and so afraid of consequence that she does nothing to change it. She notices the horror unfolding around her, but feels powerless to intervene, so she ignores the threat and does nothing. "It'll all work out, it's only politics... and what has that got to do with us?" She daydreams about a better future when she sings "Maybe This Time," a song all about her feelings of hope and failure, and we the audience do really feel for her when she gets stuck in what seems like an impossible situation. She doesn't fall in line with the fascists but she can't bring herself to leave Berlin. She's trapped by her desperation and her failure to succeed, either because of her lack of ability or because of the politics of the times. Whether or not Sally makes the choice for herself is what changes her character in later versions of the musical. If she's choosing ignorance, it's more appropriate to have her scream the title song. She reflects the people of Nazi Germany, and all of us. [Music starts] "Start by admitting From cradle to tomb, isn't that long a stay. Life is a cabaret, old chum! It's only a cabaret old chum, and I love a Cabaret!" [Music ends] So if Sally is us, the worst version of us, what is this? [Music start/end] There was a dwarf MC, hair parted in the middle and lacquered down with brillantine. His mouth made into a bright red cupid's bow..." Emcee has changed with every actor but I'll be talking about three versions here. The 1966 musical with Joel Gray, the 1993 version with Allan Cumming, and the 2024 revival with Eddie Redmayne. There have been plenty of other people who have done a beautiful job with the role, look for Mason Alexander's version as well for a poignant rendition. Our first version of the musical was produced in 1966 with Joel Grey as our Emcee when Emcee first joined the story, in the first Broadway adaptation, Joel gave the character an intense sweetness that enticed the audience before the second act-- where we find that our charming friend was luring us into fascism. "He acted as the Kit Kat Club's master of distraction, keeping Berlin meme while Nazism slipped in through the back door." The Emcee marks a major change from the book and original movie to the musical. Chris (Isherwood) wrote very little about his concern for the political climate in Germany in his "Goodbye to Berlin," Sally Bowles, story, whereas director Hal Prince and songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb used Emcee to pivot the audience's attention-- focusing more on the world around these characters. In creating the character of Emcee, they created a walking dancing metaphor for the opinions of the German people. As with most opinions, Emcee is also multifaceted and full of contradictions. In one break from the rest of his giddy tone, the Emcee sings "I Don't Care Much," a song showing that they have truly lost hope of being better. Despite the title, it's clear by the end of the song that all of the characters on stage: Sally, Chris, and in some versions even the Emcee wish things could have gone differently, and regret how their indifference or corruption led to them losing their freedoms and their friends. The Emcee stays charming and aware throughout all of the awful things happening during the show. Theater critic Walter Kerr called Joel's Emcee, "the gleeful puppet of pretended joy, sin on a string." While the rest of the cast watch their world change for the worse, we're left with that jeering smile of a character who knows our shame, and highlights it when he bows and runs off stage. "So, life is disappointing? Forget it! Here life is beautiful. The girls are beautiful~" Emcee's character gets a makeover and a new focus in the 1993 version where by icon Alan Cumming plays him as saucy and menacing. Starting the performance off with a strip tease, and mooning the audience midway through the show. It gets our attention, and is a totally different approach from Joel's take. Making the Emcee sexy entices and distracts us. Every time he comes on stage we're excited to see what he's going to say or do. So much so, that we get dragged into his character without realizing that the world is targeting people just like him. At the show's curtain, Alan Cumming's Emcee strips to reveal his concentration camp garb: a pink triangle, and a star of David, indicating that he wasn't just playing the spirit of the club; he was personifying queer culture in Nazi Germany. And queer culture in a fascist world is often easily targeted-- "... I can't imagine what it must be like to be a trans person, knowing that the government is trying to legislate that you do not exist." [Sally's voiceover starts] It's only politics and what has that got to do with us? [Sally voiceover ends] Since the musical's initial release, it's had many revivals- with song changes and character modifications along the way. The most recent revival premiered in 2024, which brings us up to speed. With the 2024 revival, we enter a new era from fascist to victim to puppet. When Eddie Redmayne appeared at the Oscars to perform his rendition of "Willkommen," I was suspicious. Where was the strip tease? Where was the charismatic charm of the Emcee? It had been replaced with an omen. Eddie's Emcee commands the stage and sings beautifully, with severe operatic notes across his performance that are jarring but fiercely well executed. The intensity and discomfort of the revival throws us off, making us less comfortable with the Emcee entirely. It suggests the whole time that something awful is coming. It's scarily well executed, and gives us a great contrast of calculated coldness to the initially warm nonchalance of the actors in the other parts: emphasizing their humanity in the face of Emcee's fascism. His performance is also a call back to Joel's Emcee, and the 'gleeful puppet of pretended joy, sin on a string' aspect that was previously mentioned by Walter Kerr is turned up to a 10 in this version. Even his posture is a metaphor for a puppet throughout the show, starting with no one pulling him taut. By the end he is both the firmly controlled puppet, and puppet master, with everyone in the cast succumbing to his directives: the directives of the Nazi party. One of the most interesting aspects of Cabaret is the theater it's being performed in, and how that experience of watching the show contributes to its message in the original musical the audience is met with a giant tilted mirror, reflecting everyone in the theater. We're told to judge ourselves, just as we judge Sally and Chris. In the 1993 version, dining tables were added surrounding the stage to make the immersive feeling of the theater that much more impactful. We see the mirror, and are shown the rewards we reap for being complacent and compliant: our host's implied demise. In the 2024 version, we are welcomed by immersive theater: a situation where the performances are woven into your experience of the show. You're given a shot of cherry schnapps as you enter to watch the dancers and 'ooh,' and 'aww,' with the rest of the guests at contortion tricks and singing. Sally Bowles runs along the mezzanine, waving at you on her way to her performance. Rich New Yorkers sit pretty around tables at orchestra level, paying top dollar for their seats, food, and drink. Dancers walk around and welcome you to your chair. The theater is a 360 stage-- it isn't just a performance, it's an immersive experience. A mirror isn't needed. We're not just watching "Cabaret," we're in the Kit Kat Club, a part of the performance. And we can't help but feel that Cabaret is sending us a fairly pointed message-- that it hates us for our compliance. So don't be complicit. Don't obey in advance, and know that life is much more than just a cabaret. Support those around you, especially those being targeted by sweeping legislation, recognize the signs, find groups to support the causes you believe in-- and let's be loud about it. There are local groups and branches popping up to protest what is wrong with the world as it is now. Fight how you can. Find ways to oppose when something rubs you the wrong way, and protect the ones who need it. Cabaret is meant to delight and excite, until it reveals an awful truth about the people we are. Cabaret hates us. We should be ashamed, and aspire to do better. So let's do better. Thanks so much for watching! I wasn't able to get into every aspect of Cabaret with this video, but there are tons more online if you want to look them up-- and I can talk more about it if you guys are interested :) Definitely like and subscribe if you'd like more musical content, lemme know what you'd like and I look forward to seeing you again in the next video! I've been Jay, and you've been wonderful. Thanks, bye~!