“Cabaret the Musical” has existed since 1966, in prevalence to World War II and how it was affecting the Europeans and more importantly, the common German citizen. Though the rule of Hitler was long gone, as it ended in 1945, the issues prevalent in the musical were still applicable to the time, and even to today. It is based in the Weimar Republic of Germany, characterized by its “gay” nightlife and destitute economy. At the time, people were blinded by Hitlers promise for economic stability that they ignored their neighbors and friends being taken off to concentration camps. While very upbeat, entertaining and catchy, the musical itself holds many deeper themes of ignorance and Nazis which is becoming very widespread again today.
“Cabaret the Musical” was based off of a screenplay called “I Am a Camera” by John Van Druten, which was also based off of the book “Goodbye to Berlin” by Christopher Isherwood. The book tells the same general story of an American novelist traveling to Berlin to try to find material to write about. Cliff Bradshaw, said American novelist, meets a German girl named Sally Bowles who sweeps him off his feet and turns his strong resolve into a reckless one. As in the musical, she drags him to parties and clubs every night to have fun, drink and enjoy life while he gets no time to work on his novel. Eventually, Sally finds herself pregnant but has no idea who the father is. Cliff attempts to convince her to keep the baby, saying it would make their relationship stronger, even if it came out looking like “Max”, one of the owners of the Kit Kat Club she used to work at. The musical, screenplay and book have such a deep meaning of exploring sexuality and love, but also darker topics such as fascism, propaganda and bigotry.
The musical : Songs + analysis
The musical opens with a silly and upbeat song, sung by Emcee, one of the leaders of the Kit Kat Club. In the song, the word ‘welcome’ is said many times in three different languages, German, French and English. Emcee introduces himself as ‘the host’ and introduces all of the boys and girls of the club, including Sally Bowles, “The Toast of Mayfair.” The song and performance gives a glimpse into how the night life was like at the time, ladies and gentlemen everywhere. Being openly gay was something notoriously common for the district Berlin was in at the time, which is very ironic considering all the bigotry towards people coming out today.
Quickly after the introduction, it cuts to a train scene, where an American and a German man meet. They exchange a few words before the conductor comes around to check bags and as he goes to check the German man’s bags, he hides a bag behind the Americans. After the conductor leaves, the German man, which the audience comes to learn is Ernst Ludwig, starts chatting with the American, Cliff Bradshaw. What Cliff didn’t know was that Ludwig just used him as a scapegoat, which was common among Germans (especially Nazis) at the time. Conductors would not check the bags of Americans or other Europeans, so Nazis would usually find some poor unsuspecting French person. This was due to the fact that France was one of the largest places they smuggled stuff from, so they’d pay them a few marks and have them carry packages for the train ride so they didn’t get caught.
In return for his help, Herr. Ludwig gave Bradshaw a recommendation of where to live, in Frl. Schneiders residence for 50 marks. This scene moves into the second song, “So What,” sung by none other than the Frl. herself. In the song, she begins talking about how she used to be rich but through life and unfortunate circumstances, her fortune no longer exists. She wonders ifs 50 marks for a room is really that different from 100 marks, because 50 marks is still 50 marks. Essentially, inflation and war had made her frugal and in the lower class. She talked about how she spent her summers as a girl by the sea, with a maid who cleaned instead of herself, quite the opposite from the time the musical takes place. Frl.Schneider is the representation of the “upper-middle class” at the time and how awfully the economy crumbled for everyone, even the more affluent people. After settling in, Ernst convinced Cliff to come down to the Kit Kat Club, where the third song comes into play.
Sally Bowles gives a performance about how her mother doesn’t know that she’s working in a nightclub, believing her daughter is still pure, religious and living in a convent. It wasn’t really taboo at the time and place to express your sexuality, being flamboyant about it and very flirtatious in a way. However, “Cabaret the Musical” uses sex and glamour to cover up the darker things going on at the time it takes place. Sally’s song, “Don’t Tell Mama,” talks about how her whole family knows and is somewhat involved in the club except for her mother, showing how normalized it was. It’s insinuated that Sally’s mother is religious and expects Sally to be “as pure as mountain snow,” or in other words, a virgin, even though sexual violence was very common, especially from troops and military personnel after Hitler came into rule.
Shortly after that song, Sally and Cliff end up mingling and Sally becomes enraptured with his American accent, wishing to know more about him. Before she goes on for her final performance, Sally ends up getting his address. After that small scene, it cuts to Sally’s final performance, “Mein Herr,” (which in German means “sir”), addressing the owner of the club that she was living with at the time. As the year comes to an end and a new one begins, Sally sings about how she is a vixen of sorts, or a “rover” as she calls it. She discusses how she moves from man to man to travel across Europe in a thrillingly scandalous trip. Lines such as, “You’ll never turn the vinegar to wine mein herr” (Wilson 0:35) and, “Inch by Inch/ Step by Step/ Mile by Mile/ Man by Man” (Wilson 2:01) show how little she cares about him and how she sees men as stepping stones in her bigger goal. Although sounding mean-spirited, as the story progresses it’s revealed that is just the way Sally thinks, and lucky for her, it was possible in this time period, especially since she was a beautiful, young, blonde haired blue eyed woman (if you see where that comes from).
Soon after her performance, Max kicks her out of the club as he was jealous of how much she had taken an interest in Cliff, so she ended up going to the location he gave her and moving in. She doesn’t give Cliff the option to oppose, she just waltzes in with her bags and convinces Frl. Schneider to let her live there, with a raised rent of course. That’s where it cuts into the next song, “Perfectly Marvelous,” which is a song about Sally convincing Cliff to let her live with him. No matter how much he tried to resist, Cliff couldn’t withstand her charm and they ended up living together.
After the scene, it cuts to a little scene with Emcee and two of the nightclub workers performing a song called, “Two Ladies,” which is about how the three of them live together, sleep together and work together. It’s highly inappropriate and rambunctious, leaning into exploring polyamory and other “devious” topics, however there’s a darker meaning to it. It was expensive to live back then and it was nearly impossible to stay afloat on one salary, so people would live together to cut down on costs to try to make rent each month. This song is another great example of using sex and glamour to cover up the darker meanings of reality.
The story progresses with Frl. Schneider being courted by Herr Schultz, a gentleman who owns a fruit mill. He brings her a pineapple, which was a very rare fruit in Germany at the time; considered a delicacy, as a gift for her. She becomes enthralled with Herr Schultz and they begin to have an ‘affair,’ which had a different meaning at the time than it does now. An affair is sleeping and being romantic with a person while you are in a relationship, however, back then, an affair was sleeping with someone while not being married. The vernacular ‘back then’ means something different than it does now which is one of the few ways the times have changed.
At the end of the first part, the song, “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” plays, with Emcee bringing out an old radio and sitting right behind it while the song plays. The audio is crackly and hard to understand, fitting for the technology at the time period. The song feels a lot like childlike wonder, although its meaning is a lot worse than that. It’s a warning about the incoming rise of Nazism in Berlin, although unbeknownst to Cliff, it’s already very present. Emcee ends off the song by whispering the hard hitting line, “Tomorrow belongs… To me.” which is repeated in the song a bit. The way it is a warning is the propaganda used by the Nazis (including that song), to convince the common people that they had a choice, directly contradicting the socialist views that Hitler had.
This song marks the end of the first part of the musical, bringing the stories of fun nightlife and thrill to an end, while Cliff and Sally only get closer. Soon the scene sets back in their room as they come back from yet another party that Sally brought Cliff to. He finds that his mother had given him a check to keep living in Berlin under the pretense that he was so close to finishing his novel and that he only needed a little more, which was entirely false as he hadn’t even started it yet. He was too busy going and partying with his pretty little lady friend, his fears of being too distracted coming true and Sally feels awful for taking his attention for too long. She threatened to leave as it was becoming too expensive for them both to live there for 85 marks a month, as neither of them were working. However, Cliff convinced her to stay and that’s when she drops the bombshell on him that she’s pregnant and wants to get rid of the baby. Cliff begged and pleaded with her to keep the baby, believing that it was the thing they needed to ‘lock in’ per say and work. Cliff made promises to get a job and to take care of her, and she even considers it. The song, “Maybe This Time” starts to play and Sally sings about how she truly is in love and she craves to be happy with Cliff She hoped and prayed that he was the one and that he would stay with her, unlike all the other men in her past.
The lovey dovey moment between the two gets interrupted by Cliff’s long standing German friend, Herr Ludwig, asking Cliff for a favor. He offers him 75 Marks to go to France and bring back a package, as customs doesn’t check American or European bags. Cliff accepts the offer since they are really desperate for money (for reference, 75 marks is almost their whole month’s rent, so today it’s about $856.00). Cue the song, “Money,” which goes over how valuable money truly is and how without it, you would die. Starvation, freezing and loneliness were fears of everyone. For example, “If you happen to be rich/ and you find you are left by your lover,/ though you moan and you groan quite a lot,/ You can take it on the chin,/ Call a cab and begin to recover/ on your fourteen-carat Yacht.”(Cumming 1:17) and, “When you haven’t any shoes on your feet/ and your coat’s thin as paper/ and you look thirty pounds underweight” (Cumming 2:22) are great lines that portray this concept. The song itself has a very upbeat tempo and a very catchy tune, using glamour to show how awful living conditions were in Berlin at the time. Tone is also very prevalent since Emcee’s mood throughout the whole song is almost mocking. This is due to the fact that the world is run by rich people, even though the working class is what really makes it run. The additional people in the song get more and more desperate as the song continues, portraying the desperation and struggle people really had for money.
Soon enough, Frl. Schnieder gets caught with Herr Schultz by one of her tenants, Frl. Kost, who has been known to scold for bringing men in and out at ungodly hours of the night. Herr Schultz proposes to her on a whim in order to save her dignity. They talk about it in the song, “Married,” and end up deciding ‘why not?’, as they’re both older and life isn’t long enough for the hesitation. In a matter of three weeks, they end up getting married and have a lavish engagement party, inviting all of the tenants and their friends. This is where Cliff was going to give the package to Herr Ludwig that he brought from France. The party was going swimmingly, lots of dancing and drinking when Herr Ludwig finally showed up. He says he’s only visiting to give the newly engaged his well wishes and to grab his package, but Frl.Kost asks him to dance, so he takes off his coat, revealing a Nazi band adorned with a swastika around his arm. Cliff was furious, as he didn’t agree with the Nazi party at all and was upset that Ludwig didn’t tell him that was what the package was for, even though he asked to not be told. Ludwig played it off, reiterating that they were friends and to not worry about it. He meanders off to go dance with Frl. Kost where it slips that Herr Schultz is of the Jewish religion and Herr Ludwig is enraged. He storms up to Frl. Schneider to say that he is leaving but Frl. Kost wants him to stay so she starts to perform, “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” again. Everyone joined in and in a sort of melancholic and tense way, they all sang except for Cliff, Frl. Schneider, Herr Schultz and Sally, doing the exact thing Cliff was warning about (ignoring the fact that Nazis were very present). Before the end, Emcee emerged from behind the curtains and flashed his butt, which had a red swastika painted on it; again using sex to cover up the propaganda and bigotry.
In the end, Herr Ludwig convinces Frl. Schneider that she should not marry Herr Schultz and no matter how much she loved him, she decided it was better for her to just stay alone. With the rise in Nazism and Hitler coming into power soon, she had no idea how the economy would turn and being worried about another person seemed too daunting for her, so she broke off the engagement. It’s awful to think that the only thing keeping her from marrying the one she loved was the unpredictability of the future of where they resided.
Once Frl.Schneider announced that to Cliff and Sally, it cuts to Emcee with a lady in a gorilla suit. He sings a song, “Married(reprise)/ If you could see her,” that talks about how he doesn’t care about her looks as it’s a part of her and he loves her for it.. He says he’s happier than ever, giving an example of how it should be. People should find love for how compatible they are, not because of looks or religion, contrasting to the relationship between Frl. Schneider and Herr Schultz. It then cuts back to Frl.Schneider and Cliff, with Cliff trying to convince her that she can’t give up that easily, opening into, “What would you do?” Unfortunately for Frl.Schneider, she doesn’t have the same liberties as Cliff does. He’s an American, his life isn’t in Berlin. If something fails for him he can pack up and move to Paris or better yet, go back home where things are considerably better at the time. She can’t get up and move, her only way of income is in Berlin, her family is in Berlin, her friends and her life is all in Berlin. During this song she tries to convince Cliff to look through her eyes and asks what he would do if he was in her shoes. She sounds so awfully sad and miserable, being scared for what is to come, and he can give her no consolation as he himself has no idea what she could do for her or for her ex lover.
Cliff, however, is sure what he wants to do regarding his relationship with Sally. He tries to convince her to move back to America, even though she really doesn’t want to after she got her job back at the club. He tells her to consider it but starts packing her clothes for her anyway before she goes out to work. It cuts to Emcee, who sings a song about how tough times are getting, how there’s no room for love anymore, only work. “I Don’t Care Much” explores the themes of prostitution that have been present throughout the whole musical but not brought up directly. The phrase, “Lips grow cold with the rent to meet” (Cumming 0:52), gives a great example of how he’s no longer getting the clients and attention he once had. This is because instead of spending money on escorts and entertainment, people have to pay their increasingly impossible rent to survive.
Coming close to an ending, Sally returns to the nightclub to perform “Cabaret,” which talks about how she had a friend named Elsie who died of overdose. Even though people made fun of how she died, Elsie looked so happy as a corpse that Sally decided that was how she was going to go out. A very morbid idea as she’s sitting in a frilly dress, adorned with jewels and makeup singing, yet again, in a very catchy and upbeat song. The intro to the song is presented by Emcee, who sounds so tired, scared or just straight up exhausted, much different than the very energetic and charismatic front he had put on the whole show. After her performance, it is implied that she went and got an abortion that cost her coat as well as all the money she had. She had come home late and with no jacket so Cliff was worried about her and she said, “If it wasn’t for that greedy doctor.” That’s when Cliff knew what Sally had done and his first reaction was on the violent side. He slapped her across the face with nothing but pure hatred. He told her that they were going to America whether she liked it or not, but again, she refused. She didn’t want to go anymore, especially not with him. Sally blamed herself for everything that happened, saying that she messed it up again, even if she thought that this was the time that she wasn’t going to be left. Cliff gives her the ticket to Paris nonetheless, if she changed her mind, but it’s quite obvious that she wouldn’t. So, he left but before he could, Sally Bowles’ last words to Cliff Bradshaw were,” Dedicate your book to me.”
The musical ends off with the song, “Finale,” which opens up with Cliff on the train to Paris, being asked if he’d return to Germany again and him saying likely not. “You did not find our country Beautiful?/ Yes, I found it beautiful” (Cumming 0:30). Then it starts to recap his book about his adventures in Berlin before he starts singing the intro song, “Willkommen” before Emcee takes over. After the lyrics, it shows all of the people who stayed in Berlin and Emcee was front and center, wearing a long leather jacket before teasingly taking it off. His facial expressions were crazy and suggestive, until the jacket came off and his face fell. There he was, the owner of the Kit Kat Club and narrator/host to the audience, adorned in a striped uniform, seen at concentration camps. A single pink triangle on the left side of his chest. He bowed and it was over.
Cabaret: The Ukraine Version
As brought up earlier, Cabaret goes over some heavy topics of Nazism and propaganda. A resurgence of this musical has been showing up through TikTok due to a Ukrainian cast performing and it becoming a popular version. A lot of people missed the whole point of the musical though, commenting things such as, “Wow, I wish I was there to see it,” even though there is a literal war going on right now in Ukraine. Even the person who plays Emcee, who got a lot of fame for the role, said that it’s not safe where he is and that it’s scary. People forget that the whole reason for “Cabaret” is to cover up what’s happening with glamour and sex, completely ignoring the suffering that is going on.
