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1[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cabaret_broadway_1966.jpeg]]
2
3->''"Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!\
4Fremde, étranger, stranger.\
5Glücklich zu sehen, je suis enchanté\
6Happy to see you, bleibe, reste, stay.\
7Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome,\
8Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret!"''
9-->-- '''The Emcee'''
10
11''Cabaret'' is a 1966 stage musical with book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, based on several chapters from Christopher Isherwood's autobiographical 1939 novel ''Goodbye to Berlin'', which was based in turn on real events and people. It also drew enormous influence from ''I Am a Camera'' (1951), a straight play based on ''Goodbye to Berlin''. ''Cabaret'' itself was adapted into a [[Film/{{Cabaret}} film of the same name]] in 1972. No two versions of this story are the same, each featuring wildly different characters - or different versions of the same characters - and following different events. Hell, even the musical itself differs somewhat in content based on which revision you're talking about.
12
13With a sinister but attractive glint in his eye, the Emcee invites us into the decadent provocative world of the cabaret. The story is set in [[UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic Germany in 1931]]. Sally Bowles, a middle-class lass from Chelsea, London, is working as a singer at UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}}'s Kit Kat Klub in order to live the thrilling life the city is supposed to offer. In enters Cliff Bradshaw, a young American writer who comes to Berlin seeking inspiration for his novel, and Sally soon determinedly moves to join him in his room in the boarding house run by Fraulein Schneider (played by [[Theatre/TheThreepennyOpera Miss]] Creator/LotteLenya in the original cast). Their fellow lodgers include the cheerful yet promiscuous working girl, Fraulein Kost, and the gentle, aging Herr Schultz.
14
15As the UsefulNotes/{{Nazi|Germany}} clouds gather, Sally, now with child, is still determined to show the world what a good time she is having. Defiant and brave, she either cannot or will not hear the threatening noises around her, yet the others can.
16
17Schultz courts Fraulein Schneider with old-world courtesy and they become engaged. However, he is Jewish; when Nazi sympathizer Ernst Ludwig breaks up their engagement party, the weary landlady is obliged to let her dreams of marriage go.
18
19Cliff finds he has been almost unwittingly smuggling Nazi funds for Ernst, and is beaten up when he refuses to continue the dangerous work. It's time to leave Berlin, but poor self-obsessed Sally can't let the party end. Back in the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee introduces an ongoing pageant of delusional depravity, a commentary on the "mask of normalcy" people are wearing during the Nazi era.
20----
21!!This musical provides examples of:
22
23* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
24** More of a vocal example; in the original Christopher Isherwood stories, Sally has an unremarkable, even squawky voice. That doesn't work so well for the main character of a musical.
25** In the revival, Natasha Richardson played her with a suitable voice, but with added tired inflections that managed to fit both ways. The 2014 revival with Creator/MichelleWilliams took this even further.
26* AdaptationalNameChange: The main character goes from [[AuthorAvatar Isherwood himself]] in the original stories to Cliff Bradshaw in the musical.
27* AnAesop: The show demonstrates that politics can and will affect you even if you're politically indifferent. It mainly gets this across with Cliff's arc, when he realizes that his work is being used to fund the Nazi Party despite his own lack of affiliation, and that the Nazis have a vendetta against his lover.
28* AffablyEvil:
29** Ernst seems to be a very cordial person, offering Cliff work and recommending a boarding house... up until the audience sees the swastika armband.
30** Depending on the production, the Emcee can seem to be this at times.
31* AnthropomorphicPersonification: It's strongly implied the Emcee is one to Germany itself.
32* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Cliff tries to convince Sally of this.
33* BadGirlSong: The song "Mein Herr", in productions which include it, establishes Sally as a GoodBadGirl.
34-->"You have to understand the way I am, Mein Herr."
35* BetaCouple: Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider
36* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Some productions of the revival have the MC [[HighVoltageDeath jump into an electric fence]] before he can be sent to a gas chamber.
37* {{Bowdlerise}}: The WhamLine at the end of "If You Could See Her" is altered in the original cast recording, with "Jewish" being replaced with "mieskeit" ("ugly" in Yiddish). When the number was televised for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the line was changed to, "If you could see her through my eyes, you'd trade all your problems for mine!"
38* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Two performers at the Kit Kat Klub perform "If You Could See Her", in which a love-struck man insists that his lady -- portrayed by the other performer in a gorilla mask -- isn't that bad when seen through the eyes of love. The final line of the song reveals the real problem: [[spoiler:the lady is Jewish]].
39* BreakingTheFourthWall: In many productions, the Emcee will interact with those in the front-row seats.
40** In the original production, the Club set had a mirror for this reason.
41** In the 1998 Revival the theatre itself become The Kit Kat Klub, with the company walking though the audience.
42** The 2021 Revival transforms the London Playhouse Theater into the Kit Kat Klub.
43* BrokenBird: Sally. Detailed in "Maybe This Time". The 2021 revival has her undergoing a full mental breakdown during her performance of the titular song.
44-->'''Sally''': Everybody loves a winner
45-->So nobody loved me
46-->Lady Peaceful
47-->Lady Happy
48-->That's what I long to be!
49-->Well all the odds are
50-->They're in my favor
51-->Something's bound to begin!
52-->It's gotta happen
53-->Happen sometime
54-->Maybe this time I'll win!
55* BrokenWindowWarning: After it becomes known that Herr Schultz is Jewish, there is a brick thrown through his Grocery's windows, which convinces Fraulein Schneider to break up with him.
56* CampStraight: The Emcee is often portrayed as this.
57* CheshireCatGrin: The Emcee is frequently shown sporting one; Joel Gray's portrayal is a noteworthy example.
58* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning:
59** Depending on what version you're watching; some stage productions have "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" sung by Hitler Youth boys, as in the movie. Others have the reprise sung by Nazis, but the original sung by a young, gay Cabaret boy, often a racial minority.
60** While the 2021 versions of "Cabaret" and "Finale" are sung by the same cast members, Jessie Buckley and Eddie Redmayne's performances have Sally and the Emcee undergo SanitySlippage as their world collapses around them.
61* CrotchGrabSexCheck: In some productions, this is how the MC tells Victor and Bobby apart. (Maybe Bobby is really a girl?)
62* DarkerAndEdgier: Every Broadway revival since the original has changed the book and songs to increase the sexual and political reality that the era was.
63* DarkReprise: "Wilkommen" gets one in the finale.
64* DiscussedTrope: "If this was a movie, you know what would happen?"
65* DownerEnding: Cliff leaves Berlin heartbroken, Herr Shultz and Fraulein Schneider break up, Germany slides into Nazi tyranny and Sally and everyone else will quite likely suffer the consequences.
66** The Revival takes it a step further, with the Emcee stripping off his coat to reveal a prisoner garb, and a Star of David and a pink triangle, indicating that he has been placed in Nazi concentration camp due to being Jewish and gay, and most likely will face the execution line soon. Some performances have him leap forward accompanied by a cymbal crash and a flash of light, implying he [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]] by jumping into an electric fence.
67* DramaticIrony: Also historical irony. Herr Schultz's prediction that the rise of the Nazis will pass soon enough. Particularly tragic since he is Jewish.
68* EndOfAnAge: The final days of the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic and the beginnings of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.
69* EnsembleCast: The original stage musical doesn't have a true star part in terms of stage time or songs, in part because the BetaCouple of Schultz and Schneider were played by better-known actors than Sally and Cliff. Most subsequent productions, following the lead of the movie, beef up the roles of Sally and the Emcee to make them the clear stars.
70* EpicRocking: The reprise of "Tomorrow Belongs To Me".
71* TheEveryman: Played mostly straight with Cliff.
72* {{Fanservice}}: The {{Stripperiffic}} outfits for the [[ChorusGirls Kit Kat Klub Girls and Boys]]. Justified in that it ''is'' a cabaret.
73* FanservicePack: The Emcee in the revival. Joel Grey's slinky, androgynous portrayal had previously been the standard, but the character as played by Alan Cumming really, ''really'' started [[{{Fanservice}} servicing the fans]], with a {{Stripperific}} redesign and a more blatantly bisexual characterization, including a shadow-curtain threesome with both sexes during the "Two Ladies" number.
74* FemmeFatale: A DeconstructedTrope. Sally thinks she can pull it off, but she really, really can't.
75* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Many of the phrases in the opening number "Willkommen" are sung in manner.
76-->'''Emcee:''' Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!\
77Fremde! Étranger! Stranger!\
78Glücklich zu sehen! Je suis enchanté! Happy to see you!\
79Bleibe! Reste! Stay!\
80Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!\
81Im Cabaret! Au Cabaret! To Cabaret!
82* GrapesOfLuxury: Fraulein Schneider treats Schultz's gift of a pineapple as more luxurious than diamonds or pearls.
83* GreekChorus: The Emcee, though for the most part his songs are only tied in thematically, and don't directly comment on the action.
84* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Sally Bowles, [[spoiler: on the other hand, [[AvertedTrope doesn't]]]].
85* GratuitousEnglish: Many of the phrases in "Willkommen" are sung in GratuitousGerman, then in GratuitousFrench, then in GratuitousEnglish.
86* HakunaMatata: The opening number, "Willkommen", and the title song, "Cabaret", are both of the darker life-sucks-but-let's-pretend-for-a-moment-it-doesn't variety.
87-->'''Emcee:''' Leave your troubles outside! In here, life is beautiful... the girls are beautiful... even the orchestra is beautiful!
88* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Sally Bowles. Her drinking increases as the play goes on.
89* HideousHangoverCure: Prairie Oysters, which involves raw eggs and Worcestershire sauce together. Drink it from the toothpaste glass and it tastes just like peppermint!
90* HotterAndSexier: The 1993 London revival (directed by Sam Mendes) completely reinvented the show by amping up the sex appeal. This is best exemplified by its portrayal of the Emcee, famously played by Alan Cumming: in contrast to Joel Grey's dapper, tuxedo-clad Emcee, Cummings's version is a slinky WalkingShirtlessScene with a far more seductive personality.
91* IAmSong: "So What" for Fraulein Schneider.
92* InteractiveNarrator: Played with in the Emcee.
93* IronicEcho: All over the place in the last few scenes, which collectively comprise a darker mirror image of the first few scenes.
94* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: Cliff spends most of the play trying to write a novel and not getting anywhere. At the end, he starts from scratch, writing an opening paragraph that makes it clear he's now writing about his time in Berlin.
95-->'''Cliff:''' There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies... and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany... and it was the end of the world... and I was dancing with Sally Bowles... and we were both fast asleep.
96* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Played for drama with Herr Schultz's prediction that the rise of the Nazis will pass soon enough. Particularly tragic since he is Jewish.
97* IWantSong: "Maybe This Time", when she realizes Cliff is starting to fall in love with her, Sally allows herself to hope and believe that she's finally found the right man for her.
98* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sally is naive, frivolous, and may be very selfish, but she does mean well, and while she may suffer from a LackOfEmpathy, she can very well sympathize to peoples troubles and try to cheer them up.
99* LackOfEmpathy: Sally's problem, she means well, but she has trouble connecting to the genuine problems that people are facing during the rise of the Third Reich in Berlin, and instead pushes for everyone to live life believing that if they ignore them, they'll be happier for it. The entirety of her show stopping Title Song is all about this.
100-->'''Sally''': What good is living alone in your room,\
101Come hear the music play,\
102Life is a Cabaret old chums,\
103Come to the Cabaret,\
104Put down the knitting,\
105The book and the broom,\
106Time for a holiday,\
107Life is a Cabaret old chums,\
108Come to the Cabaret!
109* LastChorusSlowDown: "Cabaret" slows down to begin the final strain ("Start by admitting from cradle to tomb"). After a few bars, it starts picking up speed again as Sally rallies her desperate optimism.
110* LastNoteNightmare:
111** "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" on the 1998 Broadway Cast Recording is already kind of creepy since it's intentionally made to sound low-quality and distorted. Then it stops and the MC harshly whispers the last two words. At least they give you a few seconds to brace yourself.
112*** This is because on stage the MC is playing the song on a Gramophone.
113** Also from the 1998 cast, there is the beginnings of a lovely reprise of "Married" between the sweet old couple. Which is then promptly interrupted by a brick being "thrown" through a shop window. Well, there go all the good feelings.
114* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Sally tries to be a Manic Pixie for Cliff, but her determined spunky optimism and unwillingness to grow up make her ignore the threat of Nazism and drive Cliff away from her.
115* MoneySong: "Sitting Pretty/The Money Song" is a quintessential example.
116* MoodWhiplash: In the revival in the final song, Emcee rather suggestively starts to remove his coat, revealing a concentration camp uniform.
117** At the very end of the reprise of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," the Emcee moons the audience, showing he has a swastika painted on his ass. You want to laugh, but the context is so horrifying.
118** The end of "If You Could See Her."
119* MostWritersAreWriters: Cliff is a writer and is trying to write a novel.
120* MrFanservice: The Emcee is frequently presented as such, but Alan Cumming's portrayal really stands out and tends to ramp the Emcee's sexual side up to eleven.
121* MsFanservice: Sally Bowles. Just look at the image above!
122* MultilingualSong: The lyrics to "Wilkommen" have phrases that are spoken or sung in German, then repeated in French and English.
123* MusicalisInterruptus: In the scene where Fraulein Schneider considers ending her engagement with Herr Schultz and he attempts to reassure her, there is a moment when he seems to be succeeding and they start a reprise of the song they sang when he proprosed -- which is interrupted after a few lines by somebody throwing a brick through Herr Schultz's window, ending the song and the engagement.
124* TheMusicalMusical: The story revolves around the cabaret in which Sally performs, and many of the numbers are performed in-universe as part of the cabaret.
125* OneTrueThreesome: "Two Ladies" is about an in-universe example between the Emcee and two of the Cabaret Girls. In some versions, it's the Emcee, a Cabaret Girl and a cross-dressing Cabaret Boy. In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhX1gL6bjxI Budapesti Operettszinház production]], the threesome is between Sally, Cliff, and the Emcee. In all versions, it's {{Fanservice}}.
126* OpeningChorus: "Wilkommen" featuring the Emcee and the Cabaret Performers.
127* PeoplePuppets: The 2017 UK tour version had "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" performed by ensemble members dressed as puppets in lederhosen, with their strings being pulled by the Emcee standing on a high platform. At the [[LastNoteNightmare climax of the song]], the puppets pull out pistols and shoot themselves in the head.
128* {{Polyamory}}: "Two Ladies" is about a ménage-a-trois style household - one lady does the cooking, the other makes the bed, while the Emcee is the family breadwinner. It parallels the threesome of Sally, Cliff and Max.
129** The nature of Cliff and Sally's relationship may be interpreted as an open one (at least initially), given that they've been together for several months before Sally discovers she is pregnant, and is uncertain as to who the father is. This interpretation is made less ambiguous in the 2017 UK tour version of the show, as Cliff sings "Why Should I Wake Up?" while moving between various sexual partners' beds - namely Sally, a pair of cabaret girls and one of the cabaret boys.
130* QuirkyGirlQuirkyTux: Sally Bowles may wear the fishnet variant in some of the numbers. The Emcee may play with the trope by wearing the tux (or at least pieces of it), but also while wearing very feminine make-up. Sally is a quirky person who lives by her own rules and is the star attraction of the Kit-Kat Club Cabaret. The Emcee gets honorable mention for wearing a tux in a way that flouts gender norms.
131* RetCanon: Productions since 1972 often incorporate one or more of the songs ("Maybe This Time", "Mein Herr", "Money Money") that were added for the movie.
132* SevenMinuteLull: Herr Ludwig loudly proclaims to Fraulein Schneider that her husband-to-be, Herr Schultz, is "not a German" after discovering he is Jewish. The din of the party immediately dies down as everyone turns to stare.
133* SidekickSong: Though Herr Schultz isn't exactly a sidekick, "Meeskite" has a lot in common with other {{Sidekick Song}}s.
134* SmallStartBigFinish: "Maybe This Time". The song starts soft because Sally is contemplating about her relationship to herself in the mirror. Over the course of the song she starts singing more forcefully and with bigger notes, ending with some long belts. The accompanying instrumentation gets louder as well.
135* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: "We have ''no'' troubles here!" Alan Cumming's delivery of the line, coupled with his facial expression, [[BlatantLies only makes the lie more obvious]].
136* ThatsAllFolks: At the end, the Emcee (who introduced the show with "Willkommen -- Bienvenue -- Welcome") sings, "Auf wiedersehn! À bientôt!" The implied last word, "Goodbye!", is never sung (but sometimes spoken as he takes his final bow).
137* ThoseWackyNazis: Zigzagged. The main Nazi sympathizer in the show is Ernst Ludwig and by all accounts starts out a pretty decent fellow but the higher the Nazis rise in prominence, the more obsessed he becomes. Same with the menace the Nazis represent, it's more subtle and in the shadows, growing uglier until the end when they can't escape it.
138* ThreeWaySex: The subject of the "Two Ladies" act at the cabaret.
139* TooBrokenToBreak: Fraulein Schneider is [[StepfordSmiler implied to be this]] in her IAmSong, "So What." The gist of this song is that she's lost so much in her life, such as a luxurious house, that the promise of Cliff not paying enough for his room in her boarding house just doesn't matter.
140* TruckDriversGearChange: Happens in the majority of the songs.
141* VillainSong: "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" for the Nazis. It was so realistic and of the spirit that it got the (Jewish) producers accused of anti-Semitism!
142* WelcomingSong: "Wilkommen".
143* WhamLine: The final line of "If You Could See Her" recontextualizes the whole song: "But if you could see her through my eyes... [[spoiler:She wouldn't look ''Jewish'' at all.]]"
144* WhiteSheep: ShowWithinAShow example: the Mama of "Don't Tell Mama" seems to be the only family member not involved in something seedy, as her daughter is a dancer at a seedy nightclub, her husband is a ''customer'' of the nightclub, her brother or brother-in-law is her daughter's agent for the nightclub, her mother or mother-in-law is ''also'' a dancer at the nightclub, and her son is involved in something bad enough that her daughter 'will squeal on him' if he squeals on her.

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