History Theatre / Cabaret

* SmallStartBigFinish: "Maybe This Time".

* BrokenWindowWarning: After it becomes known that Herr Schultz is Jewish, there is a brick thrown through one of Fraulein Schneider's windows, which convinces her to break up with him.

* EndOfAnAge: The final days of the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic and the beginnings of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany
* EpicRocking: The reprise of "Tomorrow Belongs To Me"

* 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 UpToEleven

* BiTheWay:
** Cliff, in any version more recent than the original ({{Bowdlerise}}d) production script.
** The Emcee, too; he comes off as the type who'd go for AnythingThatMoves, though.

* 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 [[BiTheWay bisexual]] characterization, including a shadow-curtain threesome with both sexes during the "Two Ladies" number.

* 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 [[BiTheWay 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}}.

With a sinister but attractive glint in his eye, the Emcee invites us into the decadent provocative world of the cabaret. It's 1929. Sally Bowles, a middle-class lass from Chelsea, London, is working as a singer at 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.

* 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 Caberet. The Emcee gets honorable mention for wearing a tux in a way that flouts gender norms.

[[quoteright:316:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cabaretp_8130.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width-right:316:"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."]]-]

''Cabaret'' is a stage musical based on a set of short stories by Christopher Isherwood (collected in ''Goodbye To Berlin''), which in turn were based 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 of the same name in 1972. No two versions of this story are the same, all starring 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 what revision you're talking about.

The movie was directed by Creator/BobFosse and won eight Academy Awards, including for Fosse's direction, Creator/LizaMinnelli's performance as Sally and Joel Grey's as the Emcee. It is particularly notable for dominating the awards in the year of ''Film/TheGodfather'', though the latter's comparatively few awards (three) still included Best Picture.

* FemmeFatale: A DeconstructedTrope. Sally thinks she can pull it off, but she really, really can't. In the film version, Brian quips that she is, "about as ''fatale'' as an after-dinner mint."

* MovieBonusSong: "Mein Herr", [[IWantSong "Maybe this Time"]] and "Money Money".

!!The film provides examples of:

* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
** 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...
** 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.
** Subverted in the film's famous dance scene with Sally and the bentwood chair. Minnelli and Fosse worked hard to show the typically untrained technique and stereotypical moves that an enthusiastic amateur like Sally would have used. Minnelli - a trained dancer - later claimed that rehearsing these jerky, exaggerated moves seeded many of her later arthritis problems.
** In the movie the elderly BetaCouple Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider are replaced with the much younger Fritz and Natalia.
** Also, the character of Natalia in the original book is a not especially attractive teenage schoolgirl, rather than a beautiful young woman.
* AdaptationalNationality: Sally is British in the original play, but American here.
* AdaptationalSexuality: Brian Roberts is bisexual, unlike his book counterpart, who is gay.
* AdaptationNameChange: The lead male character (played Michael York) is called Brian Roberts rather than Cliff Bradshaw. His job is also changed from writer to English teacher.
* BadGirlSong: Sally's first song is "Mein Herr", which establishes her as a GoodBadGirl.
-->"You have to understand the way I am, Mein Herr."
* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Max views the Nazis as a bunch of thugs, but useful for getting rid of Communists. He remarks upon this as he, Sally, and Brian drive past a dead body covered in a prayer shawl underneath a Nazi banner.
* BetaCouple: Fritz and Natalia.
* BetterAsFriends: Sally goes after Brian but when he confesses that he may be gay, they agree to remain friends. Then subverted when it turns out he's BiTheWay - and Sally becomes the first girl he enjoys sleeping with.
* TheBlindLeadingTheBlind: An innocent virgin asks Sally Bowles for advice on whether her feelings are true love or mere lust, since Sally is 'a woman who is giving her body often to men'. Sally, who is really 'as fatale as an after-dinner mint' can only shrug helplessly.
* ButNotTooBi: The main male character, who is StraightGay in the book, reveals himself to be bisexual in the musical, but we never do see him having an exclusive relationship with another man.
* BookEnds: Begins and ends with the distortion of the Master of Ceremonies, then off the Nazi audience.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When Natalia tells Sally about Fritz making a pass at her, she describes him as having no respect for her father's couch.
* DownerEnding: Less blatantly then the play indicates, but the final image of the blurry mirror reflecting the cluster Nazi soldiers sitting among the crowd suggest that this is so.
* DramaticIrony: The movie takes place in Germany in 1931. Throughout the movie, we see the Nazi party becoming more and more prominent, though not all of the characters do. The end of the film is Sally blithely performing before a crowd of armband-wearing Nazis, though the audience knows even ''that'' will end in time.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Fritz and Natalia. Though how long it will last is not too clear...]]
* EthicalSlut: Sally starts out as a straight example, before evolving into a deconstruction. Both she and Brian engage in TriangRelations with a bisexual billionaire, causing friction in their relationship. She ends up pregnant [[spoiler: but decides to abort the baby, feeling that she couldn't be mother material. It's instead implied that she wants to continue her partying lifestyle, which is ultimately shown to be empty and just escapism]].
* {{Fanservice}}: Liza Minnelli in a sexy black leotard, gyrating around a chair and singing with AudioErotica - the song "Mein Herr" is full of it.
* FanDisservice: The raggedy costumes, caked-on makeup and amateurish choreography strongly downplays, if not outright removes, any potential eroticism in the cabaret ChorusGirls. Coupled with the Emcee's creepy leering, the nightmarish editing and cinematography, and the overall setting of pre-Nazi Germany, the numbers overall come across more sad and sleazy than sexy.
* GagEcho: Sally draws a comparison between Fritz romancing Natalia and an animal stalking its prey. She suggests he needs to 'pounce' to get Natalia to notice him. Much later, Natalia tells Sally about Fritz making a pass at her on the couch. Sally awkwardly says "he pounced".
* InformedJudaism: Both Natalia and [[spoiler: Fritz]], although in his case he was actively trying to hide it.
* KickTheDog: Some Nazis kill Natalia's dog and [[StuffedIntoTheFridge leave it on her front porch.]]
* LargeHam: Liza Minnelli's Sally Bowles, whether it's just from her excessive drinking or her personality. But she's a very OTT person.
* LittlePeopleAreSurreal: Subverted: Sally, trying to shock Brian, asks whether he's ever had sex with a dwarf. Brian calmly responds with, "Yes. But it wasn't a lasting relationship."
* MadonnaWhoreComplex: PlayedForDrama. Sally would be the Whore, while Natalia is the Madonna. Natalia has to go to Sally for advice on sexual matters, while Sally herself angsts about whether a 'Whore' like her could ever become a good wife and mother.
* MoneySong: "Money Money", sung by Sally and the MC about how money "makes the world go round". Sung while Sally is enjoying being romanced by a rich bachelor.
* MoodWhiplash:
** Within the one song. "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" starts with a simple boy with a great voice singing. But when the camera pans back to reveal his Swastica on uniform and everyone in the audience joins in together, it gets extremely creepy.
** Really there are quite a few of these. There are numerous small set pieces that show the Nazis taking over Berlin that add a feeling of dread to the happy talk of the characters, like the radio with Nazi propaganda or the swastika posters. Then there are the cabaret songs which cut between the upbeat music and darker scenes, such as a man being beaten perhaps to death.
** Another scene cuts between the MC and some of the Kit Kat Club Girls doing a jaunty dance, and a bunch of young men sneaking into Natalia's yard in order to throw her dead dog against her door, all while chanting "JUDEN! JUDEN!" It is around this time that [[ThoseWackyNazis the MC and the girls switch their hats around, which now look like soldiers' helmets, and march offstage...]]
* MovieBonusSong: "Mein Herr", [[IWantSong "Maybe this Time"]] and "Money Money".
* MusicalWorldHypotheses: All the songs take place in a night club, with the single exception of "Tomorrow Belongs To Me", a patriotic song that a boy sings to a luncheon, with the diners joining in for the last chorus.
* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: Played with. Fritz - under the advice of Sally - 'pounces' on Natalia one afternoon. Natalia describes herself as initially being shocked but quickly realising she enjoys it. Although it straddles the line, there's no reason to think Natalia couldn't have rejected him if she wanted to - or that Fritz wouldn't have stopped if Natalia made it clear she wasn't interested.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Nazis.
-->'''Brian''': You still think you can control them?
* QuieterThanSilence: The credits roll in complete silence.
* QuirkyGirlQuirkyTux: Sally Bowls 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 Caberet. The Emcee gets honorable mention for wearing a tux in a way that flouts gender norms.
* ReallyGetsAround: When Sally gives Natalia the German word for 'fornication', Brian has this to say.
--> [[DeadpanSnarker "Trust ''that'' to be the one German word you pronounce perfectly."]]
* RevealShot: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNMVMNmrqJE Tomorrow Belongs To Me]]. Starts out as a nice song, and then you start to see the swastikas...
* ShirtlessScene: Brian is shirtless in a trip to the lake house, in the first instance that implies Maximilian has an attraction to him.
* ShoutOut: The sultry dance Sally performs ontop a chair as she sings "Mein Herr" is likely a reference to {{Film/The Blue Angel}}, another famous film set in the cabarets of Weimar Germany, where {{Creator/Marlene Dietrich}} sings "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt" while seductively strattling a chair. Both songs additionally carry themes of infidelity and promiscuity.
* SilentCredits
* SophisticatedAsHell: "I think your paper and you [[ThoseWackyNazis party]] are pure [[PrecisionFStrike crap]], sir!"
* TriangRelations: Sally/[[spoiler:Maximillian]]/Brian are in a Type 8 relationship, although it's far from harmonious.
* WhamLine:
-->'''Brian:''' Oh, ''screw'' Maximillian!
-->'''Sally:''' ''(primly)'' I do.
-->'''Brian:''' ''(chuckles)'' ... so do I.
-->''(Sally's eyes widen in realization)''

* AffablyEvil: Ernst seems to be a very cordial person, offering Cliff work and recommending a boarding house... up until the audience sees the swastika armband.

* BiTheWay: Cliff, in any version more recent than the original ({{Bowdlerise}}d) production script.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "If You Could See Her"

* DramaticIrony: Also historical irony. In possibly the only use of ItWillNeverCatchOn for TearJerker effect, Herr Schultz's prediction that the rise of the Nazis will pass soon enough. Particularly tragic since he is Jewish.

* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: Cliff's novel.

%% * LastChorusSlowDown

** As mentioned in the WhamLine section, the end of "If You Could See Her."
* MostWritersAreWriters

%% * TheMusicalMusical
* 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 [[BiTheWay a cross-dressing Cabaret Boy]]. In all versions, it's {{Fanservice}}.
** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhX1gL6bjxI Budapesti Operettszinház production]], the threesome is between Sally, Cliff, and the Emcee.

* WhamLine: "But if you could see her through my eyes... [[spoiler:She wouldn't look ''Jewish'' at all.]]"
* WhiteSheep: ShowWithinAShow example: the Mama of DontTellMama 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.

* ShoutOut: The sultry dance Sally performs ontop a chair as she sings "Mein Herr" is likely a reference to {{Film/The Blue Angel}}, another famous film set in the cabarets of Weimar Germany, where {{Creator/Marlene Dietrich}} sings "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe eingestellt" while seductively strattling a chair.

The movie was directed by Creator/BobFosse and won eight Academy Awards, including for Fosse's direction, Liza Minnelli's performance as Sally and Joel Grey's as the Emcee. It is particularly notable for dominating the awards in the year of ''Film/TheGodfather'', though the latter's comparatively few awards (three) still included Best Picture.

* AdaptationalSexuality: Brian Roberts is straight, unlike his book counterpart, who is gay.

* EndOfAnAge[=/=]DawnOfAnEra: The final days of the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic and the beginnings of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany

* {{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.

''Cabaret'' is a stage musical based on a set of short stories by Christopher Isherwood (collected in ''Literature/GoodbyeToBerlin''), which in turn were based 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 of the same name in 1972. No two versions of this story are the same, all starring 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 what revision you're talking about.

%% * MoneySong: "Sitting Pretty/The Money Song"
* MoodWhiplash: In the revival in the final song, Emcee rather suggestively starts to remove his coat, revealing a prison uniform.

* WindowPain: A Nazi throws a brick through Herr Schultz's shop.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Fritz and Natalia. Though how long it will last is [[ThoseWackyNazis not too clear...]]]]

** Within the one song. "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" starts with a simple boy with a great voice singing. But when the camera pans back to reveal his Hitler Youth uniform and everyone in the audience joins in together, it gets extremely creepy.

Cliff 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 occupation.