History Trivia / Cabaret

* HostilityOnTheSet: Bob Fosse and producer Cy Feuer had a falling out when Fosse insisted on hiring Robert L. Surtees as the cinematographer for Cabaret, despite Surtees being potentially responsible for the failure of Sweet Charity. Feuer called Hollywood executives, unaware that Fosse heard him and had a major fight with him that morning. Nevertheless, the executives decided to hire Geoffrey Unsworth, who proved to be highly skilled. Regrettably, Feuer's lack of confidence resulted in the loss of friendship between Fosse and Feuer. Fosse's Oscar win for Best Director, where he thanked Feuer, could have led to reconciliation. However, Cabaret's loss to The Godfather meant Feuer's response went unheard.

** The costume designer they originally hired did not know about 1930s Berlin and showed drawings for Sally Bowles costumes based on 30s Hollywood, so Fosse got his wife Gwen Verdon to buy all the clothes from second stores in Paris.

** Amongst those considered for Sally Bowes were Creator/UrsulaAndress, Creator/JulieAndrews, Creator/FayeDunaway, Creator/JaneFonda, Creator/ShirleyMacLaine, Creator/BarbraStreisand and Creator/NatalieWood.

** The planned script has several scenes deleted because of budget and timing issues.

Bob Fosse and producer Cy Feuer had a falling out when Fosse insisted on hiring Robert L. Surtees as the cinematographer for Cabaret, despite Surtees being potentially responsible for the failure of Sweet Charity. Feuer called Hollywood executives, unaware that Fosse heard him and had a major fight with him that morning. Nevertheless, the executives decided to hire Geoffrey Unsworth, who proved to be highly skilled. Regrettably, Feuer's lack of confidence resulted in the loss of friendship between Fosse and Feuer. Fosse's Oscar win for Best Director, where he thanked Feuer, could have led to reconciliation. However, Cabaret's loss to The Godfather meant Feuer's response went unheard.

* EnforcedMethodActing: When Natalia opens the door to see that the Nazis killed her dog, Bob Fosse replaces the fake dead dog with rotten meat to get a better reaction from Marisa Berenson.

*** Brian originally went with Sally to see her father where he spends the day belittling Sally's ambition to become an actress, so she sees him later dressed in her real clothes and her father nearly disowns her.

** Amongst those who tested for Brian Roberts were Creator/TimCurry, Creator/TimothyDalton, Creator/JeremyIrons and Creator/MalcolmMcDowell (who declined the part when he found it out it was a non-singing role).

* RetroactiveRecognition: Gayle Rankin portrays Sally Bowles in the 2024 Broadway revival, having previously played Fraulein Kost[=/=]Fritzie[=/=]accordion in the 2014 Broadway revival.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Gayle Rankin portrays Sally Bowles in the 2024 Broadway revival, having previously played Fraulein Kost[=/=]Fritzie[=/=]accordion in the 2014 Broadway revival.

** Creator/LizaMinnelli, tried out for it, but producer/director Harold Prince thought she was too good a performer to play a second-rater like Sally.

** Creator/LizaMinnelli tried out for it, but she was deemed too inexperienced at the time.

* CutSong: During the previews, there was three acts and when the show was cut to two acts many songs vanished Three songs that were removed for good, Good Time Charlie", "It'll All Blow Over", and "Roommates" do appear on the CD of the Original Broadway Cast sung by Kander and Ebb.

* CastTheExpect: Creater/LotteLenya was the wife of Music/KurtWeill she was a witness of 1930s Berlin.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: During the previews "If You Could See Her" finished with the line "She wouldn't look Jewish at all", however Jewish Audiences members felt it was comparing Jewish people to Gorillas [[labelnote:Context]]The song comes in Act Two after Fräulein Schneider tells Herr Schultz that she is concerned about the Nazis raising power that their marriage will be used against them Schultz tries to convince her it won't matter only for a brick to smash through the window, the song is then performed showing the audience how the Nazis could promote prejudice [[/labelnote]], and so with threats of a Boycott it was changed to “She isn’t a meeskite at all”. This appeared in the Libretto and the original lyric as an Alternate.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: During the previews "If You Could See Her" finished with the line "She wouldn't look Jewish at all", however Jewish Audiences members felt it was comparing Jewish people to Gorillas [[note]]The song comes in Act Two after Fräulein Schneider tells Herr Schultz that she is concerned about the Nazis raising power that their marriage will be used against them Schultz tries to convince her it won't matter only for a brick to smash through the window, the song is then performed showing the audience how the Nazis could promote prejudice [[/note]], and so with threats of a Boycott it was changed to “She isn’t a meeskite at all”. This appeared in the Libretto and the original lyric as an Alternate.

** Averted with Jill Haworth who played Sally Bowles; she was poorly received in the role and was compared too much to Julie Harris who played Sally in ''I Am a Camera''.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: During the previews "If You Could See Her" finished with the line "She wouldn't look Jewish at all", however Jewish Audiences members felt it was comparing Jewish people to Gorillas [[context]]The song comes in Act Two after Fräulein Schneider tells Herr Schultz that she is concerned about the Nazis raising power that their marriage will be used against them Schultz tries to convince her it won't matter only for a brick to smash through the window, the song is then performed showing the audience how the Nazis could promote prejudice [[/context]], and so with threats of a Boycott it was changed to “She isn’t a meeskite at all”. This appeared in the Libretto and the original lyric as an Alternate.

*** The reason why
* CutSong: During the previews, there was three acts and when the show was cut to two acts many songs vanished Three songs that were removed for good, Good Time Charlie", "It'll All Blow Over", and "Roommates" do appear on the CD version sung by Kander and Ebb.

** In the 1998 Revival, The Telephone Song was deleted and Mien Herr was added, Cliff no longer had a song, instead Sally sang Maybe This Time and Sitting Pretty was removed leaving The Money Song in its place.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: During the previews "If You Could See Her" finished with the line "She wouldn't look Jewish at all", however Jewish Audiences members felt it was comparing Jewish people to Gorillas, and so it was changed to “She isn’t a meeskite at all”. This appeared in the Libretto and the original lyric as a Alternate.
** Ironically Joel Grey sang the original lyric during the show's run without fear, the Original London Production sang it on the Cast Recording and since the movie was darker in motion most revivals use the original lyric without fear.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: During the previews "If You Could See Her" finished with the line "She wouldn't look Jewish at all", however Jewish Audiences members felt it was comparing Jewish people to Gorilla and so it was changed to “She isn’t a meeskite at all”. This appeared in the Libretto and the original lyric as a Alternate.

* StarMakingRole: Kinda with Joel Grey as the Emcee as he did reprised his role in the movie and later was given top billing in the 87 revival, this can also be seen with Alan Cumming to played the Emcee in the 98 revival and the 2017.
** Averted with Jill Haworth who played Sally Bowles, she was poorly received in the role and was compared too much to Julie Harris who played Sally in I am a Camera.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Sandy Wilson the creator of Theatre/TheBoyFriend had written a whole score for a musical version based on the 1951 Play I am a Camera and if done it would have had Creator/JulieAndrews to play Sally Bowles however her manager refused and Wilson's Score was rejected by Hal Prince who was now in charge.
** During the previews the musical was 3 acts long with Act One focusing on introducing the US audience to the world of the Weimar-era, however it was decided that all they needed was in the song Willkommen, with that most of Act One and Act Two was trimmed down and fused together as the packed first act and act three was made into Act Two.
** Creator/LizaMinnelli tried out for it but she was deemed too inexperienced at the time.

* CutSong: The large score of the stage musical was trimmed down, Bob Fosse wanted to focus on the Kit Kat Klub for Musical numbers and only left "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" as a statement.
** The songs "Don't Tell Mama", "Sitting Pretty" and "Married", all originally in the Broadway version, were cut from the movie, however they were used as background music. Don't Tell Mama was heard on Sally's Gramophone, Sitting Pretty is played in the restaurant, where Brian, Sally and Max have lunch, Married can be heard playing on a radio in the background during the scene where Brian and Sally are discussing marriage.

** In the 1998 Revival, The Telephone Song was deleted and Mien Herr was added, Cliff no longer had a song, instead Sally sang Maybe This Time and Sitting Pretty was removed leaving The Money Song in it's place.