"I Don't Care Much"
"I Don't Care Much"
Bal
Leading Actor Joined: 10/19/04
#0"I Don't Care Much"
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:40am
I love this song. Love, love, love it. It gives me chills.
However, never having seen the revival (or even the live show at all)...could someone tell me the context, and what's going on when the Emcee sings it?
Thank you so much!
"Well, obviously Company is about the Kennedy family. Bobby is played by Raul, and JFK is played by Harvey Fierstein."
-vfd88
#1re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:44am
Cliff has just decided that he wants to leave Berlin, and that he wants Sally to join him, as she is carrying his child. She has just informed him that she's going to have her job back at the club, and he gets upset with her, trying to get her to see that it's unsafe to be there, and that singing in a club can't be her real life, and what she does for a living. He tries to force her to see the harsh realities that surround her. He storms out, telling her to go to the club and "tell them goodbye. Or, better yet, start packing."
Emcee (for the revival) was on top of the orchestra thing above the stage in full drag - black dress, clip in his hair, high heels. His makeup was all black and dripping as though he'd been crying.
There was no action while he's singing, only before and after. Directly after, he observes Cliff get into a fight (forgive me, but I can't remember exactly what over, but Ernst Ludwig is involved) and comes down onto the stage to "welcome back an old friend.... the Toast of Mayfair, Fraulein Sally Bowles" so that she can sing "Cabaret."
Bal
Leading Actor Joined: 10/19/04
#2re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:48am
*sigh* Do I ever wish I hadn't been nine during 1998...
Thank you so much, Emcee. You're splendiferous, as always.
"Well, obviously Company is about the Kennedy family. Bobby is played by Raul, and JFK is played by Harvey Fierstein."
-vfd88
#3re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:49amEm! Edit!
I hung out with Cheyenne Jackson in his dressing room waayyyyyy before he tickled D2. "unleash the girly"
Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch.
Puppies are babies in fur coats.
Tinfoil...The Terrorizing Terminator
#4re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:51amwhoa, I just caught that!
#5re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:52am
"as he is carrying her child."
as she is carrying his child...?
And Ernst and Cliff fight because Ernst wants Cliff to do another errand but Cliff is upset that Ernst is a part of the Nazi party and because of what he did at the party to Herr Schultz.
#6re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:52am
ha, yes. I just woke up - forgive me. On both accounts. 
#7re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:52am
Silly! In thinking on it, wasn't the dress a purple? Purplish black, maybe? God, it's been so long.
I hung out with Cheyenne Jackson in his dressing room waayyyyyy before he tickled D2. "unleash the girly"
Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch.
Puppies are babies in fur coats.
Tinfoil...The Terrorizing Terminator
#8re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:53am
I am writing my final essay on Three shows - one is cabaret. I am choosing a song from each show and creating my own little stroy about Jewish comedy.
I am using "If You Could See Her"
#9re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:55amIt always looked black to me. Black with sequins, so it reflected depending on where you were. Someone can clarify, but I'm pretty sure black. That'd make sense, given the symbolism in the costuming at that point.
#10re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:55amIf You Could See Her Through My Eyes does not represent Jewish comedy.
The truly beautiful should be lawfully restricted from wearing clothing; and the truly butt-ugly should be lawfully mandated from going naked.
#11re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:57am
No, I know.
It's going back and forth between comedy (as in The Producers (Springtime) verses the serious aspects of the situation.
And If YOu Could See her isn't Jewish comedy, but it's funny until we realize what the song means.
#12re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:58amIt is very funny until you get to the tag which of course represents the anti-semetic climate in Germany.
The truly beautiful should be lawfully restricted from wearing clothing; and the truly butt-ugly should be lawfully mandated from going naked.
#13re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:59am
exactly.
I am using "Anatevka," "I Don't Care Much," and "Springtime for Hitler."
#14re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:02am
Two stupid questions:
Fiddler takes place in 1932?
Cabaret takes place in the 40s? Is there an exact year?
#15re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:03amDoesn't Fiddler take place earlier than '32?
The truly beautiful should be lawfully restricted from wearing clothing; and the truly butt-ugly should be lawfully mandated from going naked.
#16re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:03amProbably late 30's on Cabaret. It's before the war.
#17re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:04am
alright thanks.
I think the Fiddler Playbill says the dtae - I don't have it with me though.
#18re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:05amI always thought it took place in the "teens" but I could be wrong.
The truly beautiful should be lawfully restricted from wearing clothing; and the truly butt-ugly should be lawfully mandated from going naked.
#20re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:51am
The Christopher Isherwood story upon which Cabaret is based is set in either 1930 or '31 - early days for the Nazis, which is why Ernst has to smuggle his Nazi stuff into the country - with Cliff's unknowing help.
Fiddler is set in the first decade of the 20th century, I believe. Obviously, there's still a Tsar.
Faced with these Loreleis, what man can moralize!
musicnmath
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/13/05
#21re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:59amIs there an analysis somewhere (on the internet maybe?) of the significance and subtext of each of the cabaret songs? I remember thinking "there's more to this and I'm just not getting it..." I loved reading over this and about the song "cabaret" on some other thread. I'm not asking for Emcee to type out the whole show :) just wondering if that's already done somewhere....
#22re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:03pm
I remember when I first saw the show I just did a ton of googling and came up with some stuff... that's really all I can recommend, seeing as I hadn't bookmarked any of it (for which I'm kicking myself).
PM me if you want, I can try to help.
#23re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:04pm
Ok, The Fiddler playbill says 1905
The Cabaret book says 1930s
musicnmath
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/13/05
#24re: 'I Don't Care Much'
Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:26pm
Thanks, Emcee. For you and anyone else who is interested, I found a site addressing this (I had tried at the time and found nothing!):
https://www.newlinetheatre.com/cabaretchapter.html
Site one for your bookmarks 
I want to see the show again now that I have a clearer sense of it all fitting together! How very clever, by the way...
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