Amanda Palmer : Sally Bowles?

[Parks]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 3:53pm

I know it's been discussed before--and she played the Emcee (I'm still kicking myself for not seeing her)--but I just discovered this video of her singing "Don't Tell Mama" on YouTube. I think she would be a great Sally. What do you guys think?
Amanda Palmer - Don't Tell Mama

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 4:11pm

Too obvious, in Amanda's opinion.

[Parks]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 4:13pm

Well it's too late for her to say that now... She shouldn't have performed Don't Tell Mama. What a tease.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 4:28pm

I agree that it's obvious, but I'd still kill to see it. And I wish I could have seen her Emcee, as well...

[trentsketch]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:20pm

I'd much rather see her play Polly Peachum in Threepenny Opera. I still have nightmares because of her "Pirate Jenny" performance during the Evelyn, Evelyn tour. Forgive her downward glance, she hadn't memorized the song before that performance and had the chords out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow-6TU4NQNI

But yes, her Sally Bowles would be a memorable one.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:44pm

I'd see it (didn't she consider both parts when she took on the ART production?), but I can't imagine it being as magnificent as her Emcee.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:50pm

She played the Emcee on Broadway?...I never realized that women played this part too. Never saw the Broadway production, but have the 1998 album - I never thought anyone could be Sally other than Liza until I heard Natasha, so I guess I'm open to it!

[BwayTday]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 7:59pm

She played it at ART in Boston (I believe) recently. Not on broadway, I'm not sure if there was any female Emcees on Broadway.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 8:03pm

You are correct.

And she was f'in brilliant.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 8:40pm

Jay - pictures, etc. here:

http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org/events/show/cabaret

There were some rumblings about a recording of this production (or of Amanda and the band doing her songs from it?) being released this Spring, but I haven't heard anything about it in a while so I don't know where that stands. Hopefully it's still going to happen.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 10:10pm

Thanks, luvetheEmcee - seems like it was a really interesting production, and Amanda Palmer seems like the exact right type of person to play the Emcee! From the photos, it seemed a bit different from the Sam Mendes version though...how come they referenced the 1998 production in the credits?

I saw Cabaret in Paris a couple of years ago which was a carbon-copy of the Mendes version as far as I could tell, but would really like to see an English-language version!

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 10:11pm

P.S. Which Emcee do you "luv"? There've been so many!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 10:33pm

Haha. He's just one of my favorite musical theater characters. I think he's so fascinating. You have 17-year-old me to thank for the super-cool username!

Amanda was born to play that part. If there was anyone who was perfect to capture all of the gender-bending that production employed, it was her.

And no, to whoever asked, there were no female Emcees on Broadway.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 10:48pm

Yep, he's one my favorites too. Bit off-topic, but have you (or anyone else) read The Berlin Stories? My interest in the musical makes me want to read it, but not sure how close in resemblence they are.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 10:59pm

Many times. I didn't love it as much as I wanted to initially, probably because the resemblances aren't as exact as I wanted them to be; I basically was looking for Cabaret in memoir form. BUT, Sally is in there, and it's really beautifully written. I'd recommend it. If you're interested in texts that Cabaret came from, though, check out Van Druten's I Am A Camera, and some of Isherwood's other Berlin-centric writings.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 11:13pm

Cabaret in memoir form is basically what I'm looking for too, but it sounds as if I might enjoy it on it's own terms - I'll just play the CD as I read! I Am A Camera definitely interests me too, a trip to the library might be in order sometime soon.

Also, I hope that the BBC's Christopher and His Kind comes out on DVD at some point.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 11:15pm

Me too!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 11:19pm

This thread has become like a successful "The More You Know ..." segment on NBC. Anything that gets people to a library is okay in my book, ya smarty-pantses.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 1:23am

I've never seen her "Pirate Jenny" before. That was pretty divine.

[Kad]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 1:32am

I think she'd make a better Jenny Diver. They could just re-assign "Pirate Jenny" to that character again.