Cabaret Finale- Page 4

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 9/17/08 at 11:23pm

Why do all the Cabaret finales have to basically say, "Yeah, we're pretty much screwed"?

I found out as I did this show a second time that this is basically a trip into the mind of Cliff as he is writing his novel. The novel lets us enter in his own mind, and how HE saw the Cabaret. WE saw it as kind of a diversion from the troubles of the time, which is apparently the cause of the evening at the Kit Kat Club. The way HE saw it (and as he is writing it), was the "end of the world", and the dance in the finale is depicted as violent and harsh, rather than sleazy and whorish. As we hear the dissonant themes being reprised, we can hear echoes of previous characters' conversations about the impending Nazi rise to power, and of Sally as she sings her final song, proudly asserting that "From cradle to tomb isn't that long a stay." And then as the curtain closes and the orchestra plays its last hit, we can get a shocking look at the Nazis' inevitable authority.

The way I'd see it is this: I'd do it the way it was originally staged and orchestrated. As the Emcee takes his bow, he holds it as the curtain goes down, which is not Austrian curtains like the show opens with, but the Nazi flag. I'd say that would give the audience a real start. It would really HIT them right at the last chord (yes, the last chord is how they should do it, not just the cymbal crash).