Cabaret Saturday Night January 11th

[macbeth]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 7:48am

Last night at the end of “If You Could See Her”, when Adam Lambert as the Emcee sings "If you could see her though my eyes, she wouldn’t look Jewish at all’ there were snickers of laughter in a few spots in the audience and a hushed silence elsewhere. Adam repeated the line, adding "No...No..This is not for comedy. If you saw her through my eyes, she wouldn’t. look. Jewish. at all”. After the second time, silence. 

Has he been doing this at every show?

 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 8:08am

That’s very odd. There’s always some uncomfortable laughter at that line, every time I’ve ever seen any production of the show. And when I saw it with Adam, he did not do that. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 9:50am

He has been ad-libbing more as he has settled in the role.

Last time I went, he threw in a few exasperated (in character) jabs at the audience when they were otherwise non-responsive to the moments whers audience engagement is really needed.

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 10:11am

He did not do that at the end of November. 

Lotta ad-libs... but not that. 

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 10:18am

Yeah, this has been a discussion on Reddit for a bit now. Whenever there is laughter, he finds some way to make those people uncomfortable. Sometimes, it's just a glare, sometimes he does a mocking cackle, sometimes he repeats the line. 

[jagman106]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 12:40pm

I saw the show with Redmayne, but my cousin saw it last month with Lambert. Apparently, he did something similar at the performance she attended. She mentioned it over the holidays saying that it struck her as odd because she was in her late teens/early 20s when she saw the original production and the ending of that song was very different as the word "Jewish" wasn't used out of deference to 1960s audiences. My cousin said that the emphasis on "Jewish" was repeated with a very distinctive glare from Lambert.

Updated On: 1/12/25 at 12:40 PM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 12:58pm

quizking101 said: "He has been ad-libbing more as he has settled in the role.

Last time I went, he threw in a few exasperated (in character) jabs at the audience when they were otherwise non-responsive to the moments whers audience engagement is really needed."

I would absolutely hate that. If you can't land the moment and need to goad the audience into getting the kind of response you think they should have then it's a failure of the actor, the direction, or both.

[MezzA101]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 1:55pm

Really became an issue for discussion after Joel Grey penned this for NYT.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/24/opinion/cabaret-trump-joel-grey.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ok4.wa39.KGRaybBXzbc2

[THDavis]

Posted: 1/12/25 at 3:31pm

The article by Grey is very haunting. I was set to revisit the Kit Kat Club last week after seeing the original cast in London, but the turn of events over the last few months have left me sick to my stomach even thinking about it. Grey’s reference to people who are resigned to irony out of exhaustion and political overwhelm is very much what I’m also feeling - sheer defeat and difficulty accepting “other opinions” when it comes to the value of another human being. 
 

I wish the message of Cabaret held an uncomfortable mirror up to more people, but I have resigned myself to thinking that nothing will wake people up from the nationalist fatigue being experienced in so many countries - especially in what has been known as the leader of the free world. Arguably “the greatest country on earth” that showed others the possibilities of life in a free nation. And now… wilkommen.