Cabaret ending..

It very much depends on what version you see, but this sounds similar to (but less sublte than) the '98 revival, which I saw, so...

The real Sally Bowles died in a concentration camp. In the revival, it was staged a little bit differently, and done in a way that you'd have to use a bit more of your imagination rather then see them being carried away or something, but the characters went to a concentration camp. Many, assumedly, were killed.

In the revival, you saw the following: Emcee stood behind Cliff while he spoke, and then a reprise of Willkommen played while he did. As it played, lights came up on Kost, Schultz, Schneider, etc, who were standing on the catwalk. You didn't know where they were... probably on a train. Then, "even the orchestra is beautiful," and the curtain came up, revealing Sally standin in front of empty orchestra seats. That's when the music went out of tune, and the stage curtain went up - all you saw was a HUGE bright white light, and someting that looked like a huge fan. There was a loud noise that sounded like a train. Emcee started walking toward the line of chorus girls - supposed to be a concentration camp - and he spoke - "Auf Wiedersehen. A bientot. Goodbye." He took off his coat, like in yours, under it he had a prisoner's outfit on under it. He bows, and there's this awful noise. I always assumed he was shot.

Your ending sounds like a differently staged version of the same concept, though.

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Updated On: 5/1/05 at 10:24 AM

Like I said, it totally depends on the production.

This thread makes me sad because I want it back.

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Caberet is such a tremendously great show and I love how dark the revival seems to be. I'm just jealous you got to see it at all Emcee, I want to so badly but alas it is gone. This staging sounds profoundly effective.

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The ending you saw, with Sally singing "When I go..." is the original ending to Cabaret. It was changed for the revival.

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I,too, miss this show very much. It is a great piece of musical theatre. When I finish directing musicals, I put the CD away for a very long time. "Cabaret" still continues to haunt me after having done the show almost a year and a half ago. I want another revival!!!

However, many sitting around me didn't understand what had happened

That's pretty understandable, PJ. To be completely honest, the first time I went, the show ended and I was in a bit of shock. I looked at my mom and was like "wait it's just.... over?" It didn't take that long for me to grasp what had happened, but it didn't make sense right away. I just sort of stared into space for a really long time, completely silent.

Rauuuuul.
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Updated On: 5/1/05 at 01:00 PM

This thread has inspired me to bust out the old school Molly as Sally pictures!

I was shocked to recently read what Sally's subtext is during the song "Cabaret". Years and years of hearing that song, I never knew she decides to have an abortion halfway through. Now the song takes on a meatier meaning for me.

Updated On: 5/1/05 at 01:08 PM

When I first saw the revival, there was a woman at a table on the other side of the orchestra who got quite drunk by the end of act 2, and when the Emcee started taking off his overcoat in the finale she stood up and yelled: "Woo-hooooo!!!". This was after a couple of other poorly timed and rude comments, most especially when Cliff slapped Sally.(He went to slap her, and the two weren't in sync, because he wasn't very close to her so when hewent to slap her he didn't come ANYWHERE near her face, and she had a very delayed reaction to it. Literally his hand was long past her face, when she moved her head) Everyone noticed it, but let it go. The drunk lady guffawed, and yelled out "yeah, right!).

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Oh dear.

Who played Emcee, and did he react? Would've made a better ad-lib story had it been anywhere BUT the finale, I guess.

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I was startled to read in the above post that the real-life Sally Bowles died in a concentration camp; this must mean that there was more than one model for the character. Christopher Isherwood, who created the character of Sally Bowles in one of his Berlin Stories (which would be the basis for John van Druten's play "I Am A Camera," which was in turn the basis for "Cabaret") always maintained that he'd based Sally on his friend Jean Ross, a "free-spirited" British girl who stayed in the same rooming house he did in pre-war Berlin -- and who did end up having a near-disastrous abortion; a doctor left a swab in her, and she came close to dying. Ross left Berlin before England went to war against Germany and she lived until the early 1970s; one of her daughters was the thoroughly excellent mystery novelist Sarah Caudwell, who died a few years back at a very young age. Isherwood's various biographies, including Peter Parker's very recent one, all follow Isherwood in identifying Ross as the only model for Sally, but I'd be very interested about others who have also been proposed.

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I actually (yes, I know) have never seen the movie. Baaad me. Anyway, I think the premise was more that Emcee was a represnation of Hitler, rather than one of what Hitler would come to destroy. I don't think it was ask dark, but the revival production as a whole was VERY dirty.

The day they cast Adam was one of my happiest (and most confusing) days.

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