Cabaret question- Page 2

Posted: 10/28/04 at 11:03pm

Kris2,
Thank you so much! I saw the revival six times (two on broadway) and was so moved at the end that it is always a little blurry.

Did anyone see Vance Avery as the Emcee? We saw him right before Jon Secada took over the role and after Neil Patrick Harris departed. Aside from bringing me up onstage at the beginning of Act II (I was in heaven up there), he did a really good job.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/28/04 at 11:10pm

YAY!!!!!! YOU SAW VANCE!!!!
Sorry, I love Vance Avery. What a sweetie. I saw him a bunch of times. He is actually my favorite Emcee, next to Raúl. And I always thought he should have got way more credit than he actually did.

[Kris2]

Posted: 10/28/04 at 11:25pm

Oh man, you guys suck. I am missing this show hardcore right now. Though when I think of Jon Secada, I think of that bug, the cicada. Hehe.

Such a well paced, well thought, dark show. The direction was absolutely mindblowing. The best part was the Tomorrow Belongs to Me (Reprise). Bone chilling. The show was just so much better than the movie (which they definitely pulled out of their butts). Ugh, and the ending! I was blown away. So impressive. Gah! <3


Go see Womyn in 3. Seriously. Though W3 is more about the beauty of life and the connection between all living things and karma and such. There are so many sub-themes, it's beautiful. Just, the dark feel of Cabaret is there but there's more hope. It examines human nature in other ways. Here's my thread on it - https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=488497&dt=102804072545. Don't miss your chance people! Updated On: 10/28/04 at 11:25 PM

[Alix]

Posted: 10/28/04 at 11:57pm

Yeah the ending can certainly have different interpretations for everyone. Scary no matter what though. The first time I saw CABARET I could barely walk when I left I was shaking so much!

I saw a very strange production of CABARET here in VA over the summer. (OMG, soooooo weird. I won't go into it all now but just to give you an idea, 'If You Could See Her' was someone in a flesh colored body suit with just a gorilla head doing a stripper fan dance thing.) Anyway at the end of the show the emcee came out and sang the finale, and then at the very end of the song, over the loudspeaker, Sally said "Politics? What's that got to do with us?" Certainly a different message than I've ever gotten from the end of the show. Maybe they were trying to make it seem more appropriate for today...still not sure what that was all about.

Emcee: Secada was my first emcee too and I hated him but still loved the show...obviously :) CABARET really is so good that even Secada couldn't ruin it for me.

Now you guys have me thinking about CABARET and I miss it even more

Alix Updated On: 10/28/04 at 11:57 PM

[sean martin]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 2:57am

>> The show was just so much better than the movie (which they definitely pulled out of their butts).

Hey, be fair: the movie was made 25 years ago and, at the time, was considered fairly cutting edge in its portrayals.

Posted: 10/29/04 at 7:46am

Vance was incredibly nice. We felt badly too that he didn't get as much credit as he deserved. When we spoke to him after the show he was so gracious and friendly. What is he up to now?

[cabarethed]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 9:18am

There are no dates yet, but it says on the touring website that Vance will be the Emcee, Katrina will be Sally, and Michael Curry will be Cliff. Hope this actually happens, as I couldn't bear to go to the Westchester production despite never seeing Jon Peterson or Amanda Watkins as the Emcee and Sally. And I adore Peterson. And it wouldn't be a production of Cabaret for me without Curry involved in some way. He was my Victor every.last.time.

https://www.cabarettour.com

I felt the Emcee was representative of every character in the recent revival. I thought he showed the destruction of Berlin through its inhabitants perfectly. The decadent Willkommen and raunchy Two Ladies representing Sally and Cliff's lifestyle, and the greedy desperate Money representing Ernst. The hopeful and then evilly corrupt TMBTM in the first Act, to luring more of us into the evolving goosestepping world that the Kit Kat Klub "parodies" during Entr'Acte. The mocking of the older folks just trying to keep things the same and find pure love, yet his look of sadness after everyone in the club leaves during the first Married is heartbreaking. So he throws the brick, leading into the bitter realization of If You Could See Her. And finally, I Don't Care Much, his exact mirroring of Sally, the tragic figure who could start anew but chooses to destroy herself. The ending doesn't have to be happening right at that moment, it's just what the future holds. The Emcee represents all of that as he bows.

Completely different from the movie, which was wonderful in its own documentary-like way, but I prefer the symbolism and other subplots way more. Updated On: 10/29/04 at 09:18 AM

[Kris2]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 11:06am

sean martin: Hey, be fair: the movie was made 25 years ago and, at the time, was considered fairly cutting edge in its portrayals.

Nothing against the movie! I swear. I enjoy the movie a lot too - with Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, who wouldn't? I just think the stage production is so much better and more effective. The movie is a completely different entity and I appreciate what it is, but I would rather see the stage production. Same goes for Bye Bye Birdie (though not quite as radically different as Cabaret from stage/screen).

[Alix]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 1:04pm

Vance, Katrina, Michael Curry, etc. are touring CABARET in Asia right now. They went to Korea and last I heard Japan in August. I hope they do a US tour also though...I need to see it again

Official CABARET Korea website:

https://www.musicalcabaret.co.kr/

A Korean article about CABARET:

https://www.korea.net/news/news/newsView.asp?serial_no=20040630017&part=106&SearchDay=

some random pix from a Korean website:

https://www.livehip.net/concert/showphoto/concert_photo.php?no=559&showNUM=2

A Japanese article:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ft20040818a1.htm

I found another Korean article over the summer with an interview of Katrina and Vance but I can't find it now. All I remember is Vance saying he said Welcome in Korean at the beginning of the show, which the audiences loved, but that he thought they were confused by the rest of the show.

Alix

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 1:11pm

I think the Asian tour ended last month.

Posted: 10/29/04 at 2:01pm

That's so great that Vance is playing the Emcee. Hopefully he'll get the recognition for the role that he deserves.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 10/29/04 at 5:22pm

Reading this thread really helped me make sense of the show, since I've never seen it live (I just have the revival CD). Like, I always wondered what happens over the Emcee's final monologue. Of course, reading all about it just made me wish that much more that I'd seen it when it was still on Broadway.