The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival- Page 2
The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
#25re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 5:41pm
You're lucky I'm 5 feet tall and... well, not capable of much physical strength.
And I wouldn't throw anything at you! 
#26re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 6:16pm
Was anyone able to catch one of the Stamos/Leeves performances?
I heard that Leeves was very much just like her character from "Frasier" and hard to understand at times.
#27re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 6:22pmLeeves was shrill and screechy. Not a good Sally at all.
#28re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 6:26pm
And MEF, as you can tell I am a big fan of Ringwald's Sally.
Didn't get to see Leigh, unfortunately.
cabarethed
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/03
#29re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 6:29pmIn my opinion, Leeves/Stamos sucked big time. She just spoke so fast and had no emotion. I thought she was fine at the time next to Stamos, but thinking about it years later made me realize otherwise. He wasn't the worst. That dishonor is reserved for Jon Secada, the man who pissed all over the role of the Emcee.
#30re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 6:33pmI have to also agree that Raul overshawdowed Adam. Adam is a terrific performer and I enjoyed his emcee, but Raul's performance was just overpowering. I was slack-jawed with wonder while I watched him. I don't mean to go overboard, but I just will never forget it.
theatrespaz
Stand-by Joined: 3/5/05
#31re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 7:08pmI saw this show the first time I ever went to New York and my girlfriend and I still talk about it. We saw Neil Patrick Harris and Deborah Gibson and Tom Bosley was also in it which was a treat. Now I'm not sure how these guys compare to anyone else, but I thought they were all perfect. Seeing Doogie up there in that role was certainly unique and we had a great table seat right next to the stage. My girlfirend considers it the best musical she's ever seen, period and I've dragged her to quite a lot. We usually see about 10-12 shows every time we visit, plus I work for an arts presenter.
#32re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 7:13pm
My favorite Fraulein Schneider was Carole Shelley, by far.
Althouth, I missed Polly Bergen and I'm sure she was astounding.
#33re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 7:31pm
Oh boy, did I LOVE this production. Although, I'll one up all of you. I once saw this production with my GRANDMOTHER.
I happened to be there on 10/26/01, which was Raul's very first performance. This was a coincidence- we didn't plan this. Anyway, we saw him and Brookie Shields, who were both just wonderful.
I later saw Raul and Molly almost a year later, and they too, were wonderful. It was amazing to see how Raul's performance had grown and changed in that year.
I also saw Adam and Alan, and they were good too.
Nevertheless, Raul was far and away the best Emcee. It was scary how good he was. My favorite Sally was probably Molly. No one will ever touch Carole Shelley as Fraulein Schneider.
I STILL get goosebumps everytime I listen to the finale on the CD. Seeing it live was so shocking.
#34re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 7:32pmOnce again, it's a tragedy that I missed this. Oh well... here's hoping they revive it again sooner than later.
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#35re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 8:15pm
Sadly, I've never seen it. But I have the CD, so I'd have to say my fav Emcee was Alan Cumming. :)
My favorite Kit Kat Girls on the CD were Rosie, Texas, and Helga cause they didn't get enough attention. :)
I made a 13-page thread about Cabaret in all its forms.
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=860983&dt=072705033947
Oh, and I also wrote a brief essay about the revival ending from what I heard and knew about it. Here it is, complete and unabridged!
******
Cliff had just left on a train to Paris, escaping the Nazis. Sally stayed behind after aborting their child. Schneider and Schultz, a Jew, broke up because of the Nazis. Then the Emcee came on, still imploring us to forget everything bad.
"In here, life... is beautiful," he said, painfully whispering the 'beautiful.'
"The girls...are beautiful. Even the orchestra is beautiful."
And he gestured; the lights focused on where the band should have been. But there wasn't any. Yet the music continued, the wall in front of the set fell away.
The set disappeared; the cast stood, shadowy and dim.
And then there was light. Not ordinay light, but a stark white light, one so pure yet so alone that you couldn't tell if it was a heaven or another place that you were seeing.
The increasingly discordant music built to a terrifying roar; the only sounds were an ominous rumbling that seemed to crawl inside you and a violin shrieking.
The violin stopped. Al you could see was shadows and white light. All you could hear was the rumbling.
Then there was silence.
"Auf weidersehen," the Emcee said.
"A bientot....."
Then, slowly, he took off his coat. He was wearing the clothes of a prisoner, a concentration camp prisoner.
The drumroll sounded. The cymbals clashed. And then there was darkness.
***
^_^ It took me a long time to write that. :)
#36re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 8:31pm
Here's a question...what is everyone's interpretation of the final scene?
I've heard people say they're all in heaven.
I've heard people say it's a concentration camp.
I've heard people say it's Cliff's mind trying to forget these horrible memories by blurring them into submission.
I, personally, think the Emcee has been captured by the Nazi's and the the silhouette's of the people behind him represent the millions of citizens thrown into the camp with him. And the way his body is thrown backward at the cymbal clash, represents him being shot.
What do you think it is?
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#37re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 8:40pm
I'm positive it was a concentration camp.
And I think the Emcee and the rest of the cast were there to show that the characters didn't or couldn't get out. Then they all died.
Updated On: 12/3/05 at 08:40 PM
#38re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 8:44pm
I'm sorry...but I can only take your opinion so far.
If you haven't seen it...don't discredit someone's interpretation. It's not mine, but I still respect someone's opinion.
Just because your username is "Emcee4ever" and you've listened to the CR doesn't give you or anyone else the ability to downplay what someone has to say.
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#39re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 8:52pm
Sorry. It's late at night where I am and I'm very sleepy.
*runs to change it*
I do wonder why they thought it was heaven though.
#40re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 8:57pm
I can see how someone would see it as heaven.
Because you can't make out who the people are behind the Emcee. You can't make out faces...it's just silhouettes.
The Emcee is always in front of them. And when he walks towards them, in his concentration camp outfit, he turns around to bid everyone goodbye, and the cymbals clash. If the cymbal clash represents his being shot, then the whole ending can be interpreted as the Emcee going to join the many others who had died, in heaven.
Emcee4ever
Leading Actor Joined: 7/27/05
#41re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 8:59pmThat's an interesting viewpoint! Though I always secretly hoped he escaped whatever camp it was (if it was one). :)
sweeneyfan
Stand-by Joined: 11/29/05
#42re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 9:31pm
The definitive revisal... the best ever.
I saw it 9 times.
Best Emcee: Michael C. Hall
Best Sally: Lea Thompson (by far... my mouth still drops open at the thought of her performance)
Most misunderstood, but certainly most layered Sally: Jennifer Jason Leigh (I don't think the audience should have to work THAT hard to "get" a character)
Best Fraulein Schnieder: Polly Bergen (STUNNING)
Best Reaction by a mother at Cabaret: Mine - when Texas came up to her pre-show and started talking to her in German, and my mother answered I was speechless. I asked what Texas said, and my mom said, "She asked if my breasts were real." "What did you say, Mom?" "100% Real, sweetheart!" (I'm relieved to see I wasn't the only one who took their mom to it)
Emcee I wish I saw: Raul Esparza and Neil Patrick Harris (God he is hot)
I think that horrible hum and smokey scene (along with the concentration camp uniform) point to everyone in a gas chamber/oven. Listen to the hum of the ovens in Schindler's List. It is the same!
#43re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 10:56pm
This may help with peoples' interpretations of the last scene...
In the coffee table book, they include the libretto.
The stage direction for that scene specifically mentions they "oven" sound in the background and very much implies it's all at a concentration camp and all the characters are dead. I'd write it out exactly, but I don't have the book in front of me.
#44re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 11:21pm
I saw this in the summer of 2000 and fell in love with it. Especially with the performance given by Joley Fisher as Sally. I was a semi fan of her work from "Ellen," but didn't think she could ACTUALLY act and sing the way she did. I mean, I don't really agree when people say Sally shouldn't sing well. I find the character more tragic when she can sing well. I saw Joley twice, and both times was amazing. Michael C. Hall did a find job. I then saw it with Vance Avery (Mr. Hall's understudy, I believe) who was okay, and Lea Thompson, who I just didn't care for. Talented, sure but just wrong for this role. Now, her singing was all wrong. It was too polished. Joley had a powerful voice, but let some flaws creep in. The way, I feel, it should be done. Then I saw it with Raul and Molly, and I LOVED Raul! The best Emcee I saw. Molly, for me, just didn't work. But, the show was amazing...is amazing...should have lasted longer.
-Vincent
#45re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 11:24pm
I'd be quite interested to know how many of you who found this production to be groundbreaking saw the original or the '87 revival.
Raunchy? Sexy? Dark? That is the ORIGINAL PIECE. That's what the show IS. There was never anything sweet or cute or precious about CABARET. Ever.
Joel Grey? Scary, menacing, freak-you-out Emcee as much as any in the Mendes production.
Mendes did not completely change the show - he didn't even change it all that much. He added some things. He did not change nor create the basic disturbing feel of the show.
#46re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 11:28pm
Apparently taking one's mother must've been the thing to do. I had wanted to see the revival for awhile, but waited until my mother came out to see me. (It was her first Broadway show.) We went on Raul's first night and he was amazing. I was kinda of scared of him, actually. Anyway, there were a few scenes where I was blushing and cringing because my mom was next to me. But she loved it. After it was over she said, 'Wow. I'll bet you were kind of embarassed during some of those scenes!'
And, adamgreer, there's a coffeetable book?
#47re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 11:47pm
I interpreted the finale as death in a concentration camp. Bleak.
Coffee table book
#48re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/3/05 at 11:49pm
I do agree with whoever it was (sorry, too lazy to look back!) that said how STUNNING Polly Bergen was as Scheider. Just...wow. I dont know that I've heard applause as long and thunderous as the applause Ms. Bergen got after "What Would You Do?", a number that (from what I've seen/heard) traditionally doesnt get applause (because it's built to not get a hand). You hear the phrase "stopped the show cold" thrown around, but I've never seen actual proof of this until Ms. Bergen sang this song. And of course the rest of her performance was genius as well.
As far as Carole Shelley as Schneider...to tell the truth, I've never seen her, uh, live...but I have seen her. She was great in the scenes but in the songs? meh. MEH. Definitely surpassable, evidenced by her understudy that I saw at one point, the wonderful Maureen Moore. Not as good as Bergen, but better than Shelley by leaps and bounds.
I'm another one who saw the Stamos/Leeves pairing. All I can say is THANK THE THEATER GODS that Bergen was also in that cast. They were simply not good.
In my mind, not enough good things can be said about the Raul/Molly pairing. Raul is just incredible. I was drawn into the show in a way that I've never been before or since. I wont say that his performance was 'scary,' but the words that came to mind while watching it were 'dangerous' and 'reckless.' I felt that he was at his best, not in his big moments, but in the times when he was background: walking & observing on the balcony/catwalk, uh, 'grinding' on a chorus boy's lap, etc. It proved to me that, as an actor, it is COMPLETELY possible to always be present and important in a scene and NEVER steal focus. I put this performance as the best male performance and top 3 performances I've ever seen (behind Edie Falco in Frankie & Johnny and Sally Field in The Goat), and I've seen many high-profile and Tony-winning performances. As far as Molly, I thought she was just about pitch-perfect in everything she did...except possibly her accent, which wasnt exactly bad but not great.
Also saw Andrea McArdle as Sally on the first tour, and while it's an unpopular opinion to hold, I thought she was great. Her rendition of the title song remains my favorite to date.
However, I think the backbone of the revival was Candy Buckley as Kost. I can't imagine Pawk or anyone else being better.
#49re: The wonder that was the 1998 CABARET revival
Posted: 12/4/05 at 12:06am
That was one of my favorite things about Esparza's performance....he was always "there." Other actors I saw who played the role did it too, but they weren't nearly as effective as Esparza. I can remember one moment (the second time I saw Esparza) when I turned around during one of the songs, and there he was about a foot from my face looking right at me, just waiting for me to notice It was terrifying.
The only complaint I had about Molly was that she didn't break down at all at the end of "Cabaret." She just kinda kicked the microphone stand a little. It made that moment lose almost all of its power, because you don't see Sally losing it at all.
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