What makes Fraulein Kost so significant in 'Cabaret'?

The role is a great opportunity for comedy, fire, determination and scary fervour.

Her scenes with the sailors require excellent timing, those with Fraulein Schneider need to have anger and a will to survive (much like Schneider herself) and she sings the show's arguably most chilling number at the end of Act One with near religious zeal.

There's a lot you can do with Kost, and she can very easily steal every scene she's in.

This is great guys thanks!

It also helps whoever is playing the part to get recognition among the awards groups if Sally and Fräulein Schneider are placed in the leading category- a la the 1966 cast.
Wait, Haworth wasn't even nominated for Sally- something I've always found odd. How can you NOT get nominated playing Sally Bowles?

Haworth really alienated critics and audiences, accordning to that largely uninformative, recent book about the making of Cabaret. Apparently her performances varied wildly from (*again apparently) note perfect, to distracted and lazy, night after night).

Also in the 1998 version she is a Kit Kat Girl and sings the German section of "Married".

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I don't think Liza should have played Sally on Broadway. The Sally of the movie is a completely different animal than the one on stage. I actually really hate the movie, since it bears little to no resemblance to the stage show.

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Jealous of you folks. I hope to see a top notch stage version of Cabaret some day. Saw the tour in LA with Teri Hatcher. Notsogood, unfortunately. (Teri's understudy was on for my performance. Ms. H, it turns out was busy trying to get the Desperate Housewives gig.).

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The Mendes/Marshall production on Broadway with the original cast was the single best theatrical experience I've ever had. It was anchored by the perfect performance of Natasha Richardson and put over the top by the rest of the cast, including a shockingly effective Michelle Pawk. She was beat down, funny and, ultimately, terrifying as Kost. Her belting out Tomorrow Belongs to Me with Denis O'Hare is the second most chilling moment of theatre I've ever witnessed (the first happening later in the evening with the most extraordinary performance of the title song by Ms. Richardson).

There was nothing surprising about the fact that five years later, both Pawk and O'Hare won Tony Awards.

Kost also transforms from a figure of derision to one that demands respect, due to joining the Nazi bandwagon. It's something of a metaphor for the way Naziism gave power to the morally bankrupt over the virtuous.

Wow I didn't know Victoria Clark played the role... That's a very interesting thought

Has the end of Act 1 always been the Kost's reprise of Tomorrow Belongs To Me, all the way back to the original Prince production?

According to my playbill from the original production, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" is first sung by Emcee and the waiters and later done as a reprise by Kost, Ernst, and the guests at the engagement party at the finish of Act I. I differ strongly with those who say the original production was traditional or conventional. CABARET and COMPANY were the two shows that opened my eyes to how creative, innovative, and unconventional musical theatre could be.