Cabaret

by Fred Ebb, John Kander

Vocal Score

Genres: Plays, Musicals, Theatre, Fiction, Germany

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1983

Reviews

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This show has it all- great music, a brilliant plot, modern sexuality, all set in the rise of Nazi Germany. Sally Bowles is a British girl singing in a Berlin cabaret, and she meets American writer Cliff Bradshaw, who is struggling to find work and publishers. Based on "I am a Camera" by Christopher Isherwood, the lovers meet a rich German count, who beds both Sally and Cliff, and buys Sally a fur coat. Sally finds she's pregnant, and seeks an illegal abortion, she sells her fur to fund it. The nazis crack down on the gays, lesbians and cross-dressers of the Kit Kat Club, and hound the elderly Jewish fruiterer who is their land-ladies' boyfriend. The expats escape, as Germany descends into Fascist hell. And all set with funny, bawdy, romantic songs which belie the darkness of the story.
I performed as a Kit Kat Girl in the old Rialto Theatre, before it had its roof blow off in a cyclone, and became a block of shops.

[lily cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love the musical so why wouldn’t i love the screenplay?!

[Ayne Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the seedy Kit Kat Klub during the Nazi's rise to power in Germany during the 1930s, this darkly pointed musical revolves around English cabaret singer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw. The couple staggers blithely through their lives until they wearily collapse as the "party" grinds to a halt under the reality of the dark world that is rising around them. The sub-plot of the doomed relationship between the elderly Fraulein Schneider, who at long last finds love with Jewish greengrocer Herr Schultz only to have it ruined by anti-Semitic violence, is particularly poignant.

[Nika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in this show with the Rockville Musical Theatre Group in Md. Some tap dance numbers

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite musical.
Based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Chrisstopher Isherwood
Hardbound script

[Dan Blackley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rise of Nazism was the story of this musical cabaret, although it is a very dark musical it is very moving

[BZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it? I lived it. Small theatre is amazing.