Le monde des musicals

Musical (1966)

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Musique: John Kander •
Paroles: Fred Ebb •
Livret: Joe Matseroff •
Production à la création:

Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw.
A sub-plot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub which serves as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the show.

CABARET raconte l'histoire d'un jeune écrivain américain qui, au cours d'un voyage à Berlin au début des années 30, tombe amoureux de Sally Bowles, la meneuse de revue de la boîte de nuit Kit Kat Klub.
Il découvre alors les idées libertaires et les mœurs sans tabou qui soufflent dans le monde de la nuit berlinoise, au temps où les nazis s'activent à mettre sur pied le troisième Reich.
Sally Bowles et le maître de cérémonie du club essayent alors grâce à leur divertissement extravagant de faire oublier aux spectateurs les difficultés de la vie et les menaces grandissantes du monde extérieur.

Acte I
At the dawn of the 1930s in Berlin, the Nazi party quietly grows stronger. The Kit Kat Klub is a seedy cabaret, a place of decadent celebration set against the backdrop of growing Nazi terror. The Klub's Master of Ceremonies, or Emcee, together with the cabaret girls and waiters, warm up the audience Willkommen. In a train station, Clifford Bradshaw, a young American writer coming to Berlin in the hopes of finding inspiration for his new novel, arrives. He meets Ernst Ludwig, a German who offers Cliff work and recommends a boardinghouse. At the boardinghouse, Fräulein Schneider offers Cliff a room for one hundred marks; he can only pay fifty. After a brief debate, she relents and lets Cliff live there for fifty marks. Fräulein Schneider observes that she has learned to take whatever life offers So What?.
As Cliff visits the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee introduces a British singer, Sally Bowles, who performs a racy, flirtatious number Don't Tell Mama. Afterward, she asks Cliff to recite poetry for her; he recites "Casey at the Bat". Cliff offers to take Sally home, but she says that her boyfriend Max, the club's owner, is too jealous. Sally then performs her final number at the Kit Kat Club aided by the female ensemble Mein Herr. The cabaret ensemble then performs a song and dance, calling each other on inter-table phones and inviting each other for dances and drinks The Telephone Song.
The next day, Cliff has just finished giving Ernst an English lesson when Sally arrives. Max has fired her and thrown her out, and now she has no place to live, and so she asks him if she can live in his room. At first he resists, but she convinces him (and Fräulein Schneider) to take her in Perfectly Marvelous. The Emcee and two female companions sing a song Two Ladies that comments on Cliff and Sally's unusual living conditions. Herr Schultz, an elderly Jewish fruit-shop owner who lives in her boardinghouse, has given Fräulein Schneider a pineapple as a gift It Couldn't Please Me More. However, in the Kit Kat Klub, a young waiter begins singing a song that begins as a patriotic anthem to the Fatherland but slowly descends into a darker, Nazi inspired march song Tomorrow Belongs to Me initially a cappella, but soon accompanied by the rest of the customers and the band.
Months later, Cliff and Sally are still living together and have fallen in love. Cliff knows that he is in a "dream," but he enjoys living with Sally too much to come to his senses Why Should I Wake Up?. Sally reveals that she is pregnant, but she does not know the father and reluctantly decides to get an abortion. Cliff reminds her that it could be his child, and seems to convince her to have the baby. Ernst then enters and offers Cliff a job—picking up a suitcase in Paris and delivering it to his "client" in Berlin—easy money. The Emcee comments on this Sitting Pretty", or, in later versions, "Money.
Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider has caught one of her boarders, Fräulein Kost, bringing sailors into her room. Fräulein Schneider forbids her from doing it again, but Fräulein Kost threatens to leave. She also mentions that she has seen Fräulein Schneider with Herr Schultz in her room. Herr Schultz saves Fräulein Schneider's reputation by telling Fräulein Kost that he and Fräulein Schneider are to be married in three weeks. After Kost leaves, Fräulein Schneider thanks Herr Schultz for lying to Kost. Schultz, however, says that he was serious, and proposes to Fräulein Schneider Married.
At Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz's engagement party, Cliff arrives and delivers the suitcase to Ernst. A "tipsy" Herr Schultz sings "Meeskite" (Meeskite, he explains, is Yiddish for ugly or funny-looking) a song with a moral Anyone responsible for loveliness, large or small/Is not a meeskite at all. Afterward, looking for revenge on Fräulein Schneider, Fräulein Kost tells Ernst, who now sports a Nazi armband, that Schultz is a Jew. Ernst warns Fräulein Schneider that marrying a Jew may not be wise. Fräulein Kost and company reprise "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", this time with even more overtly disturbing Nazi overtones, as Cliff, Sally, Fräulein Schneider, Herr Schultz and the Emcee look on.

Acte II
The cabaret girls, along with the Emcee in drag, perform a kick line routine which eventually becomes a goose-step. Fräulein Schneider expresses her concerns about her union to Herr Schultz, who assures her that everything will be all right Married" (Reprise), but they are interrupted by the crash of a brick being thrown through the window of Herr Schultz's fruit shop. Fräulein Schneider is afraid that the gesture might represent malicious intent, but Schultz tries to reassure her that it is just children making trouble.
Back at the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee performs a song-and-dance routine with a girl in a gorilla suit about how their love has been met with universal disapproval If You Could See Her. Encouraging the audience to be more open-minded, he defends his ape-woman, concluding with, "if you could see her through my eyes... she wouldn't look Jewish at all." (The line was intended to shock the audience and make them consider how easily and unthinkingly they accepted prejudice, but protests and boycott threats from Jewish leaders in Boston led Ebb to reluctantly write an alternate final line, "She isn't a Meeskite at all."[7]) Fräulein Schneider then goes to Cliff and Sally's room and returns their engagement present, explaining that her marriage has been called off. When Cliff protests, saying that she can't just give up this way, she asks him what other choice she has What Would You Do?.
Cliff tells Sally that he is taking her back to his home in America so that they can raise their baby together. Sally protests, declaring how wonderful their life in Berlin is, and Cliff sharply tells her to "wake up" and take notice of the growing unrest around them; Sally retorts that politics have nothing to do with them or their affairs. Following their heated argument, Sally returns to the club. Cliff is accosted by Ernst, who has another delivery job for him. Cliff tries to brush him off, but when Ernst asks if Cliff's attitude towards him is because of "that Jew at the party", Cliff attacks him – only to be badly beaten up by Ernst and his Nazi bodyguards and dragged out of the club. . Back at the Kit Kat Klub I Don't Care Much, the Emcee introduces Sally, who enters to perform again, singing that "life is a cabaret, old chum" Cabaret.
The next morning, the bruised Cliff is packing, when Herr Schultz, who tells Cliff that he is moving to another boardinghouse, visits him but he is confident that the bad times will soon pass. He understands the German people, he says, because he is a German, too. When Sally returns, she reveals that she has had an abortion; Cliff slaps her. Cliff still hopes that she will join him, but Sally says that she has "always hated Paris" and hopes that when Cliff finally writes his novel, he will dedicate it to her. Cliff leaves, heartbroken.
On the train to Paris, Cliff begins to write his novel, reflecting on his experiences: "There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies... and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany...and it was the end of the world." Willkommen" Reprise). In the Kit Kat Klub, the Emcee once again welcomes us (in the 1998 revival, he strips off his overcoat to reveal a concentration camp prisoner's uniform marked with a yellow Star of David and a pink triangle). The cabaret ensemble reprises "Willkommen", but it is now harsh and violent as the Emcee sings, "Auf Wiedersehen…à bientôt…good night" followed by a crescendo drum roll and a cymbal crash.

CABARET est un musical d'abord mis en scène à Broadway en 1966 par Harold Prince, dont le livret fut créé par Joe Masteroff, la musique par John Kander et les paroles par Fred Ebb. Ce spectacle était inspiré des nouvelles de Christopher Isherwood regroupées dans « Adieu à Berlin », dont les thèmes furent repris dans la pièce de Broadway « I Am a Camera », de l'auteur John van Druten (1951).
Ce musical remporta 8 Tony Awards® en 1967 et fut à l'origine du film « Cabaret » récompensé par 8 Oscars®, réalisé par Bob Fosse en 1972, avec Liza Minelli dans le rôle de Sally Bowles.
En 1998, le metteur en scène Sam Mendes décide de revisiter CABARET, avec l'aide du chorégraphe Rob Marshall : une version épurée et plus libertaire, dont les représentations ont toujours lieu dans un véritable décor de boîte de nuit représentant le Kit Kat Klub, se joue alors à Broadway, dans le mythique Studio 54. Cette reprise remporta 4 Tony Awards®, 3 Drama Desk Awards, 3 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 1 Theatre World Award… Plusieurs personnalités ont d'ailleurs interprété Sally Bowles : Teri Hatcher en 1999 ou encore Brooke Shields en 2001.

1 Cabaret peut-être considéré comme un Top musical

2 Cabaret s'intéresse à un événement historique important: Montée du nazisme en Allemagne.

Sandy Wilson, who had achieved success with The Boy Friend in the 1950s, had completed the book and most of the score for Goodbye to Berlin, his musicalization of I Am a Camera, when he discovered producer David Black's option on both the 1951 Van Druten play and its source material by Christopher Isherwood had lapsed and been acquired by Harold Prince. Prince commissioned Joe Masteroff to work on the book, and when the two men agreed Wilson's score failed to capture the essence of late-1920s Berlin, John Kander and Fred Ebb were invited to join the project. The new version was initially a dramatic play preceded by a prologue of songs describing the Berlin atmosphere from various points of view. As the composers began to distribute the songs between scenes, they realized the story could be told in the structure of a more traditional book musical, and they replaced some of the songs with tunes more relevant to the plot. Isherwood's original characters began to change as well. The male lead became an American writer who teaches English; the anti-Semitic landlady was transformed into a tolerant woman with a Jewish beau, Herr Schultz, who owned a fruit store; two language students were eliminated; and two loathsome but integral characters - prostitute Fräulein Kost and Nazi Ernst Ludwig - were added to the mix. The musical ultimately became two separate stories in one, the first a revue centered on the decadence of the seedy Kit Kat Klub, the second a story set in the real world in which the club existed.
After seeing one of the last rehearsals before the company headed to Boston for the pre-Broadway run, Jerome Robbins suggested the musical sequences outside the cabaret be eliminated. Although Prince ignored his advice, Bob Fosse did just that when he directed the film adaptation. In Boston, Jill Haworth struggled with her characterization of cabaret performer Sally Bowles. She was a blonde dressed in a white dress that suggested senior prom more than tawdry nightclub. Prince's staging was unusual for the time. As the audience filled the theater, the curtain was already up, revealing a stage containing nothing but a large mirror reflecting the auditorium. There was no overture; instead, a drum roll and cymbal crash led into the opening number. The juxtaposition of dialogue scenes with songs used as exposition and separate cabaret numbers providing social commentary was a novel concept that initially startled the audience, but as they gradually came to understand the difference between the two, they were able to accept the reasoning behind them.

Original Broadway Production)
After 21 previews, the original Broadway production, directed by Harold Prince and choreographed by Ron Field, opened on November 20, 1966 at the Broadhurst Theatre, eventually transferring first to the Imperial and then the Broadway before finally completing its 1,165-performance run. The cast included Jill Haworth as Sally, Bert Convy as Cliff, Lotte Lenya as Fräulein Schneider, Jack Gilford as Herr Schultz, Joel Grey as the Emcee, Edward Winter as Ernst and Peg Murray as Fräulein Kost. Replacements later in the run included Anita Gillette and Melissa Hart as Sally, Ken Kercheval and Larry Kert as Cliff, and Martin Ross as the Emcee.

Original London Production
The first West End production opened on February 28, 1968 at the Palace Theatre with Judi Dench as Sally, Barry Dennen as the Emcee, Lila Kedrova as Fräulein Schneider and Peter Sallis as Herr Schultz. It ran for 336 performances.

1986 London Revival
In 1986, the show was revived in London at the Strand Theatre starring Kelly Hunter as Sally, Peter Land as Cliff and Wayne Sleep as the Emcee directed and choreographed by Gillian Lynne.

1987 Broadway Revival
The first Broadway revival opened on October 22, 1987, with direction and choreography once again by Prince and Field. The revival opened at the Imperial Theatre, eventually transferring to the Minskoff to complete its 261-performance run. Joel Grey received star billing as the Emcee, with Alyson Reed as Sally, Gregg Edelman as Cliff, Regina Resnik as Fräulein Schneider, Werner Klemperer as Herr Schultz. and David Staller as Ernst Ludwig. The song "Don't Go" was added for Cliff's character.

1993 London revival
In 1993, Sam Mendes directed a new production of the show for the Donmar Warehouse in London's West End. It starred Jane Horrocks as Sally, Adam Godley as Cliff, Alan Cumming as the Emcee and Sara Kestelman as Frau Schneider. Cumming received an Olivier Award nomination for his performance and Kestelman won the Olivier for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical. Mendes' conception was a very different show from either the original production or the rather conventional first revival. The most significant change was the character of the Emcee. The role, as played by Joel Grey, in both prior incarnations, was an asexual, malevolent character in a tuxedo with rouged cheeks. Alan Cumming's portrayal was highly sexualized, wearing suspenders (i.e. braces) around his crotch and red paint on his nipples. The cabaret number "Two Ladies" was staged with the Emcee, a cabaret girl, and a cabaret boy in drag and included a shadow play simulating various sexual positions.
The score was entirely re-orchestrated, utilizing synthesizer effects and expanding the stage band, with all the instruments now being played by the cabaret girls and boys. The brutally satiric "Sitting Pretty", with its mocking references to deprivation, despair and hunger, was eliminated entirely, as it had been in the film version, and replaced with "Money". "I Don't Care Much", which was cut from the original production, was reinstated, and "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time", written for the film adaptation, were added to the score.[5] Staging details differed as well; instead of "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" being performed by a male choir, the Emcee plays a recording of a boy soprano singing it. Most dramatic of all was in the final scene in which the Emcee removes his outer clothes to reveal a striped suit of the type worn by the internees in concentration camps on which were pinned a yellow badge (identifying a Jewish prisoner) and a pink triangle (denoting a homosexual prisoner). Other changes included added references to Cliff's bisexuality, including a brief scene where he kisses one of the Cabaret boys.

1998 Broadway revival
The second Broadway revival was based on the 1993 Mendes-Donmar Warehouse production. For the Broadway transfer, Rob Marshall was brought on board as co-director and choreographer. The production opened after 37 previews on March 19, 1998 at the Kit Kat Klub, housed in what previously had been known as Henry Miller's Theatre. Later that year it transferred to Studio 54, where it remained for the rest of its 2,377-performance run, becoming the third longest-running revival in Broadway musical history, third only to Oh! Calcutta! And Chicago. For the Broadway production, Cumming reprised his role as the Emcee, opposite newcomers Natasha Richardson as Sally, John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff, Ron Rifkin as Herr Schultz, Michelle Pawk as Fräulein Kost, and Mary Louise Wilson as Fräulein Schneider. The Broadway production was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning four for Cumming, Richardson and Rifkin as well as the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. This production featured a number of notable replacements later in the run: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Susan Egan, Joely Fisher, Gina Gershon, Deborah Gibson, Teri Hatcher, Melina Kanakaredes, Jane Leeves, Molly Ringwald, Brooke Shields, and Lea Thompson as Sally; Michael C. Hall, Raúl Esparza, Neil Patrick Harris, Adam Pascal, Jon Secada, Norbert Leo Butz and John Stamos as the Emcee; Boyd Gaines and Michael Hayden as Cliff; Tom Bosley, Dick Latessa, Hal Linden, Laurence Luckinbill, and Tony Roberts as Herr Schultz; and Blair Brown, Polly Bergen, Mariette Hartley and Carole Shelley as Fräulein Schneider.

2006 London Revival
In September 2006, a new production of the show opened at the Lyric Theatre, directed by Rufus Norris, and starring Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally, James Dreyfus as the Emcee, Harriet Thorpe as Fräulein Kost and Sheila Hancock as Fräulein Schneider. Hancock won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical. Replacements later in the run included Kim Medcalf and Amy Nuttall as Sally, Honor Blackman and Angela Richards as Fräulein Schneider, and Julian Clary and Alistair McGowan as the Emcee. This production closed in June 2008 and toured nationally for two years with a cast that included Wayne Sleep as the Emcee and Samantha Barks and Siobhan Dillon as Sally.

The Emcee – The Emcee of the Kit Kat Klub, a leering, ghoulish, flamboyant, figure
Sally Bowles – The headlining British singer at the Kit Kat Klub
Clifford Bradshaw – An American writer traveling through Berlin
Fräulein Schneider – An older woman who runs the boarding house that Cliff and Sally live in
Herr Schultz – An elderly Jewish fruit shop owner who falls in love with Fraulein Schneider
Ernst Ludwig – A German man who befriends Cliff when he arrives in Berlin
Fräulein Kost – A prostitute who rents in Fraulein Schneider's boarding house
Rosie, LuLu, Frenchy, Texas, Fritzy, and Helga – Girls who perform alongside Sally at the Kit Kat Klub
Bobby, Victor, Hans, and Herman – The Cabaret boys of the Kit Kat Klub (Bobby and Victor are twins)
The Nazi Youth – A young boy in the Nazi's
Sailors #1 and #2 – Fraulein Kost's sailors
Nazi Guard – Ernst's bodyguard at the Kit Kat Klub
Max - Owner of the Kit Kat Club

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Cabaret

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Cabaret