Fifty years ago, a Broadway classic was born when John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff鈥檚 Cabaret opened on Broadway. But what opened on Broadway in 1966 is, for many, quite different from the Cabaret we鈥檙e used to seeing today. Unlike shows like Gypsy or Oklahoma!, classic musicals that have been repeatedly revived with more or less unchanged books and scores, Cabaret has seen multiple dramatic transformations in both its book, score, and staging as it was adapted for the screen and then revived on Broadway three times. Each incarnation was groundbreaking for its time, but each new revision also pushed the envelope further and further in terms of the authenticity of 1930s Weimar Germany.
Cabaret first opened on Broadway November 20, 1966. It started its life as Goodbye to Berlin, a semi-autobiographical novel by Christopher Isherwood that recounts his time in 1930s pre-Nazi Berlin. The novel was adapted into a play, I Am a Camera, by John Van Druten in 1951; Julie Harris won her first of five career Tony Awards originating the role of Sally Bowles in this play. The production was also famous (or rather infamous) for receiving a New York Times review by Walter Kerr with the headline 鈥淢e no Leica.鈥�
Sandy Wilson鈥攚riter of The Boy Friend that introduced Broadway to Julie Andrews in the 1950s鈥攚as working on a musical adaptation of the Van Druten play when he learned that Harold Prince, fresh off producing the mega-hit Fiddler on the Roof, had purchased the rights to both the Isherwood novel and the Van Druten play. Prince was planning his own musical version of the story, and he鈥檇 hired Joe Masteroff (She Loves Me) to pen the book. It was initially thought that Wilson鈥檚 existing score would be used, but ultimately Prince and Masteroff asked John Kander and Fred Ebb to come on board, hoping they鈥檇 be better able to match the musical style of Weimar Germany.
With Prince as both producer and director, the original Broadway production of Cabaret opened November 20, 1966 at the Broadhurst Theatre. It notably broke with many time-tested musical theatre conventions of its day, both in terms of content and form. Aside from a chorus of scantily-clad Kit Kat Girls and a plot that dealt frankly with anti-Semitism and abortion, the production also jettisoned a traditional overture and show curtain for an abruptly beginning opening number (鈥淲ilkommen鈥�) and an exposed stage that featured a large mirror, reflecting the audience back onto themselves. The show was a hit, winning eight 1967 Tony Awards, including best musical, score, director, choreographer, and featured actor awards for Joel Grey and Peg Murray.
For director and choreographer Bob Fosse鈥檚 1972 movie adaptation, he encouraged writers Jay Allen and Hugh Wheeler to go back to Isherwood鈥檚 original stories, and they ended up with a screenplay that resembled the source material more than Masteroff鈥檚 stage book. Isherwood鈥檚 real-life homosexuality was incorporated into the character modeled on him (Brian, changed from Cliff in the stage adaptation), who became bisexual. Fosse also departed from the stage version by deleting all but one of the non-diegetic songs taking place outside of the Kit Kat Klub, like 鈥楶erfectly Marvelous鈥� and 鈥楽o What?鈥� He then added three new Kander and Ebb songs, 鈥淢ein Herr,鈥� 鈥淢oney,鈥� and 鈥淢aybe This Time.鈥�
The movie was a huge success both financially and with critics. It won eight 1973 Academy Awards, including best director for Bob Fosse, best actress for Liza Minnelli, and best supporting actor for Joel Grey, making him one of only eight actors to win Tony and Oscar Awards for playing the same role.
Cabaret came back to Broadway in 1987, in a production that was largely a re-mount of the original Broadway production, complete with its original Tony-winning star, Joel Grey. But Prince and Masteroff did tweak the show a bit. As in the film adaptation, the Isherwood-inspired character became openly bisexual. The song 鈥淲hy Should I Wake Up鈥� was replaced with 鈥淒on鈥檛 Go,鈥� while the film鈥檚 鈥淢oney鈥� was mashed up with the stage鈥檚 鈥淪itting Pretty.鈥� Prince also cut 鈥淢eeskite鈥� and added 鈥淚 Don鈥檛 Care Much,鈥� a song that had been cut from the original production.
In 1993, director Sam Mendes put his stamp on the piece with a radically re-imagined revival at London鈥檚 Donmar Warehouse. Mendes鈥� production set the entire show onstage at the Kit Kat Klub, and he transformed Joel Grey鈥檚 tuxedo-wearing master of ceremonies into the seedy, hyper-sexualized and partially-clothed Alan Cumming. Cliff remained bisexual as he had been in the 1987 Broadway revival, but scenes were added that made this even more explicit.
Mendes also continued to tinker with the song list. He retained the 1987 revival鈥檚 鈥淢oney/Sitting Pretty鈥� mash-up and 鈥淚 Don鈥檛 Care Much,鈥� but also introduced the film鈥檚 鈥淢ein Herr鈥� (replacing 鈥淭he Telephone Song鈥�) for the first time in a stage production. 鈥淭omorrow Belongs to Me,鈥� formerly sung by a group Kit Kat waiters, became a recording of a boy soprano played on a gramophone by the Emcee.
Perhaps the most dramatic change was how Mendes鈥� darker take on the piece manifested in the ending. Whereas the original version has the production ending with a bare stage after the Emcee鈥檚 final lines, Mendes had the Emcee removing his coat to reveal a concentration camp uniform with badges to denote his Judaism and homosexuality.
Roundabout Theatre Company brought Mendes鈥� production to Broadway in 1998, housed in the former Henry Miller鈥檚 Theatre that was then a real-life nightclub. (Patrons leaving evening performances of Cabaret exited past queues of people waiting to get in to the post-performacne club space.) Mendes expanded his concept past what he鈥檇 been able to do at the Donmar, giving Broadway audiences a fully immersive experience of a 1930s Weimar cabaret. Alan Cumming recreated his performance as the Emcee, with Natasha Richardson taking on Sally Bowles, both of whom won Tony Awards.
It was not, however, a direct copy of the Donmar production. Rob Marshall was brought on as co-director and choreographer, and he brought a Fosse-influenced dance style to the piece鈥檚 musical numbers. 鈥淢oney鈥� was performed by itself without 鈥淪itting Pretty,鈥� and 鈥淢aybe This Time鈥� from the film adaptation was added as well.
This production became a huge hit for Roundabout. Just under a year after opening, the production moved to Studio 54, where it continued to run for nearly six years. In fact, the production was so well-received that Roundabout brought it back to Broadway in 2014, again with Alan Cumming. This production was Cabaret鈥檚 third Broadway revival, and notably its second re-mounted revival production.
Because Cabaret has been so heavily revised over the last 50 years, there is no one definitive version of the piece; the original Broadway production, 1987 revival, and 1998 revival versions of the book and score are all currently available for performance by stock and amateur companies, a distinction held by no other modern Broadway musical besides Bernstein鈥檚 Candide (which actually has four different revisions of the piece available for performance).
Cabaret鈥檚 powerful story remains remarkably timely nearly 80 years after Isherwood鈥檚 original stories were published, which is probably why the piece continues to resonate with audiences 50 years after it debuted. Only time will tell whether one of these revisions will become the definitive version of this Broadway classic, but we can probably count on seeing productions of Cabaret continue all over the world for new generations of theatre lovers to discover.
Logan Culwell-Block is a musical theatre historian, 半岛体育's manager of research and curator of . Please visit .
