뮤지컬 CABARET..

해마다 나이아가라지역에서 열리는 Shaw Festival, 거기에는 주로 연극과 뮤지컬이 주류를 이룬다. 미국과 카나다의 국경지역인 나이아가라인데다가 해마다 여름에 열리는 축제라서 와인을 좋아하는사람들에게도 좋은 기회다. 그래서 미국에서 관광버스로 미국인들이 단체로 내려와서 축제를 즐기고 가기도 한다. 

일시성 이벤트행사라서 사실 연극이나 뮤지컬이 비싼편인데다가 은퇴한 노인들이 주로찾는쟝르라서 클라식한 내용이 항상 자리하고있다. 

캬바레를 보러간다고해서, 나는 일단을 재미있을거라고 생각했다. 가끔 카바레 공연을 보면은 버라이어티 쇼라고 생각했다. 그런데 이 뮤지컬이나 연극 카바레는 기본적으로 베를린을 백그라운드로하는데 사회의 낮은층으로 살아가는 사람들의 이야기가 펼쳐지는데, 나치가 나타나기전의 1930년대 상황과 나치가 등장한후의 1930년대 상황을 보여주는것이 주 스토리이다. 그래서 사실 나에게는 좀 지루한 내용이다. 그런데 주관객들인 노인들은 그 시대를 살았던 사람들이라 좋아하는듯하다. 

http://www.shawfest.com/playbill/cabaret/story/

< Story >

Welcome to the Kit Kat Klub, the hottest nightclub in Berlin. American Cliff Bradshaw has just arrived in town. When he meets nightclub singer Sally Bowles, his life is turned upside down – just as the world is about to turn upside down, with Hitler on the rise in Weimar Germany. Another couple – Fraulein Schneider, Cliff’s landlady, and Herr Schultz, a Jewish grocer – must face the music, while the Emcee invites Cliff and Sally to forget the world around them. Hailed as a rare musical that both challenges and entertains, it premiered on Broadway in 1966 and ran for over 1100 performances, winning numerous Tony Awards including Best Musical.

This justly celebrated musical is a perfect fit for The Shaw, combining as it does a book with real emotional and political heft and a brilliant score. Led by Peter Hinton, whose Lady Windermere’s Fan was universally hailed last season, we are sure to be in for a fascinating new spin on this provocative tale. -JM

CABARET is recommended for ages 15+

Running time is approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes with one intermission.

< notes on the play Cabaret >

The story at the heart of the musical Cabaret originally came from Christopher Isherwood’s stories titled Goodbye to Berlin, a collection of diary entries and sketches published in 1939, detailing his experiences in Berlin before Hitler’s rise to power. He described his experiences in that city in a world that was both real and unreal, full of characters and lives about to be changed by the rise of the Third Reich. one story in particular seemed to capture people’s attention – the story about Sally Bowles, a fictional character Isherwood had based on a real singer. In his story, she is an aspiring actress who sang at a club called the “Lady Windermere” (after Oscar Wilde’s play) and seemed willing to do anything to make money and get rich: “I’m the type which every man imagines he wants”, she says, “until he gets me; and then he finds he doesn’t really, after all.” The story’s popularity inspired John Van Druten, who had previously written comedies like The Voice of the Turtle and I Remember Mama, to adapt it. The play, called I Am a Camera, opened in 1951 and was made into a movie of the same title in 1956, with Julie Harris as Sally.

“It’s so tawdry and terrible and everyone’s having such a good time. Like a bunch of kids playing in their room – getting wilder and wilder – and knowing any minute their parents are going to come home.”

When director Harold Prince, along with musical writers Kander and Ebb and book writer Joe Masteroff, decided to turn Isherwood’s stories into a Broadway musical, they agreed that the sound had to be that of Berlin and Kurt Weill. Their musical focuses on two stories: the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw (no longer the British character of Isherwood). The other story involves the 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 who serves as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the show.

“No use permitting some prophet of doom to wipe every smile away. Life is a cabaret, old chum, come to the cabaret!”

Called a rare musical that is challenging as well as entertaining, it premiered on Broadway in 1966 and ran for over 1100 performances and won numerous Tony Awards including Best Musical. The 1972 film starring Liza Minnelli won eight Oscars. The revival by director Sam Mendes in 1993 re-looked at the musical and added songs from the movie and restored one song from the original production that had been cut: “I Don’t Care Much” was reinstated and “Mein Herr” and “Maybe This Time”, from the film adaptation, were added to the score. Mendes’ production also emphasized the sexuality of the cabarets of the period, particularly in the character of the Emcee. When it transferred to New York after running in London, it became the third-longest running revival in Broadway history and it is this version you will see at the Shaw Festival.