I really don't understand this sexy Emcee thing, probably because I saw Wayne Sleep playing him. Looking at pictures of the "sexy" version.. I'm really glad I saw it the way I did.

The "sexy emcee" take, though controversial, was a valid and realistic choice made due to the changing of exactly what kind of "klub" the Kit Kat Klub really is.

The original staging simply had the Cabaret be a literal cabaret in Berlin. The revivals, without heavily altering the book, implied that the Kit Kat Klub was not a cabaret, but a "burlesque house," the euphemism of choice for Berlin's notorious sex clubs. The Berlin sex club era is a recognized symbol of the decadence of Germany at the period, and with times being more liberal, the show's traditional staging was changed to reflect a perhaps more historically accurate portrayal of the cabaret lifestyle of the era.