See that's a bit over the top for me. I mean yes its meant to be that the war has then taken over etc, but stuff like that makes it out as though the whole show was just some big history lesson with this as its agenda.

That ending sounds so disturbing.

The ending of Cabaret truly sickens me. How a show that was so lighthearted and, well, happy, turned bitter and harmful, really upsets me. Virtually nobody got a happy ending, and to top it all off, they're plagued with anti-Semitism. I guess that was life

^ Well, for intents and purposes, it is set in 1930's Berlin, admist the rise of Nazism so of course it's not a walk in the park.

Of course, of course.

Like I said before, that was life.

Would anyone happen to know how the Original Broadway production ended?

Ahh all right. I hope I didn't sound too bitchy (I get sort of anal about the show - it's my favorite musical). I think that is sort of the beauty of Cabaret because it's so disturbing. It makes you think. And it's one of the few musicals that you can always find something to discuss.

I do believe in the original production the Emcee lines up the Kit Kat boys and girls and shoots them, like a firing squad... though I could be wrong.

In paris, we've got exactly the same ending. I saw the musical for a second time 2 days a go, I was a the kit kat places and it just was amasing, i really love that musical because i love this ambiance so cabaret, and there's a terrible story telling us nazism end bad things that we knew in France too. That part of history is so important for me, i think that's wonderful a musical talk about, that just mean that we have to never forget.

In france Musicals are so boring, french people try to make them, but it just look like some shows done by children at the end of school's year ... pathetic ... That's why i love so much Cabaret, i'm so proud to have it in france. But unfotunately, no advertisings, and not much succes, so sad ...
Each time i see that ending, i can't forget! I go out from the theatre, and 'im juste anable to talk, i think about nazism, and think about the past.
Our actors are really wonderful, I just hope one day, Cabaret will be a succes in France.

(sorry for my english ...)

my question to you is...where does the show start off happy and lighthearteds?? did someone write a "Cabaret" other than Kander and Ebb? LOL

Dear Musicals.Net Posters,

I'm wondering what the original Broadway ending was like.

I do know what the movie ending is like. The movie ends with...SPOILERS...










the camera panning across the Kit Kat Club's new audience, which is comprised totally of the brainwashed people of the new regime of Germany.

Lalalei and Playwrightmo's endings sound somewhat similar to the one my alma mater did ten years ago. More or less, the show followed the original...Cliff was 100% straight, for example. They kept "Meeskite", put in "Money, Money" (but not "Mein Herr") as well as "Sitting Pretty", "Maybe This Time," and gave the Emcee "Don't Go" to sing when Sally was trying to decide whether to leave Germany...as if he were a voice from her subconscious.

During the show, they'd occasionally shown slides on the wings...images of German propaganda posters and such like.

At the finale, right after Sally finished "Cabaret", the cast went into a robotic reprise of "Tomorrow Belongs To Me." Around then, I noticed that yellow Stars of David and pink triangles had appeared on certain cast members.

Then, the backdrop was yanked away to reveal an immense swastika. Recordings of flames and screams were heard. Smoke poured onto the stage and the "marked" characters walked robotically into the smoke. On the wings (much like in Playwrightmo's production), slides of concentration-camp scenes and victims (Anne Frank among them) were projected, finally dissolving into the words "NEVER FORGET" and "NEVER AGAIN".

The stage faded into darkness, leaving the Emcee, his makeup looking like a death's head, grinning at us in a spotlight. "Mein Dammen und Herren...where are your troubles now? Forgotten? I told you so! Here we have no troubles! Auf Wiedersehen...a bientot...and I wish you all a very good night!" He snapped a "Heil Hitler" salute which changed to an elaborate bow. Drumroll...and silence.

Although the Holocaust images may have been a bit over-the-top, I think I prefer this presentation of the Emcee, as a sinister figure, to the "concentration camp victim" of the revival, effective as it is. I always considered the Emcee a symbol of the evil that was enveloping Germany, not a victim of it. To me, the Emcee makes more sense as a sinister figure to the last.

That's a perspective I've never seen before. I've always envisioned Emcee as a victim as well. Now I'm intrigued to see a production of it done this way..

I'd forgotten how much I loved this show..