Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Thoughts Upon Seeing "Cabaret"
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2012 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
I've now seen the film and the stage versions of Cabaret. Some thoughts:
- Our leads are basically Kermit and Miss Piggy. In fact, I am now reinterpreting the Meet Cute from The Great Muppet Caper through the lens of Cabaret and it TOTALLY MAKES SENSE right down to the "wait, why don't you have a (British?) accent?" joke.
- I saw the stage version first, so of course I've imprinted on it as "right". And people who saw the film in 1972 didn't first run into Michael York as Basil Exposition from Austin Powers. With that disclaimed, the romance subplot and the political foreshadowing in the stage version are more compelling than those in the film. Also, in retrospect, no surprise that a 2012 stage version in northern California would be more realistic and sensitive about sexuality (especially bisexuality) than a major motion picture from 1972.
- I have the same issue with Cabaret that I had with The Science of Sleep, namely, over time I just get more irritated with main characters who hurt others or themselves. I briefly fantasize about a plot in which the immature or malicious characters realize, "I should leave the story and go concentrate on being a more reliable and kind person," and then the sensible people can get on with, like, teaching English lessons and making art and building nonviolent empowering institutions. Not sure how this squares with my love of Breaking Bad; maybe the poisonous insta-hate ingredient is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl/Guy.
- I also seem allergic to certain phrasings and generalizations in songs, just like the utter Wikipedian pedant you might expect I am. "What use is sitting alone in your room? / Come, hear the music play. / Life is a cabaret, old chum / Come to the cabaret!" Point-by-point refutation:
- Leave the introverts alone and let them be alone in their rooms if they want; it's totally legit to be alone in your room!
- Why are you telling me to come hear the music play? I'm already here! The music is playing! God! Nothing's good enough for you!
- Life is NOT a cabaret, that makes no sense
- I did! I came to your cabaret and then there were Nazis!
- I sound like I'm really down on Cabaret; I'm not. It's interesting and visually spectacular, and the stage version I saw was haunting and creepy in a good way.
- Props to Kander and Ebb for writing a cheery earworm anthem ("Tomorrow Belongs To Me") that the viewer really wants to hum on the way out of the theater, but must squash because one doesn't actually want to be singing about the Fatherland and glory awaiting and so on. The viewer becomes complicit in the glib catchy power of a jingoistic jingle. Nice trick.
Comments
Avram
http://agrumer.livejournal.com/
21 Jul 2012, 17:31 p.m.
Zack
http://www.owlfolio.org/
21 Jul 2012, 20:37 p.m.
Have you seen "Avenue Q"? If you haven't, I'm not sure whether you'd like it or not, but it has some of the same things going on that you call out here. (I thought of it because there's an entire song entitled "There Is Life Outside Your Apartment".)
Sumana
22 Jul 2012, 9:03 a.m.
Now that Avram has opened up the alt-universe possibilities of "Life is a Cabaret" I'm hearing it in Adam West's voice and in a few others' (Lucille Bluth, Dr. Evil, etc.).
Zack, I did see Avenue Q about six years ago, and I actually bought the album because (on the night I saw it live) I liked many of the songs. I think this is partially because I was more forgiving of imperative songs and sweeping generalizations in songs in musicals when I was in my mid-twenties than I am now. But you have caused me to realize that I am more okay with imperatives directed towards another character than I am with imperatives and generalizations directed at the entire audience. I don't remember much more than the titles now, but for that reason, "There Is Life Outside Your Apartment" rubs me the wrong way less than than "The Internet Is For Porn" and "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist". In this light I may re-listen to the album and see how I feel.
For some reason, in my head, the line "Life is a cabaret, old chum" is always delivered by Adam West as Batman.