Cabaret is a 1966 musical that centers around Berlin in 1930, and the rise of the Nazi party. It was based on a play called I am Camera by John Van Druten. The original Broadway production includes music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Joe Masteroff. It has been revived five times, and was adapted into a movie musical starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. Cabaret is about a man named Cliff, who moves to Berlin from America in 1930. He quickly becomes involved in the cabaret and party scene that was at its strongest before the second world war. In a place where sexual liberty and acceptance are at their peak, Cliff quickly comes out to those around him as bisexual. He meets Sally Bowles who is a dancer at the Kit Kat Club, where he often goes. they begin a tumultuous relationship, never really defining it as much until she moves in with him. This is all set to the background of the free and liberating culture in Berlin, that everyone around Cliff is heavily involved in, quickly crashing. Sally, however, isn’t willing to let go of what she knows, and rejects Cliff’s urges to move back to the United States. She reveals to Cliff that she is pregnant with a baby, and she isn’t sure if it’s his. She then aborts it and leaves him, going back to the club, where she realizes the world won’t ever be the same again,

The character of the emcee is the most important in the show by far, as he represents the inner struggles of everyone in the world at the time. He is overly sexual, and tied down. He is a jew, and Nazi. He is the most indulgent character. He is the contradiction of every kind of thing and person, and the owner of the Kit Kat Club.

Sally Bowles is naive. She is afraid of love, and runs from it the moment she loses control of her emotions. Her baby represents her hope for love living and dying. If she isn’t in control, she goes to where she is, the Kit Kat Club. But by the end, even the Club can’t save her. In the final scene of the movie, we see the camera pan to a reflective surface of the stage, which reveals the audience to be full of Nazis. She thought she could ignore what was happening around her, but it caught up with her only a few hours after she threw away her chance, and her love.

Cliff is who we all wish we would be in the situation. In the beginning he indulges in the lifestyle, but he sees through the avoidant behaviors of those around him. He urges Sally to leave with him, and we are left wondering what he did. Whether he fell into Sally’s mindset, or kept his morals and went home, leaving this version of Berlin, and it’s culture behind just in time.

This musical was one of the most important ever made, as it forced a critical image of yourself. It provides characters that serve as fractions of everyone’s true selves. The moral and immoral, and the loving and unloving. The Emcee then represents everyone else around you, giving you advice from every direction, pushing you to be the worst and best versions or yourself. Cabaret makes painfully clear the seduction of power, and there is a lot to learn from it in today’s world.