P.L.A.Y.

(Performance = Literature + Art + You)

Student Matinee Series

Music by John Kander

Book by Joe Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Masteroff Directed by
Based on the play Chris Coleman
by John Van Druten Choreographed
and the stories by Joel Ferrell
by Christopher Musical Direction
Isherwood by Don Kot

2007-2008
Season
 1

Dear Educators,
The nation has lost face. The economy is in trouble. Politics are
increasingly polarized. War has gone badly and the demoralizing effects
are readily apparent. Titillating entertainment provides refuge from
serious discussion. It is time for change.
Cast of
This is Germany between the wars. Of course.
Table of Characters
Contents In the second act of Cabaret, Fräulein Schneider asks her young tenants,
“What would you do, if you were me?” It’s the power of theatre to Emcee
introduce characters as flesh and blood, to illustrate those abstract
“Welcome to forces – economics, morality, politics – as personal conflicts that play Sally Bowles
Berlin!” . . . . . . . . 2 out in face-to-face negotiations. This piece, quite remarkably, distills a
profound turning point in history into a story of desperate individual Clifford Bradshaw
bids for survival. Whether your students believe these people are the
Synopsis . . . . . . . 3 powerless victims, unequipped to prevent a dark chapter in world Fräulein Schneider
history, or not…well, that will be an interesting discussion. And that’s
the point. This is a challenging production for any audience, with a vivid Herr Schultz
What was
depiction of the dangers and seductive fantasies of a society floundering
the cabaret? . . . . 3 Ernst Ludwig
to find its future, and it’s all the more historically accurate for the skin
and sadness exposed.
The director’s Fräulein Kost
process: “The “What would you do?” is one of the most powerful questions we can ask,
Kit Kat Girls and
Emcee -- who is whether as students of history or citizens of the present. It demands we
Boys (actors play
this guy?” . . . . . . 5 synthesize our knowledge, empathy, priorities and values, and it has the several roles)
most power when the question resonates with our personal reality.
Cabaret offers that, in the combination of this timely and visceral
Could your production and the chilling historical perspective that affirms, yes: it’s all ________
principles too real.
survive war? . . . . 6 Participation in
You provide your students with a valuable opportunity to grapple with this production
tough questions, and we hope this guide, classroom workshops, and a and supplemental
Could your post-production talkback will start the discussion. Don’t forget to activities suggest-
survival include contact us about the possibility of inviting one of the cast members to
ed in this guide
someone else?. . . 8 visit your classroom after the performance. If your students figure out
what they would do, let us know. We can’t wait to hear. support the
following NYS
Could you Sincerely, Learning
survive on Standards:
the sidelines? . . . 9
A: 2, 3, 4
ELA: 1, 2, 3, 4
Resources . . . . . 10 SS: 2, 3, 4, 5
Kathryn Moroney
Associate Director of Education

“One does what one must.” - Fräulein Schneider

 2

“Welcome to Berlin!”
CLIFF: There was a Cabaret and there was a Master-of-Ceremonies
and there was a city called Berlin in a country called Germany
and it was the end of the world....
American novelist Clifford Bradshaw arrives in Berlin in order to find the inspiring setting
that will compel him to complete his novel; at least, that’s the plan until the lure of the
neighboring Kit Kat Klub seduces him away from his typewriter. Why has this story
inspired so many
Cabaret is based on stories by Christopher Isherwood, who in 1929 was himself a young adaptations? Why
writer – though British rather than American – visiting Berlin for the first time. “I am a does it endure?
camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking,” wrote the young expa-
triate. Isherwood’s novella The Berlin Stories was published in 1946. John Van Druten’s play,
I Am A Camera, was staged in 1951, followed by a movie version in 1955. The famed
American musical writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, along with bookwriter Joe
Masteroff, adapted the story into the musical Cabaret, which opened on Broadway in 1966.
Why go to Berlin?
Berlin of the 1920s offered a unique appeal. In the aftermath of World
War I and the birth of the new republic, censorship had relaxed and
ideas exploded. During the 20s Berlin had 120 newspapers: “left,
right or indifferently popular or pornographic.” (Dave Riley,
“German Cabaret Between the Wars.”) As Germany’s largest city,
former capital of Prussia and the Empire, Berlin was the obvious
choice for the capital of the Weimar Republic, and it became the
cultural magnet as well. Its allure might be compared to how
Americans have thought of New York City – as a testing ground and
launch pad to make one’s name in the most influential circles of
many disciplines, the crucible where ambitious young journalists
and writers, musicians and artists, immigrants and leaders all
converged. What’s more, Berlin enjoyed a sense of emergent destiny, as German culture had-
n’t yet enjoyed the same superlative influence as Europe’s other capitals. When Cliff
explains, “I’d already tried London and Paris,” he is both acknowledging the dominance of
those cosmopolitan giants, and perhaps entertaining a spirit of the times which suggested Discuss the
that the next Big Thing just might be due to come from Berlin…. importance of
“The excitement that characterized setting. What
Weimar culture stemmed in part from works are
exuberant creativity and experimen- defined by their
tation, but much of it was anxiety, place and time?
fear, a rising sense of doom…it was a Can a story be
precarious glory, a dance on the edge “universal” if
of a volcano. Weimar culture was the it depends on a
creation of outsiders, propelled by specific context?
history into the inside for a short,
dizzying, fragile moment.” (Peter Gay,
Weimar Culture)
However, Cabaret invites us to a
Berlin past the peak of its exuber-
ance, where economic depression,
above right: Berlin entertainment district; unemployment, and ongoing political
above: set model by G.W. Mercier
crisis erode the celebration.

“Leave your troubles at the door!” - Emcee

 3
Synopsis
On the train to Berlin, Clifford Bradshaw inadvertently helps Ernst Ludwig to smuggle a suit-
case of “baubles from Paris.” Ernst gratefully recommends a rooming-house for his new
American friend. Fräulein Schneider isn’t happy to rent a room for half its usual price, even to
As their story
unfolds, Cliff an impoverished American author, but decides it’s better than leaving the room vacant. Cliff
commands Sally spends New Year's Eve at the Kit Kat Klub where he meets singer Sally Bowles, and the next
to “face the day she appears in Cliff's room with luggage; Max, the owner of the club and her lover, has
truth about your- thrown her out. Cliff makes little progress on his novel, borrows money from his parents, and
self” and she enjoys his new life with Sally. However, when Sally reveals that she is pregnant, Cliff reconsid-
counters that ers their financial situation. Ernst offers Cliff a job smuggling a briefcase from Paris to
it’s his turn Germany, and Cliff accepts. Cliff’s neighbor Fräulein Kost, a prostitute, discovers that the land-
to do the same. lady is having an affair with Herr Schultz; he is a tenant, a widower, the owner of a fruit shop,
Who strikes you and Jewish. He defends his love by announcing he and Fräulein Schneider are to be married in
as the realist -- three weeks. Cliff arrives at the engagement party with the smuggled suitcase; only after he’s
Cliff or Sally? returned it to Ernst does he note his friend’s swastika armband. Upon learning that Fräulein
Schneider is celebrating an engagement to a Jew, Ernst warns that her marriage is unadvisable.
Fräulein Kost stops him from leaving the party by singing to Germany’s future, and most of the
guests join in exultantly. Herr Schultz drinks too much to remember the events of the party, but
Fräulein Schneider reconsiders the engagement in light of the Nazi fervor she has witnessed,
and calls off the wedding. Cliff similarly reconsiders, concluding that he and Sally can’t raise a
family in Berlin and must return to Pennsylvania. Sally fights with him and has an abortion,
refusing to leave her life behind. Cliff departs alone, writing about the club and the end of the
party in Berlin.

What was the cabaret?

EMCEE: In here life is beautiful.
The basic ingredients of cabaret: an entertaining mixture of comedy, songs, dance and theatre;
a Master of Ceremonies; and a nightclub audience sitting at tables, often dining or drinking. The
roots of the German cabaret lie in pre-war Munich. Its artistic and intellectual culture, coupled
with a considerable following for music halls, meant that Munich was very receptive to the
invigorating new form of entertainment imported from Paris.
However, as Berlin ascended as the new capital, cabaret exploded in that city’s heady, post-
censorship euphoria. Many of the new cabaret forms had little in common with their artistic
forebears. Some were strip clubs, just dives and dance halls marketing sex. However, a new
style of cabaret developed as an outpost of dissent, bridging the gap between high and elitist
art and consumer entertainment for a mass market.
With its mixture of sex, smoke, and jazz, song, skits and stinging satire, it seemed the perfect
medium for an art seeking popularity. Later known as Kabarett to differentiate it from the
purely amusing cabarets, this form was associated with the most radical artistic movements
and experimenters of its day. Not all performances were deeply political, but most reflected on
current events and public figures, often inviting the audience to maintain an active role in the
above: Kit Kat Girl
performance. Kabarett refused to define the limits of art and cultivated the possibilities of
rendering by costume protest and provocation. Satire was its weapon in song, poem and monologue.
designer Jeff Cone
Many distinct voices emerged during this period, though few are well-known today. Kurt
Tucholsky’s songs were sung all over Berlin, and warned of the dangers lurking beneath the
surface of frenzied gaiety. Walther Mehring created brilliant cabaret songs incorporating jazz,

“You have to understand the way I am.” - Sally Bowles

 4
the brutal wit of street talk and the earthy Berlin dialect. Erich Kastner coined the term
Gebrauchslyrik for his own brand of cabaret verse: satirical, witty and compassionate. The
young Bertolt Brecht was drawn to cabaret, which he had experienced during its early days
in Munich, as an exciting means of expression which was dynamic and popular
and had none of the elitism which marked the established theatre.
Gone with the first world war were the feelings that the only way to be support-
ive of the Fatherland was by biting one’s tongue; instead, the interwar chaos
helped encourage German citizens to examine, criticize and attempt to find a
better way of life. Thus, the popularity of cabaret was two-fold: A) citizens
viewed it as a medium for examining the state, and B) depressed from the insta-
bility of the interwar years people were in desperate need of distraction, amuse-
ment, and all the other benefits cabaret provided. In the cabaret Germans could
have a beer, a laugh and conversation in a guilt-free and tolerant environment.
In this climate it was also “fashionable” to enjoy the voyeuristic thrill of mingling
with society's outsiders, as Peter Sachse wrote in the Berliner journal in 1927:
"The latest rage of Berlin ‘Society’ is to spend an evening in the ‘Eldorado.’ Over there sits a
well-known director of a major bank, just there is a gentleman from the Reichstag and a lot
of theatre and film people ... Those who are here for the first time and are curious play a
game, trying to guess who out of the ‘special’ clientele is really a ‘lady’ and who is really a
‘man.’ They don't always guess right. The techniques of dressing up; doing one's hair and
make-up have achieved undreamt of perfection.”

By the late 1920s, Kabarett was already nearing the end of its heyday. Berlin was
marked by economic depression and a polarization of politics, and in the cabaret
political satire was played down in favor of outrageous dance routines and sen-
timental ballads. With many of the acts softening their social and political
comment, it was left to the Master of Ceremonies, or conferencier, to inject the
proceedings with the satirical edge that had been the cabaret's essence. While above: production photo of
many writers and performers collaborated to create the material for the cabaret stage, it was Sally and Emcee
by Owen Carey
the conferencier who introduced the acts and set the tone of the performance. Conferenciers
had to be well-versed in literature and fully in tune with the street politics. As masters of
improvisation they would provide quick repartee to any challenge emanating from the
audience and they acted as antennas of the day’s events. It was a complex role. How would you
define “elitist
Die Katacombe was an example of a cabaret which persisted with its assault on right-wing
art?” What is
politics and the prevailing anti-Semitism. Conferencier Werner Finck kept up a perpetual
barrage of insults at the expense of the “brownshirts” seen everywhere in Berlin. To a Nazi
“consumer
who shouted, “Dirty Jews” he replied, “I'm afraid you're mistaken. I only look this entertainment?”
intelligent.” (Eventually Finck needled the Nazis beyond endurance and Die Katacombe was Where do art
closed.) and entertain-
ment overlap?
When Hitler took power in 1933, cabaret was one of the first victims of Nazi terror. Owners,
managers and performers in the cabarets were overwhelmingly liberal, Jewish, and/or homo-
In times of war,
sexual, and provided immediate targets for the Nazis; homosexual men were one of the first do we crave
classes singled out for the concentration camps – some five years before the order to intern one more than
Jews. German cabaret died a quite literal death as its composers, writers, performers and the other?
conferenciers were arrested and taken to concentration camps and others committed
suicide; those who escaped fled Germany for America or other parts of Europe.
(Taken from “Cultures of Drink: Song, Dance, Alcohol & Politics in 20th Century German Cabarets” by Genevieve Judson-
Jourdain; “From Eldorado to the Third Reich” by Gerard Koskovich.)

“We’re alive! And what good is it - alone?” - Herr Schultz

.

The director’s process: “The Emcee -- who is this guy?”
Director Chris Coleman, chronicled the
Cabaret rehearsal process on his blog.
The following excerpt reveals some of
the interpretive decisions Cabaret
requires:
In the original version of Cabaret, the
Emcee is an entertainer, the audience’s
guide through the evening and a great
showman. But he stands clearly out-
side of the action of the play. In the
version we are using [from the 1998
revival production] he is woven
through the action in a more interest-
ing, though at times more complicated,
fashion. Sometimes he appears in the
middle of realistic scenes, or sings a
lyric along with another character
(when they wouldn’t actually be in the
same reality). He is able to move
in and out of the different realities of
the piece.
Which has led both Wade [McCollum,
who plays the role in this production]
and I to ask: WHO IS THIS GUY?
We know he is the literal Emcee of the
nightclub. We know that he is guiding
the audience through the evening. But
is he more than that?
Ideas that we’ve heard from the cast or
thought of ourselves: “he is a cipher;”
“he is death;” “he is the truth;” “he
is denial;” “he is a wisp of smoke
able to take form and lose form at
will.”
I woke up at 3:00 this morning
thinking: “he is the calibrator of
the truth.” He is always the one
who is asking (and ultimately
deciding) how much we are going
to pretend the truth doesn’t exist,
or how frankly we are going to be
asked to look at the truth of the
situation.
above from top: actor Wade McCollum;
Interested in more behind the scenes costume rendering for Emcee in “Money”
by Jeff Cone; production photo of
observations and photos? Visit the blog
at http://www.pcs.org/blog/tag/cabaret/
“Money” by Owen Carey
5
Can you see this interpretation of the
character as “calibrator of truth” articulated
in the production? Some areas to consider
and choices to look for:
Transitions – where are we?
How have the director and designers
connected the scenes that take place in the
cabaret and elsewhere in Berlin? How is the
Emcee involved in the transitions between
those locations? What impression does his
presence give, particularly in the scenes
where he does not, literally, belong? How
does his relationship with the audience
extend beyond the nightclub stage?
Tone – entertain or enlighten?
Most of the Emcee’s songs offer an
immediate response to a plot development.
Consider “Two Ladies” and “Money.” Note
that “Money” is the first time the Emcee
changes his base costume. What else
changes? Does this number represent a new
facet of the Emcee’s role in any other way?
Performance – what’s “just an act?”
“If You Could See Her” is staged as the
Emcee’s most “artful” performance – full
formal costume, classic choreographic
vocabulary and vocal timbre. Why? (Don’t
miss the very last moment of this number.)
Compare to the Emcee’s next song “I Don’t
Care Much.” When is the Emcee “perform-
ing?” For whom? What does the
costuming, lighting and staging sug-
gest? When do we see the “offstage”
character, and what’s his story?
Influence – what’s in his power?
How does the Emcee calibrate the
truth when other characters sing?
How does he alter the final moments
of Sally’s song “Maybe This Time?”
“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is the
hopeful German anthem that
becomes a rallying call for the Nazis,
and is heard twice in the show;
watch the Emcee’s response in both cases.
What is he doing as it crescendos at the end
of the first act?

“Words sound false when your coat’s too thin.

Feet don’t waltz when the roof caves in.” - Emcee
 6

Could your principles survive war?

CLIFF: Some day I’ve got to sit you down and read you
a newspaper. You’ll be amazed at what’s going on.
SALLY: You mean – politics? “But what has that to do
with us?
All politics, it has been said, is local – regardless of the end result of the
political maneuvering, the genesis always takes place in ones own backyard
and remains there in one fashion or another. Politics, essentially, is the inter-
section of public and private beliefs and the ways in which they influence the
decisions we make. What happens, though, when this intersection pulls the
person in opposite directions?
Cabaret takes place at a time when the entire German population was still
reeling from the social, political and economic effects of World War I and the
Treaty of Versailles which placed the blame for the war squarely on the
shoulders of the Germans. The treaty also called for vast sums of money to
be paid by Germany to the other combatants so that they might rebuild their
countries. This agreement left feelings of ill-will throughout the country,
cutting across most social and economic lines – ill-will towards the
countries that imposed the conditions, towards the German politicians who
Tumult, George Grosz, 1916 agreed to them and towards those in power not resisting (or not resisting
hard enough) the dictates of the agreement.
Upon signing of the Treaty of Versailles, a new German government was established in the
southern town of Weimar – it was to be Germany’s first attempt at a democratic form of
governance. Weimar was chosen because of its history as a center of German classical
culture and as an attempt to distance the new government from the country’s militaristic
past. It was a government that never truly established stability in the country due to its
inexperience with democratic ideals and out-of-control inflation for a good deal of the 1920s.
It did, however, give rise to an artistically vibrant culture centered in Berlin. The relaxation
Note the power of of laws regarding prostitution and other “moral vices” led to a thriving underground culture
the moment when derided by more traditionally-minded Germans as decadent and morally corruptive – citizens
the swastika is who may very well have been drawn to the Nazi promise of a stronger and morally-defined
revealed in this country.
production. The Decimated by the war, Germany had no goods to trade as a way to build up the economy. It
swastika has a was also forced to forfeit several natural resource-rich areas of the country. The response of
long history of the German government was to print up enormous amounts of currency to pay off war loans
use in many Asian, and the loans of industrialists. This currency was also used to pay German workers. The
European, African influx of new currency made it virtually worthless within a very short period of time. At the
and Native American outbreak of World War I, one American dollar was roughly equivalent to 4.2 Papiermarks
cultures for both (the German currency); by 1923, that exchange rate has climbed to one million marks per U.S
social and religious dollar. So broken was the German economy, for example, that people often considered it
reasons. It is still more economically feasible to burn currency to heat their homes than to use the money to
used in many parts purchase firewood. By mid-September 1923, it was found that prices for goods in some areas
of the world with no were rising by the hour – consider the following excerpt from Konrad Heiden, quoted in T.
Nazi-related inten- Howarth’s, Twentieth Century History:
tions. Why would
the Nazi Party “On Friday afternoons in 1923, long lines of manual and white collar workers waited outside
decide to appropri- the pay windows of the big German factories, department stores, banks, offices…staring
ate this symbol? impatiently at the electric wall clock, slowly advancing until at last they reached the window
Can the swastika
ever be relieved of “If you were a German you would
its negative
connotations? understand these things.” - Ernst
 7
and received a bag full of paper notes. According to the figure inscribed on them the paper
notes amounted to seven hundred thousand, or five hundred million, or three hundred and
eighty billion, or eighteen trillion marks -- the figures rose from month to month, then from
week to week, finally from day to day. With their bags the people moved quickly to the door,
all in haste, the younger ones running. They dashed to the nearest food store, when a line had
already formed. When you reached the store a pound of sugar might have been obtainable
for two million; but by the time you came to the counter, all you could get for two million
was half a pound.”
Ernst Ludwig, the charismatic German who befriends Cliff Bradshaw as
he enters Germany, is unapologetic about his belief that it is the National
Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazi party, that will restore Germany
to its former place in the world as an economic and military strength - a
sentiment that gained prominence in the country throughout the 1920s
and early 1930s. Ernst’s politics, like those of most people, are an
amalgam of his wants and needs and concerns, both private and public.
His support for the Nazis may very well be based on a sense of civic
pride, perhaps even duty, and a desire to see Germany rise above its
recent defeat and economic hardship. The sense of military strength and
history had always been well-defined in the country -- a defeat, then, and
the subsequent assignment of blame, would have seemed particularly
stinging to a populace raised on victory. The Nazi leaders consistently
stressed a message steeped in Germany’s military and industrial glory
and the need for the country to replicate that past for the sake of honor
and self-respect.
As politics are a human endeavor, one’s personal views and their more
public political stances do not always co-exist in a consistent manner.
Ernst makes no secret of his Nazi affiliations, yet seemingly sees no
contradiction in taking the newly-arrived Cliff to the Kit Kat Klub for a
night of debauchery at an establishment where there are “telephones on
every table … girls call you …boys call you” – an impulse that would Inflation, George Grosz, 1923
seem to go against the Nazi’s strict views against homosexuality.
Consider, also, Ernst’s interaction with Fräulein Kost, the prostitute who lives in Fräulein How is Cliff’s
Schneider’s rooming house. Prostitution, according to right-leaning Germans, was one of the economic situation
many corrupting pursuits to be found in the Berlin underground. different from the
The seemingly indifferent Sally Bowles also uses her personal views to guide her actions other characters’
throughout Cabaret. An Englishwoman, Sally may not be swayed by appeals to honor in Cabaret? How
Germany’s past glories nor by slights to German dignity. Her apparent disregard for the does this affect
politics of the times, however, still evidences a point of view – choosing, in essence, not to his decisions? His
make a choice. Or has she? In her ode to her prostitute friend Elsie, Sally says that there’s reactions to the
“no use permitting some prophet of doom to wipe ev’ry smile away” – acknowledging that events in the
there is indeed doom outside the cabaret’s door and that she simply hasn’t allowed it to production?
influence her life. How, with peril at the ready, could that be possible? Is it indifference? Self-
preservation? Or the acceptance of what she senses will eventually come? Fräulein Kost
Where Ernst is keenly aware of his political sensibilities and Sally seems to posses none, Cliff tells Fräulein
resides somewhere between the two, at the crossroads of political awareness and personal Schneider that
gratification. He happily joins Ernst at the Kit Kat Klub on his first night in Berlin and just they are “sisters
as easily allows Sally to move in with him the following day. When Ernst asks him to run an
errand for a nice sum of money, Cliff is more than willing to handle the task, allowing him to under the skin.”
enjoy himself with Sally all the longer. It is only after Cliff discovers the nature of his errands Do you think this
for Ernst that he must question himself and his actions – how important is his burgeoning is true? Consider
relationship with Sally? How can he square his errands for Ernst with the knowledge of who the reasons for
he has been supporting? Can his political beliefs and his personal desires coexist? And what Kost’s comment.
does it mean if they can’t?

“Money makes the world go round.” – Emcee

 8

Could your survival include someone else?

FRÄULEIN SCHNEIDER: I saw that one can no longer dismiss the Nazis. Do you think
They are my friends and neighbors. And how many others are there? Fräulein Schneider
is wrong to let
HERR SCHULTZ: Of course – many. And many are Communists – and politics (and
Socialists – and Social Democrats. So what is it? You wish to wait economics) dictate
till the next election – and then decide? ...Governments come – this life choice? Is
governments go. How much longer can we wait? Herr Schultz wrong
to try to convince
What does politics have to do with a couple? Why would they risk a relationship? her otherwise?
What could they know at that moment in history?
Hindsight makes it easy for the Cabaret audience to understand Fräulein
Schneider’s concerns that a marriage to Herr Schultz might be dangerous.
While he paints an idyllic image of what it will mean to be married, we know
the persecution that is coming in Germany.
1933: Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Within months the Dachau concentration camp
was created. The Nazi regime passed laws that barred Jews from holding positions in the
civil service, in legal and medical professions, and in teaching and university positions.
The Nazis encouraged boycotts of Jewish-owned shops and businesses and began book
burnings of writings by Jews and by others not approved by the Reich.

1935: The Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their civil rights as German citizens and "They that start by burning books
separated them from Germans legally, socially and politically. Jews were also defined as will end by burning men."
a separate race under "The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor," which ~Heinrich Heine (1821)
forbade marriages or sexual relations between Jews and Germans. More than 120 laws,
decrees, and ordinances were enacted after the Nuremburg Laws and before the out-
break of World War II, further eroding the rights of German Jews. Have you read
or studied other
1938: Open anti-semitism became increasingly accepted in Germany, climaxing in the "Night of Broken conflicts arising
Glass" (Kristallnacht) on November 9. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels initiated this free-for-all
from interfaith
against the Jews, during which nearly 1,000 synagogues were set on fire and 76 were destroyed. More than
and/or inter-
7,000 Jewish businesses and homes were looted, about one hundred Jews were killed and as many as 30,000
Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Within days, the Nazis forced the Jews to transfer cultural relation-
their businesses to Aryan hands and expelled all Jewish pupils from public schools. ships? How do
those situations
However, at the start of the 1930s these events were the unknown future. When Hitler began compare with
his rise to leadership in 1919 with a series of compelling speeches to encourage national this story?
pride, militarism, and a racially "pure" Germany, his rhetoric was not unprecedented; he was
exploiting anti-semitic feelings that had prevailed in Europe for centuries. Cabaret’s Should a govern-
characters can see the Nazi Paty’s influence growing – from 27,000 members in 1925 to ment be involved
108,000 members in 1929 – but not yet controlling Germany. in marriage prac-
SALLY: This is your novel! It’s in German? “Mein Kampf!” tices of its popula-
tion? Consider the
Mein Kampf (My Struggle), detailed Hitler's radical ideas of German nationalism and anti- policies regarding
semitism, and became the ideological base for the Nazi Party's racist beliefs and murderous marriage (who can
practices. However, when Mein Kampf was first released in 1925 it sold poorly. The German marry, how married
people may have hoped for a juicy autobiography or a behind-the-scenes account of Hitler’s
couples are taxed,
failed coup in Munich. Instead the book shared hundreds of pages of long, hard to follow
sentences and wandering paragraphs composed by a self-educated man; Hitler speaks at what is required for
length about his youth, early days in the Nazi Party, as well as his future plans for Germany a divorce) which
and his ideas on politics and race. Only after Hitler became Chancellor were millions are controlled by
of copies sold. It became proper to own a copy, or to give one to newlyweds and high your state and your
school graduates. country.

“Is it a crime to fall in love?” - Emcee

 9

Could you survive on the sidelines?

Start by admitting from cradle to tomb isn’t that long a stay.
So, life is disappointing? Forget it!
Learn to settle for what you get...So who cares, so what?
In the face of so many demoralizing obstacles and uncertainty, Germans may have felt powerless to ensure their
basic well being, let alone face the larger forces transforming their country. Most citizens complied with the laws and
tried to avoid the steadily increasing, terrorizing activities of the Nazi regime. Desperation forced many to play it safe
and prioritize their immediate, short-term needs, as they struggled to simply survive.
What do people with no apparent power do in times of
trouble? Fräulein Schneider argues that “the young always Grown old like me,
have the cure,” but that for an older woman the options are With neither the will nor wish to run.
limited. Is it the young who have the power to take a stand Grown tired like me,
and resist? In contemporary American politics, youth have Who hurries for bed when day is done.
often been characterized as alienated and apathetic, Grown wise like me,
unlikely to engage in the political sphere. When Cliff reflects Who isn’t at war with anyone,
on how irresponsible the ongoing party in Berlin seems to Not anyone!
him, note the simile he chooses: “Like a bunch of kids play-
ing in their room – getting wilder and wilder – and knowing any minute their parents are going to come home.”
The youth of Germany were not discounted, however, in the Nazi’s rise to power. Consider the following:
“The Nazis were not slow to recognize the importance of the youth. The young who had so far abstained from the polls and the young
who were getting ready to cast their first ballot were two sources of enormous potential voting strength for them. Both groups were
hungry for action…and in despair over the future; after all, it had become a rueful, common joke among students to reply when they
were asked what they wanted to be after they had completed their studies: ‘Unemployed’…The rightward turn of German youth was
part, and sign, of a profound malaise. There was a whole genre of novels dealing with the suicides of young high school students and
its popularity reflected widespread interest in a grave phenomenon.” (Peter Gay, Weimar Culture)
Oh Fatherland, Fatherland,
Show us the Sign
Consider the anthem heard twice in Cabaret. Is the
Your children have waited to see.
appeal personal? Patriotic? Propagandistic?
The morning will come when the world is mine.
Tomorrow belongs to me!
It seems, perhaps, that not being “at war with anyone” is a claim to make with pride, that such peace is desirable.
Wouldn’t most rather be free from conflict than in combat, adaptable than interfering, innocent than guilty, law-
abiding than criminal? We desire liberty to pursue our own needs and our own dream, to claim our own tomorrow.
But is that too simple? When do we have a larger power, or responsibility? Is there a time for war?
Compare these two passages. What is the message of each?

I have battled alone, and I have survived.
There was a war, and I survived. There
was a revolution, and I have survived.
There was an inflation – billions of marks
for one loaf of bread – but I survived!
And if the Nazis come – I will survive.
And if the Communists come – I will still
be here – renting these rooms! For, in
the end, what other choice have I?
~ Fräulein Schneider
In Germany, they came first for the Communists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there
was no one left to speak up.
~ This poem is attributed to the Reverend Martin Niemöller, a pastor in the
German Confessing Church who spent seven years in a concentration camp.
Many alternate variations and translations of this poem are frequently cited.

“ ... and we were both fast asleep.” - Cliff

 10

Resources
Books Education
Partners
Social Change and Political Development in Weimar Germany,
edited by Richard Bessel and E.J. Feuchtwanger Major Support
Staff From:
Germany at War in Color: Unique color photographs of the Second Ameriprise
Skip Greer World War by Lt. Col. George Forty Financial Services,
Inc.
Director of
Education/Artist The Rise of the Nazis by Charles Freeman C.J. & B.S. August
Family Foundation
in Residence
Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s by Otto Conable Family
Friedrich Foundation
Kathryn Moroney Cornell/Weinstein
Associate Director Berlin Between the Wars by Thomas Friedrich Family Foundation
of Education Corning Foundation
The History of Germany, 1918-2000: The Divided Nation by Mary The Davenport-
Eric Evans Fulbrook Hatch Foundation
Education The Fine and
Administrator Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider by Peter Gay Performing Arts
Fund at RACF
German Photography 1870-1970: Power of a Medium edited by The Guido and Ellen
Arthur Brown
Klaus Honnef, Rolf Sachsse and Karin Thomas Palma Foundation
Christopher Gurr
Conservatory Dawn & Jacques
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood Lipson, M.D
Associates
Hon. Elizabeth W.
Cabaret: The Illustrated Book and Lyrics book by Joe Masteroff; Pine
Marge Betley music by John Kander; lyrics by Fred Ebb; edited by Linda Sunshine William Saunders
Literary
Fred and Floy
Manager/Resident The Nazis: A Warning from History by Laurence Rees Willmott
Dramaturg Foundation
Bertolt Brecht’s Berlin by Wolf Von Eckardt and Sander L. Gilman Xerox Corporation
Sarah Mantell
Literary Fellow Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy by Eric D. Weitz
With Additional
The Berlin of George Grosz: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints Support From:
Mark Cuddy Ames-Amzalak
1912-1930 by Frank Whitford
Artistic Director Memorial Trust
DVD Mr. and Mrs. Allen
Greg Weber Boucher
Managing Director Prisoner of Paradise -- The true story of Kurt Gerron, a beloved Goldberg Berbeco
German-Jewish actor, director and cabaret star in Berlin in the 1920s Foundation, Inc.
Nan Hildebrandt and '30s. He was captured and sent to a concentration camp where Michael and Joanna
he was ordered to write pro-Nazi propaganda films; PBS Home Grosodonia
Executive Director
Video, 2005 Mrs. Eleanor Morris
Panther Graphics,
Most titles available through the Monroe County Public Inc.
Library System. Riedman
Foundation

“ ...if you’re not against all this - you’re for it.

Or you might as well be.” - Cliff
Tickets Still Available

May 28th & June 4th

at 10:30 a.m.
Recommended for middle
school audiences and up
Tickets available by calling
(585) 232-1366, ext. 3035

75 Woodbury Boulevard
Rochester, New York 14607
Box Office: (585) 232-Geva (4382)
Education Department: (585) 232-1366, ext. 3058
www.gevatheatre.org