When I was 15 years old, I saw Cabaret for the first time, at a community theater in northeast Ohio. Though I considered myself sophisticated in important ways (I recall that I was wearing a wide-leg Donna Karan bodysuit that evening), my experience as a theatergoer was then limited to The Sound of Music and Ice Capades: Let's Celebrate.
I wonder if my parents, who had season tickets to the theater, knew that the show wasn't exactly "family" entertainment. Set in 1931 Berlin as it careens toward the abyss, Cabaret depicts alternating stories. There's the doomed romance between a fledgling novelist named Clifford Bradshaw and a young singer of supreme charisma (and mediocre talent) named Sally Bowles. And then there's the seedy nightclub, the Kit Kat Club, which is populated with a highly sexualized cast of misfits and overseen by a ghoulish Master of Ceremonies.
The show's ethos-the glamour and terror, the irreverence, the campiness, the unreality-shaped my taste forever, and I knew that I had just experienced one of the greatest works of art ever created. I would never look at theater, or life, in the same way again.
Over three decades later, I've seen more stage productions of Cabaret than any other show, including a revival starring the original Emcee, Joel Grey; I've seen the Bob Fosse film version over 50 times. I've pretty much always got one of Fred Ebb's sardonic lyrics jangling around in my head. Today, it's "You'll never turn the vinegar to jam, mein Herr," and I couldn't agree more.
Youthful exposure to Cabaret also turned out to be a life-changing event for the star of the new production opening this month on Broadway, Eddie Redmayne. "Weirdly, when I was 15, it was the first thing that made me believe in this whole process," he says. Redmayne was a student at Eton when he first played the Emcee; he had never seen Cabaret when he was cast.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 2024-Ausgabe von Vogue US.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 2024-Ausgabe von Vogue US.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
FINAL CUT
\"WE WANT YOU TO GO FOR IT!\" ANNA TOLD ME
SCREEN TIME
Three films we can't wait to see.
Impossible Beauty
Sometimes, more is more: Surreal lashes and extreme nails put the fierce back in play
Blossoms Dearie
Dynamic, whimsical florals and the humble backdrops of upstate New York make for a charming study in contrasts.
HOME
Six years ago, Marc Jacobs got a call about a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Making it his own, he writes, would be about love, commitment, anxiety, patience, struggle, and, finally, a kind of hard-fought, hard-won peace.
GIRL, INTERRUPTED
Anna Weyant found extraordinary fame as an artist before she had reached her mid-20s. Then came another kind of attention. Dodie Kazanjian meets the painter at the start of a fresh chapter
ROLE PLAY
Kaia Gerber is someone who likes to listen, learn, read books, go to the theater, ask questions, have difficult conversations, act, perform, transform, and stretch herself in everything she does. That she's an object of beauty is almost beside the point.
CALLAS SHEET
Maria Callas's singular voice made her a legend on the stage. In a new film starring Angelina Jolieand on the runwaysthe romance continues.
BOOK IT
A preview of the best fiction coming
GLOBAL VISTAS
Three new exhibitions offer an expansive view.