'How do the cabaret songs and routines comment on the social issues which are the background for the story of Cabaret?'
Satirical on every level, Bob Fosse's 1972 film Cabaret redefines the previously accepted genre of the musical. Using the songs and routines as cunning tools of social commentary the musical numbers both predict and interpret the world of Berlin in 1931.
The opening routine, 'Wilkommen', is a powerful introduction to the opposing worlds of the protagonists Brian and Sally and also indicates the significance all songs in the Cabaret will be instilled with. As the camera moves from the distorted mirror to the grotesquely masked face of the Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey) who claims, 'I am your host, wilkommen', the need
…show more content…
Indeed, from the beginning Sally is a metaphor for the indistinctive, hedonistic masses of people who long for the glory they observe in others and claim should be theirs at any cost.
Despite her claims that she is driven by 'divine decadence', Sally uses her costumes and make-up to obscure her inner desires. When she goes to meet her father she has 'a nun's hands' and it is as this unmasked and vulnerable woman that she and Brian become lovers. In the song 'Maybe this time', which is intercut with footage of Brian and Sally's relationship, the lyrics and cinematic structure are used to negatively answer the hopeful plea 'Maybe this time I'll win'. As Sally stands on the stage of a near deserted Kit Kat Klub she sings passionately, fully clothed and for the only time not exaggerating her sexuality. Although she claims that she is a 'lady peaceful, lady happy - that's what i long to be' the bright lights show this 'normal' Sally as attractive but not extraordinary, something she will ultimately never tolerate.
Likewise the intercuts of footage also reveal in Sally and Brian a relationship which will never last. As their eyes meet across the room, Fosse deliberately pans back to show the extreme distance between the characters. And although their relationship is now sexual, Brian's echo of Sally's feminine self concept 'doesn't my body drive you wild with desire?' reflects a man as tentative about his sexuality as Sally is about anonymous domesticity.
Cabaret was set in the late 1920’s and was supposed to be a satire of the change of thinking and the rise of the Nazi party. Cliff Bradshaw was supposed to represent the Americans and how they had changed their ways of thinking. An example of this from the play was when Bradshaw was trying to convince Sally Bowles to leave Germany with him because of the Nazi Party. On the other hand, Sally Bowles was supposed to represent all of the individuals who did not want to see the changes in the world and those who wanted to be oblivious to what was happening. This is also depicted in the same scenario because Sally had no desire to leave Germany even though some of her fiends were being targeted by the Nazis.
While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.
Punch-drunk is a British company that performs a wide variety of theatrical performances and transforms them into the wild and the peculiar. It was founded in 2000 (En.wikipedia.org. (2017) by Artist and Director Felix Barrett, who was award an MBE on July 5th 2017 for his work in the theatre industry (Anon, (2017). The Company has been producing shows for 17 years, taking classical storytelling and adding their own twist on the story. The stories are then turned into real-life pieces that are not staged in a typical classical theatre, but in various locations that are well-suited to each part of the story for example, an old warehouse or an ancient asylum. This gives the audience a sensory perception of the world around them and presents them with a joyful experience of witnessing a story told in a way that’s not just the lifeless classical proscenium arch stage layout and more of a place where they can watch the action at different angles taking audience awareness out of the picture and applying the “Fourth wall technique” used by Dennis Diderot (En.wikipedia.org. (2017). This keeps the audience on edge and scares ordinary audiences away from Punch-drunk as the work that they produce is regarded as “out of the ordinary “by most classical theatre audiences. Some of the parts of the story contains physical theatre (Punch-drunk (2017). making the performance non-naturalistic and naturalistic, simultaneously.
Oklahoma! The first collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein was entitled Oklahoma! The idea of the musical came from a play called Green Grow the Lilacs, written by Lynn Riggs in 1931. This story is about the state of Oklahoma at the turn of the century, when the Indian Territory joined the United States. It is the story of a girl named Laurey Williams and her (sort of) love triangle with two boys by the names of Curley McClain and Jud Fry. Laurey is in love with Curley, but she attends a dance with Jud instead. At the dance, Curley surprised Laurey by bidding an enormous amount on the basket of food she has prepared. They soon marry, and after the wedding, Jud starts a fight with Curley, but he
The nightclub is dark when the two boys arrive, except for the light that bathes the bandstand. Sonny’s music is what everyone has come to hear and seems to be everyone’s salvation, their hope. The people in the room live in Harlem and are familiar with the darkness that surrounds them. Everyone in the story from the boys’ family whose “darkness in [their] faces” (p. 39) frightened them to the woman with the tambourine whose music “brought a poison out of her” (p. 51) seems familiar with the darkness that lives in them and their town. Throughout the concluding scene, the bandstand and the music that is made there is treated with a reverence as they live in the darkness and can only touch the light, but never be in it, as the listeners in the
Jukebox musicals began in film and later shifted to theatre. They had begun to make theatre more popular with the public, which had begun to gravitate towards film and music. By combining the two, they gain some of the same as well as a whole new audience. I will discuss how this came to be by speaking of the shift that occurred.
Sally decides to have an abortion without telling Brian because she is worried about what will happen. Both in the book and the movie shows how impulsive she is and she doesn’t use her thoughts
Mansfield’s description throughout the narrative is intriguing and captivating, pulling the reader into the drill hall and making them sway to the “oft, melting, ravishing tune” as though they themselves could have been Leila. Moreover, her use of description allows her to create the character of the “fat man” and utilise him to portray the idea that “happiness [doesn’t] last for ever.” Because she describes him as the fat man, who is old and wearing a coat that “looked dusty with French chalk”, she creates an evident contrast between the beautiful characters she initially described. Through this imagery, Mansfield subtly portrays Leila’s fears of losing the beauty of this first ball and emphasises that in fact, beauty doesn’t last. However, Mansfield plunges the reader back in to the dance, such that the almost
The show’s sole cast member, he takes on the immense challenge of a one man show with virtuosity and tenacity, performing for nearly two hours without intermission while still managing to maintain the audience’s thorough attention throughout. Felder plays his spectators like a fiddle, eliciting powerful emotional reactions from them with his commanding stage presence and breathtaking musical ability. His acting is slightly exaggerated to ensure that the audience understands the emotion he is emitting, but it remains subtle enough that it does not distract from the performance; it still comes off as realistic. The very intent of the production is made loud and clear by Felder from the very first scene when an elderly and jaded Berlin laments on the utter ignorance of today’s society to the younger, unwearied image of himself. So many Americans cheerfully serenade my songs without truly understanding or appreciating the meaning behind them, he bemoans. And to that, his younger self answers with a “Well, then let’s show them.” The audience is then taken on a one-hundred-and-one year long journey through the entirety of Berlin’s life, beginning in 1888 with his birth and ending in 1989 with him on his
Also, there were a lot of homosexual dressed like a woman that were performed and interacting with the audience very natural. There were no prejudices and criticism among their own society they were facing a difficult time with no jobs, food, where the economy was devastating and the only thing that they care was the pursuit of their own happiness and pleasure. The ‘Golden Twenties’ was a time of great contrast and confusions, fears and joys, evolution and expectations, both in public life and in private. And eventually, a time when woman dominated or control. In Berlin, the whole world had changed and in many aspects, it had turned upside down. Modernity and liberalism had taken
On Friday November 3rd I had the pleasure of attending an evening of Opera titled Love Through the Ages with Maria Fortuna and Nancy Townsend at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre. Having never been to an Opera performance I had no idea of what to expect and was looking forward to this new experience. Fortuna was accompanied by multi-faceted pianist Nancy Townsend. These two musicians showed tremendous expertise and were able to keep my attention through the extent of the program.
Sally is important because the way she serves as a foil for Esperanza escaping her strict and abuse father to a marshmallow salesman and Sally is an example to what could be Esperanza’s fate. When Sally and Esperanza go to the carnival, Sally abandons her to a “big boy” and leaves Esperanza all alone, which conclude to her being raped she feels betrayed, she blames sally for not helping her when she needed her the most and for lying to her about sexual intercourse.
It not only threatens, but also breaks through. Betrayed by love once in her life, she nevertheless seeks it in the effort to fill the lonely void; thus, her promiscuity. But to adhere to her tradition and her sense of herself as a lady, she cannot face this sensual part of herself. She associates it with the animalism of Stanley's lovemaking and terms it “brutal desire”. She feels guilt and a sense of sin when she does surrender to it, and yet she does, out of intense loneliness. By viewing sensuality as brutal desire she is able to disassociate it from what she feels is her true self, but only at the price of an intense inner conflict. Since she cannot integrate these conflicting elements of desire and gentility, she tries to reject the one, desire, and live solely by the other. Desperately seeking a haven she looks increasingly to fantasy. Taking refuge in tinsel, fine clothes, and rhinestones, and the illusion that a beau is available whenever she wants him, she seeks tenderness and beauty in a world of her own making.
makes the following uplifting and heroic declaration even more powerful. However, criticism usually aligns with another claim of Tobin’s: the Jewish people’s “pallidness.” But the Night Chorus of Act 1, Scene 2 suggests anything but the pallidness of the Jewish people. Instead it is an exclamation prophesying the return of the Messiah, “Elijah will return, the Jews believe” which is especially moving considering the fear hostages experienced while on the Achille Lauro.
In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, the characters are involved in a plot complete with trickery, disguise, and love. Each character is defined not by his or her gender or true identity, but by the role they are forced to take because of the complicated situation that arises. Unlike their gender, the speech the characters give an insight to their true personalities. In the Twelfth Night, the character Duke Orsino uses flowery and over-dramatic language, long poetic sentence structure, and melodramatic metaphors to display his overemotional romantic nature despite the different emotions in his various speeches.