Critical Articles
Here you will find an annotated bibliography of critical articles that offer some analysis of different components of Cabaret. Three of my favorite articles can be found in my Hard Copy Materials binder, fully highlighted and annotated. Clean PDFs of those three are available by clicking on the PDF icon next to each of them.
1
Block, Geoffrey. "Is life a cabaret? Cabaret and its sources in reality and the imagination."
Studies in Musical Theatre 5, no. 2 (2011): 163-180.
This article describes the artistic and social statements made by Cabaret and how these ultimately mislead an audience in regards to historical accuracy and representation of pre-Nazi Germany. I include this article as another argument for a careful approach to this musical and understanding the pitfalls of the musical if not adequately addressed. The metaphors it explores are particularly engaging and interesting to consider in a production of Cabaret.
2
Garebian, Keith. “Broadway Presentational.” The Making of Cabaret. 2nd ed. Oxford
University Press, 2011. Oxford Scholarship Online, 2011. doi:
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732494.001.0001.
This is a chapter from the book most known and associated with the process of the creation of the musical Cabaret. This chapter gives details about the original production of Cabaret, including initial reception of the musical and the subsequent reactions of the creative team. This chapter is particularly intriguing as it explores the reception of the very first performances of this musical.
3
Gordon, Terri J. “Film in the Second Degree: ‘Cabaret’ and the Dark Side of Laughter.”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 152, no. 4 (2008): 440–65.
Gordon explores gender performance in Cabaret in this article. With direct references to performance studies and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performitivity, this is an essential read for a modern, all-inclusive, informed production of Cabaret. Though my focus is on the queerness of Cabaret in terms of sexual orientation, gender is an element that cannot go unacknowledged in this musical. This article also warns against the “limitations” of the stage in the exploration of gender as well as the relationship between identity and politics in Cabaret.
4
Harker, Jaime. “Introduction.” Middlebrow Queer : Christopher Isherwood in America.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
This book in its entirety serves as a deep dive into Christopher Isherwood’s relationship to queerness, both as a person and in his literary work. The selected “Introduction” to the book is a brief but important overview to Isherwood’s place in queer history. This resource is important in order to emphasize the inherently queer nature of Cabaret. It also serves as a critique of the blatant opposition to the inherent queerness of Isherwood and his work in the initial adaptation of Cabaret the musical.
5
Leve, James. “The Divinely Decadent Lives of Cabaret.” Kander and Ebb. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2009.
This chapter documents the various incarnations of Cabaret, from the Goodbye Berlin novel, to I Am a Camera, to the different versions of the Cabaret musical script. It also creates context for the musical, describing where Kander and Ebb’s career was at this time. This chapter is also helpful in documenting the gender and sexuality of Cabaret, especially the heterosexualizing of Cliff’s character. This is a longer read but covers a lot of what I would want to discuss in the room while producing Cabaret. This would definitely be one of my go to articles.
6
Scheiblhofer, Susanne. "'Tomorrow Belongs to Me': The Journey of a Show Tune from
Broadway to Rechtsrock." Studies in Musical Theatre 11, no. 1 (2017): 5-22.
This article focuses on the song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from the musical. It helps to contextualize the song as it is Kander and Ebb’s attempt at representing a historical Nazi hymn. There is significance to this historical accuracy and its place in the story in Cabaret as well as the fact that it was written by two Jewish men in musical theatre. This article seeks to put this song into these greater contexts. This article is important as “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is an important moment in the dramatic arc of the rise of Nazism in the world of the musical and its successful communication with the audience is essential. With little information in the actual script about this moment in the musical it is important to give it as much context for the production team and cast as possible.
7
Vogel, Shane. "Where Are We Now? Queer World Making and Cabaret Peformance."
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 6, no. 1 (2000): 29-60.
Gordon explores gender performance in Cabaret in this article. With direct references to performance studies and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performitivity, this is an essential read for a modern, all-inclusive, informed production of Cabaret. Though my focus is on the queerness of Cabaret in terms of sexual orientation, gender is an element that cannot go unacknowledged in this musical. This article also warns against the “limitations” of the stage in the exploration of gender as well as the relationship between identity and politics in Cabaret.
8
Winkler, Kevin. "Willkommen." In Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American
Musical. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Oxford Scholarship Online,
2018.
This chapter details Bob Fosse’s work on the Cabaret film adaptation. Not only is it important to highlight another important theatrical figure that interacted with this show, but Fosse had a huge artistic influence on what would become a popular and well-known rendition of the musical. The film is associated with Fosse’s strong directorial point-of-view.
