Looking at the Big Picture

Cabaret

"What good is sitting alone in your room?

Come hear the music play."

Films can be watched anywhere, but cinema is a communal experience. That's why they call it the theatre. Cabaret, based on the musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, based on the play I Am a Camera, based on the novel Goodbye to Berlin, is meant to be seen with a crowd. And it's not about the cinematography or scale. Director Bob Fosse's depiction of love and hate in the burning twilight of Germany's Weimar Republic focuses tightly on the lascivious, glorious Kit Kat Club. When the emcee (Joel Grey) grins like the Joker and bids us "Willkommen, bienvenu, welcome," we are stageside in this smoky refuge from Nazism. But remember: Even if everyone else starts singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," you don't have to join in.

"Life is a cabaret, old chum,

Come to the Cabaret."

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Tue., May 31, 8:50pm (P)