I'd never seen Cabaret, & knew little more than it was a louche look at Berlin in the 30s. My siblings & I went last night, half-imagining it would give us a glimpse into our dad's life in Berlin - he & Christopher Isherwood were the same age & I imagine my dad as at least a hanger-on in that world, being a young man-about-town with money & curiosity. The show Cabaret, however, was kind of awful. I don't really like musicals, & this was nearly plotless plus rather random: CBGB's legendarily dirty bathroom meets Fiddler on the Roof. Maybe it would have worked better if the star (Eddie Redmayne) & not the understudy had been there to play the Emcee, or if the obviouslly gay main character wasn't having a love affair with Sally Bowles. And the sudden appearance of a Nazi was both dated & overly topical. We left at the intermission.
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