Cabaret

Wilkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome to the Kit Kat Club, where the girls are beautiful, life is beautiful, and absolutely nothing is off-limits! Bob Fosse’s dazzlingly decadent adaptation of the hit stage musical (itself adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s semi-autobiographical stories) follows wide-eyed young writer Brian (Michael York), who arrives in Berlin in 1931 and falls in with a decadent circle led by free-spirited cabaret performer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli). Sally headlines the Kit Kat Club, a seedy venue presided over by a sinister Emcee (Joel Grey) and frequented by disreputable patrons more concerned with indulging their darkest fantasies than with the increasingly violent and powerful Nazi party. But as the relationship between Brian and Sally intensifies, the real world threatens to invade their bohemian paradise. Featuring show-stopping musical numbers infused with Bob Fosse’s signature slinky choreography, and winner of 8 Academy Awards, including Best Director (Fosse), Best Actress (Minelli) and Best Supporting Actor (Grey), Cabaret masterfully combines the political grit and sexual frankness of ‘70s New Hollywood Cinema with all the razzle dazzle of Hollywood musicals of yore. (Dir. by Bob Fosse, 1972, USA, 124 mins., Rated PG)