MovieChat Forums > Cabaret (1972) Discussion > Why so many song cut from the stage show...

Why so many song cut from the stage show?

posted 15 years ago by the1andonly_mrsbloom
9 replies | jump to latest

Hi, I'm doing a study of the difference between the songs in the Broadway version and the film version of Cabaret.

I was just wondering if anybody knew the reasons that so many songs were cut (eg. Don't Tell Mama, It Couldn't Please Me More, Why Should I Wake Up? Married, Sitting Prety, Perfectly Marvelous, So What?) etc - I know songs such as Mein Herr, Maybe This Time, Money, Money etc were written for the film but I was wondering if there were specific reasons for this? If so - how do you know? Sorry to be anoying asking all the questions but seeing as it's a study I need to provde referencing, if anyone knows of any websites/books that would be great.

If you don't know the real reasons but wish to join the discussion anyway, that's fine! I'd love to know your opinions :) Thank you!

[–] Moonlighting 15 years ago

Maybe This Time wasn't written for the movie. Liza Minnelli had recorded it before the movie. I'm not sure if it was written for her just as a solo song or not. But, she was lobbying for the role of Sally in the Broadway show for aaaages, so it's possible Kander and Ebb wrote this song for the show when they believed Liza would be starring in it. When Liza wasn't given the role, the idea of Sally deliberately not being the greatest singer in the world seems to have taken off. Liza and Fred Ebb persuaded Fosse to put Maybe This Time in the movie. Fosse didn't understand why Sally would be working in such a dive if she performed such an amazing song so well, and Liza suggested that maybe it's one of those nights where she gives all she's got, but there's nobody around to see it.

The rest of the songs cut are to serve Fosse's vision that the songs in the film are only the ones that can take place inside the Kit-Kat Club. Technically the songs are therefore really happening, and via editing/coincidence they happen to comment on the action outside of the club.

I'm not sure why Don't Tell Mama was cut. Thought when you compare it with Mein Herr, Mein Herr sounds closer to something from that time period, and it has a dirtier more earthy sound to it, whereas Don't Tell Mama shows off a bit and has a more 'broadway' sound to it, aside from the opening cords and first verse.

Also, Jay Presson Allen went back to Isherwood's original Berlin stories to write the screenplay. Maria Berenson's character and Max both weren't in the show. Their German/Jewish relationship takes the place of the relationship between Schultz and Schneider in the stage version, thus no need for The Pineapple Song or any of those songs to be included whenever the characters and subplot aren't that visible.

[–] a_chloris 15 years ago

I'd always reasoned that "Don't Tell Mama" was cut because it's more suitable when Sally is portayed as an Englishwoman (e.g., in the line, "Keep this from the Mater," the Latin "Mater" is used in the manner of British public school slang for "mother"). As for the period-appropriateness of the song, I think that it sounds more like something from the 1920s than the 1930s (especially the chorus).

[–] laurence01 15 years ago

A lot of the show score is more 20's than 30's. For instance the original "Money song", AKA "Sitting Pretty" (heard instruentaly in the film) is a chaleston.

[–] DryToast 15 years ago

Maybe This Time wasn't written for the movie. Liza Minnelli had recorded it before the movie. I'm not sure if it was written for her just as a solo song or not. But, she was lobbying for the role of Sally in the Broadway show for aaaages, so it's possible Kander and Ebb wrote this song for the show when they believed Liza would be starring in it.

Kander and Ebb wrote "Maybe This Time" for Kaye Ballard after having first written "My Coloring Book" for her to sing on The Perry Como Show. The Como people dissuaded Ballard (whom they considered a comic) from singing such a serious song on the show and it became a hit for others. John K has said that their sentiment behind the new song was "Maybe this time the song will work out for her..." Ballard recorded it and did it in her nightclub act and only later did Minnelli do it in hers.

"I don't seem able to strike the congenial note."

[–] rrb 15 years ago

I haven't researched it, but I assume they were cut as part of the excellent job the creative team did rethinking the stage musical as a film with Minnelli. The on-stage Sally, as embodied by Jill Haworth, wasn't much of a singer (in fact, stage director Hal Prince felt the film failed because Sally was played by a brilliant vs. mediocre singer). So they added songs to take advantage of Liza's talent. The film is also more trenchant than the original stage production--better suited to Fosse's temperament: Mein Herr presents Sally as a whore vs. an errant schoolgirl; the choreography is raunchier; pornographers, prostitutes, violence and funky sex are all thrown in, to decadent effect. The result is a brilliant adaption, the best of a Broadway musical to film.

[–] TalulaTrauma 15 years ago

Yes, I actually think the film is better than the stage version. I saw the London revival a couple of years ago and it was very poor. Not least due to the storyline which is now very tame and slow. Sad to say but the dominance of Schnedier and Schultz and the lame part about the trafficking of propaganda distorted the overall theme. The movie is still riveting and exciting. Younger audiences just wont relate to the stage book. The movie was much better at heralding the rise of the Nazis and depicting the excitement of pre-war Berlin.

[–] onewringgold 10 years ago

Some of the songs ("It Couldn't Please Me More", "Married", "Sitting Pretty", "So What") end up as background music--"Married" is heard several times, but sung in German.

[–] IMDBRefugee1SD (139) 8 years ago

Here's the rundown: 5 songs transferred from stage to film as is: "Wilkommen", "Two Ladies", "Tomorrow Belongs To Me",
"If You Could See Her" and "Cabaret. "Don't Tell Mama" was replaced by "Mein Herr" and "The Money Song(Setting Pretty)
by "Money, Money". Both are sharper than the original songs. One other new song was added: "Maybe This Time" which
reflects Sally's mood at that moment. Another new number is "Tiller Girls" an instrumental
which incorporates several songs. Several other original songs are presented in part in instrumental versions as
background music. "Don't Tell Mama" shows up on a phonograph record at Sally and Brian's first meeting. "It Couldn't
Please Me More" is heard for example as a record during the scene where Sally tries to seduce Brian. "Married(Heirat) is
interesting: it's heard on piano in a scene of Schneider and Kost dancing and three times in German. They track the
evolution of the Sally and Brian relationship. The first is in the very romantic scene after Brian proposes, the second is
during the picnic where Brian is clearly having second thoughts and the third is at Sally and Brian's last goodbye. Some
of the main songs show up in instrumental versions as well: "Mein Herr"(twice), "Wilkommen"(several times) and "Cabaret"
(several times). Ralph Burns won the Oscar for his adaptation and arrangement of the score.

[–] marktayloruk (2589) 3 years ago

Film more realistic in that people didn't burst into song offstage.