Berlin Cabaret

Step into Ernst Wolzogen's Motley Theater, Max Reinhardt's Sound and Smoke, Rudolf Nelson's Chat noir, and Friedrich Hollaender's Tingel-Tangel. Enjoy Claire Waldoff's rendering of a lower-class Berliner, Kurt Tucholsky's satirical songs, and Walter Mehring's Dadaist experiments, as Peter Jelavich spotlights Berlin's cabarets from the day the curtain first went up, in 1901, until the Nazi regime brought it down. Fads and fashions, sexual mores and political ideologies--all were subject to satire and parody on the cabaret stage. This book follows the changing treatment of these themes, and the fate of cabaret itself, through the most turbulent decades of modern German history: the prosperous and optimistic Imperial age, the unstable yet culturally inventive Weimar era, and the repressive years of National Socialism. By situating cabaret within Berlin's rich landscape of popular culture and distinguishing it from vaudeville and variety theaters, spectacular revues, prurient nude dancing, and Communist agitprop, Jelavich revises the prevailing image of this form of entertainment. Neither highly politicized, like postwar German Kabarett, nor sleazy in the way that some American and European films suggest, Berlin cabaret occupied a middle ground that let it cast an ironic eye on the goings-on of Berliners and other Germans. However, it was just this satirical attitude toward serious themes, such as politics and racism, that blinded cabaret to the strength of the radical right-wing forces that ultimately destroyed it. Jelavich concludes with the Berlin cabaret artists' final performances--as prisoners in the concentration camps at Westerbork and Theresienstadt. This book gives us a sense of what the world looked like within the cabarets of Berlin and at the same time lets us see, from a historical distance, these lost performers enacting the political, sexual, and artistic issues that made their city one of the most dynamic in Europe.

(Limelight). In 1973, Cabaret walked away with eight Academy Awards, including gold statues for director Bob Fosse and for its stars, Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. Based on the long-running Broadway musical, with a memorable score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cabaret is a landmark film that broke new cinematic ground by revolutionizing the Hollywood musical through its treatment of adult themes and art house sensibility. With an introduction by Joel Grey, the book chronicles the history of Cabaret, from Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories to the stage and film versions of John van Druten's play I Am a Camera, through the adaptation of the hit Broadway musical for the big screen. Readers will get an insider's look into the making of the film, the creative talent in front of the camera and behind the scenes, and why this divinely decadent musical continues to captivate audiences.

The Rough Guide to Berlin is the definitive guide to this extraordinary city with its fascinating historical sites, world-class museums, cutting edge galleries and architecture and pulsating nightlife. It will guide you through Germany's capital with reliable information and a clearly explained background on everything from the enduring Reichstag to eastern Berlin's cultural scene. Whether you're looking for great places to eat and drink or inspiring accommodation and the most exciting places to party, you'll find the solution. Accurate maps and comprehensive practical information help you get under the skin of this dynamic city, whilst stunning photography make The Rough Guide to Berlin your ultimate travelling companion. Make the most of your trip with The Rough Guide to Berlin. Now available in epub format.

A photographic rendezvous with Berlin of the 1920's. This collection of a book and 4 CDs contains authentic recordings and tone documents.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2001 in the subject Theater Studies, Dance, grade: A, University of North London, 34 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The 'Golden Twenties': it was a time of great diversity and confusions, changes and excitements, fears and joys, both in public life and in private. And eventually, a time when womankind redefined herself. The Neue Frau was born. This work examines the Myth of the Neue Frau in relationship with the metropolis Berlin and its Cabaret scene during the time of the Weimar Republic. "Berlin is a girl in a pullover, not much powder on her face, H lderlin in her pocket, thighs like those of Atlanta, an undigested education, a heart which is almost too ready to sympathise, and a breadth of view which charmes one's repressions . One walks with her among the lights and the shadows. And after an hour or so one is hand in hand...Berlin stimulates like arsenic, and then when one's nerves are all ajingle she comes with her hot milk of human kindness; and in the end, for an hour and a half, one is able, gratefully to go to sleep." Harold Nicolson, journalist, about Berlin during the 1920s

The stylistic remnants of cabaret music from Weimar-era Germany are all around us. During the 20th century, its most prominent American exponents were the Germans Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya, whose careers extended through the 1970s. Because of them (and others), the words and music of such artists as Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Friedrich Hollaender, and Marcellus Schiffer continue to be heard and exert widespread influence. Major songwriters touched by cabaret include Lennon & McCartney, Bacharach & David, Kander & Ebb, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, and Patti Smith, among many others. African-American artists, beginning with Louis Armstrong, have been sympathetic interpreters of cabaret music. Modern-day Las Vegas appears to be the fulfillment of a prophecy made in the late 1920s by Weill & Brecht in their Mahagonny stage works. And today, the German Kabarett tradition remains strong with such stars as Ute Lemper and Max Raabe packing international venues.

Set in Berlin between the two world wars the play explores the tensions leading to the rise of Hitler.