Cabaret (musical)

Cabaret
Original Broadway Cast recording
Music	John Kander
Lyrics	Fred Ebb
Book	Joe Masteroff
Basis	John Van Druten's play I Am a Camera Christopher Isherwood's novel Goodbye to Berlin
Productions	1966 Boston (tryout) 1966 Broadway 1967 U.S. Tour 1968 West End 1969 U.S. Tour 1972 Film 1980 Mexico 1986 West End 1987 U.S. Tour 1987 Broadway 1988 Argentina 1989 U.S. Tour 1992 Spain 1993 West End 1998 Broadway 1999 North America Tour 2003 Spain 2004 Mexico 2005 Netherlands 2006 West End 2006 France 2007 Argentina 2008 U.K. Tour 2011 France 2012 U.K. Tour 2012 West End 2013 U.K. Tour 2014 Broadway 2014 Latvia 2015 Spain 2016 North American Tour 2017 Australia
Awards	Tony Award for Best Musical Tony Award for Best Score Tony Award for Best Revival Drama Desk for Outstanding Revival

Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit, inspiring numerous subsequent productions in London and New York, as well as the 1972 film by the same name.

It is based on John Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera, which was adapted from the short novel Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by Christopher Isherwood. Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it is based in nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub, and revolves around young American writer Cliff Bradshaw and his relationship with 32-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles.

A sub-plot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub. The club serves as a metaphor for ominous political developments in late Weimar Germany.

Sandy Wilson, who had achieved success with The Boy Friend in the 1950s, had completed the book and most of the score for Goodbye to Berlin, his adaptation of I Am a Camera, when he discovered that producer David Black's option on both the 1951 Van Druten play and its source material by Christopher Isherwood had lapsed and been acquired by Harold Prince. Prince commissioned Joe Masteroff to work on the book. When Prince and Masteroff agreed that Wilson's score failed to capture the essence of late-1920s Berlin, John Kander and Fred Ebb were invited to join the project.