Completely agree with your listing INHERITANCE part 1, SUNSET and SWEENEY in this list. I've seen lots of productions of CABARET and many manage a profoundly haunting final image, but the one you cite (from the revival, where the Emcee winds up in a concentration camp) has always bothered me. I feel that kind of reference needs to be used very carefully, and not exploited. In the case of the CABARET revival, it's being used for shock value. The Emcee-- to me-- is a malevolent, provocative figure and I'm not so sure he's to be conflated with the victims (gay or Jewish) of the Nazis.
I feel the final image of CABARET should shake you with the realization that it's too late for all of them-- not that they all will become victims. But I love the film version and its very, very haunting final image (of the distorting 'fun-house' mirror of the Kit Kat Klub set, reflecting a twisted swastika in the audience). |
