Normally, I Try Not to Concern Myself with the Political Opinions of Actors

Unless, of course, they run for office.

In particular, when actors attempt to juxtapose their performances with politics.

For every rule, there is an exception, and Joel Grey's relating his performance as the unnamed Emcee in Cabaret is a sterling example of such an exception.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with great musical theater, Cabaret is a retelling of the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, largely through the experiences of a performer at a Berlin night club, the Kit Kat Club.

With all due respect to the performance of Liza Minnelli, along with a whole troupe of other talented actors, Joel Grey's performance was magnificent.  (He got an Oscar and a Tony)

He argues, and I agree, that the messages and the warnings of the play, have even more relevance today.  

I agree:

This past week marked 58 years since the opening night for the Broadway premiere of “Cabaret” in 1966. At the time, the country was in deep turmoil. Overseas, the Vietnam War was escalating, and at home, our most regressive forces were counterpunching against the progress demanded by the civil rights movement. The composer John Kander, the lyricist Fred Ebb and the playwright Joe Masteroff wrote “Cabaret” in collaboration with the director Harold Prince as a response to the era. The parallels between the rise of fascism in 1930s Berlin as depicted in the show and the mounting tensions of the 1960s in America were both obvious and ominous.

This past week marked 58 years since the opening night for the Broadway premiere of “Cabaret” in 1966. At the time, the country was in deep turmoil. Overseas, the Vietnam War was escalating, and at home, our most regressive forces were counterpunching against the progress demanded by the civil rights movement. The composer John Kander, the lyricist Fred Ebb and the playwright Joe Masteroff wrote “Cabaret” in collaboration with the director Harold Prince as a response to the era. The parallels between the rise of fascism in 1930s Berlin as depicted in the show and the mounting tensions of the 1960s in America were both obvious and ominous.

When we first performed it, in Boston, audiences gasped and recoiled. It was too offensive, too raw, too cruel. Producers fretted and the line was changed to “She isn’t a meeskite at all,” [Yiddish for very ugly] softening the blow, yes, but also the impact. I resented the change and would often, to the chagrin of stage management, “forget” to make the swap throughout that pre-Broadway run.

I’m hearing from friends in the current Broadway production of “Cabaret” that the line is once again getting an audible response, but of a different sort. On more than one occasion in the past two weeks — since the election — a small number of audience members have squealed with laughter at “She wouldn’t look Jewish at all.” In the late 1960s, we softened the line because the truth was too hard to hear. Today, it seems the line is playing exactly as the Nazi-sympathizing Emcee would have intended. 

Damn.  If this ain't history rhyming, I do not know what is.

 D