Discover Top Posts Tagged with #the emcee

Alan Cumming as the Emcee in his dressing room decorated with a Spice Girls poster (1998).

#He's so teenage girl coded #alan cumming #cabaret 1998 #cabaret #the emcee #broadway #spice girls

musical theatre roles that i personally believe should be genderbent to be a woman

in no particular order:

JD from heathers

professor callahan from legally blonde

emmett from legally blonde

dewey from school of rock

ned from school of rock

the baker from into the woods

orpheus from hadestown

billy flynn from chicago

mr tinsworthy from 9 to 5 (this one's niche as fuck but i strongly believe it)

beetlejuice from beetlejuice

ricky from ride the cyclone

the emcee from cabaret

eddie souther from sister act

One of the biggest differences between the 1998/2014 runs of Cabaret and the most recent run is the ending. Alan Cumming’s Emcee, for his final act, does a strip tease. He winks lasciviously and toys with his buttons. The audience laughs. Then, when he finally drops his coat, he reveals he is wearing a concentration camp uniform. If you don’t know it’s coming, it’s utterly shocking. This was not how the original Broadway run ended. Community theaters and smaller productions basically all adopted this way of doing things, putting their own little spins on it but fundamentally not changing anything.

In the most recent Cabaret revival, the Emcee is much more sinister. About halfway through the play, he is no longer wearing makeup. He wears a brown suit reminiscent of a Nazi uniform. His hair is shockingly blond. But I think this interpretation is not just about the transformation of the soul of Germany as it bent towards fascism — I think it is also a tragic ending. This vibrant, queer character goes back into the closet to try to survive. It’s not death, like it was for Cummings’ emcee.

But I think about the slogan I hear from some friends — “death before detransition.” Re-closeting is its own kind of death. This Emcee lives at the end, but does he really? What does it cost him?

#cabaret #cabaret at the kit kat club #the emcee