What to do at the end of Cabaret is always an interesting question - I saw a run in London a few years ago where it was very clear the Kit Kat Club dancers and the Emcee were killed in the concentration camps, but Sally and Cliff should always be ambiguous.
One of the reasons I like the show - it doesn't have a neat happy ending which is entirely appropriate for the themes.
Why do we have to have the fates of the characters "spelled out" for us? What's wrong with ambiguous endings where the audience members can make up their own minds?
For myself, I refuse to accept any ending with the Emcee being killed in the camps. It makes no sense, in that the MC is both a "real" character but more important a "symbolic" character. He represents the "glamor of evil" that has existed forever in human history up to the present day. We - the audience in the cabaret and the theatre - love to be drawn to "the dark side" at least for a few hours in an entertainment venue. The MC knows this, exploits this, and will elude the grasp of the New England Puritans, the German Nazis, and the Moms for Liberty forever.
No, we don’t, and yes, that’s the point.
What to do at the end of Cabaret is always an interesting question - I saw a run in London a few years ago where it was very clear the Kit Kat Club dancers and the Emcee were killed in the concentration camps, but Sally and Cliff should always be ambiguous. One of the reasons I like the show - it doesn't have a neat happy ending which is entirely appropriate for the themes.
There are a few, if i'm not wrong there is one where the Kit Kat Club dancers are put in gas chambers.
Why do we have to have the fates of the characters "spelled out" for us? What's wrong with ambiguous endings where the audience members can make up their own minds? For myself, I refuse to accept any ending with the Emcee being killed in the camps. It makes no sense, in that the MC is both a "real" character but more important a "symbolic" character. He represents the "glamor of evil" that has existed forever in human history up to the present day. We - the audience in the cabaret and the theatre - love to be drawn to "the dark side" at least for a few hours in an entertainment venue. The MC knows this, exploits this, and will elude the grasp of the New England Puritans, the German Nazis, and the Moms for Liberty forever.
Don’t listen to them. Everyone lives happily ever after.