NOTE: All videos are .VOB unless specified otherwise.
Cabaret - 1987 Pre-Broadway Tour - Unknown Location
Cast: Joel Grey (The Emcee), Alyson Reed (Sally Bowles), Gregg Edelman (Clifford 'Cliff' Bradshaw), Regina Resnick (Fräulein Schneider), Werner Klemperer (Herr Schultz), David Staller (Ernst Ludwig), Nora Mae Lyng (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Different from previous ones, this newly discovered video was probably done on the tour leading to Broadway, great sound and very well filmed with nice closeups. Small differences from the later revival - Sally was still wearing the red dress from the 1966 production for “Don’t Tell Mama" as opposed to the lingerie she wore for the Broadway revival, plus Cliff pretends to be Russian instead of English when Sally first calls him. Also, Don't Tell Mama ends as it originally did, rather than the ammended ending created later into the production.
Cabaret - 1987 Pre-Broadway Tour - Fall 1987, Los Angeles
Cast: Joel Grey (The Emcee), Alyson Reed (Sally Bowles), Gregg Edelman (Clifford 'Cliff' Bradshaw), Regina Resnick (Fräulein Schneider), Werner Klemperer (Herr Schultz), David Staller (Ernst Ludwig), Nora Mae Lyng (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Shot from the left mezzanine. Excellent video with amazing picture and sound; great quality with little generation loss; very nice! Video begins with ten minutes of pro-shot press reel footage - Contains Willkommen and Don’t Tell Mama. Video starts afterward, but doesn’t really focus until about 30 seconds into Willkommen. After that It’s pretty great, its nice to have a different angle to view this production!
Cabaret - 1987/88 Broadway Revival - October 21st, 1987
Cast: Joel Grey (The Emcee), Alyson Reed (Sally Bowles), Gregg Edelman (Clifford 'Cliff' Bradshaw), Regina Resnick (Fräulein Schneider), Werner Klemperer (Herr Schultz), David Staller (Ernst Ludwig), Nora Mae Lyng (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Video of the first Broadway revival, which I presume is from the last preview before the revival opened on October 22nd. Filmed from the orchestra with few zooms - but that's a plus! The show has lively full stage choreography and you don't want to miss it. You're able to see the set well, but faces are a little more difficult. Joel Grey is golden. Incredibly good for it's age and with very good sound. Missing a couple parts - video jumps from halfway through So What? to after Don't Tell Mama.
Cabaret - 1987/88 Broadway Revival - Semi pro-shot, from some point in 1988 (MP4)
Cast: Joel Grey (The Emcee), Alyson Reed (Sally Bowles), Gregg Edelman (Clifford 'Cliff' Bradshaw), Regina Resnick (Fräulein Schneider), Werner Klemperer (Herr Schultz), David Staller (Ernst Ludwig), Nora Mae Lyng (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Video is very good quality, interesting g to watch. Closest a person can get to seeing what the original 1966 production looked like. Shot with a tripod, occaisonal zooms.
Cabaret - 1998/1999 Revival - Press Reels :
1998 Cast: Alan Cumming (The Emcee), Natasha Richardson (Sally Bowles), John Benjamin Hickey (Clifford Bradshaw), Mary Louise Wilson (Fräulein Schneider), Ron Rifkin (Herr Schultz), Michele Pawk (Fräulein Kost/Fritzie), Denis O'Hare (Ernst Ludwig)
1999 Cast: Alan Cumming (The Emcee), Mary McCormack (Sally Bowles), Boyd Gaines (Clifford Bradshaw), Carole Shelley (Fräulein Schneider), Michele Pawk (Fräulein Kost/Fritzie), Denis O'Hare (Ernst Ludwig). Herr Schultz does not appear.
Notes: 1998 has almost every song, 1999 features nothing with Schultz in it and is more fragmented. Still, it is nice to have for the footage of the revival that started it all.
THIS IS NOT THE FULL SHOW. You would not think i would need to put this but you'd be surprised.
Cabaret - 1998 Reveival - June 6th, 2000
Cast: Joely Fisher (Sally Bowles), Emcee (Michael C. Hall), Carole Shelley (Fraulein Schneider), Michael Hayden (Cliff Bradshaw), Dick Latessa (Herr Schultz)
Notes: Some pretty bad spotlight washout, but you can still see most faces. Great audio quality, and Joely really is an amazing Sally. I can’t exactly ID who is playing Fraulein Kost, but it seems to me like its Candy Buckley.
Cabaret - UK Revival - November 4th, 2006
Cast: Anna Maxwell Martin (Sally Bowles), Michael Hayden (Clifford Bradshaw), James Dreyfus (Emcee), Sheila Hancock (Fraulein Schneider), Geoffrey Hutchings (Herr Schultz), Harriet Thorpe (Fraulein Kost), Andrew Maud (Ernst Ludwig)
Notes: Very…interesting revival. Partially brilliant, partially atrocious, with some both good and bad performances. It is an interesting watch, and some of it is quite fantastic, but it is a deeply flawed production. Quite good quality.
Cabaret - UK Tour - September 28th, 2008 (VOB)
Cast: Samantha Barks, Wayne Sleep, Jenny Logan, Matt Zimmerman, Henry Luxemberg.
Notes: All of Act 1 and the first ten minutes of Act 2. Slightly shakey with occaisional blackouts throughout, but overall it is is nice to watch. It has improved on the flaws of the original 2006 London Revival (this Emcee actually has a personality) and Samantha is quite a nice Sally.
Cabaret - UK Tour - March 22nd, 2009
Cast: Samantha Barks (Sally), Wayne Sleep (Emcee), Jenny Logan (Fraulein Schneider), Matt Zimmerman (Herr Schultz), Henry Luxemburg (Cliff), Karl Moffatt (Ernst), Susanne Braun (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Highlights from this show. Contains all musical numbers. Very shakey footage, bizarre closeups, but it improves as the show progresses. Clear audio throughout.
Cabaret - March 30th, 2014 (MP4)
Cast: Leeds Hill (u/s Emcee), Michelle Williams, Bill Heck, Linda Emond, Danny Burstein, Gayle Rankin, Aaron Krohn.
Notes: Very clear footage, from first week of previews when Alan got sick. This was Leeds’s first performance as Emcee and he does quite well. Very nice to watch.
Cabaret - May 4th, 2014 (VOB)
Cast: Alan Cumming, Michelle Williams, Bill Heck, Linda Emond, Danny Burstein, Gayle Rankin, Aaron Krohn.
Notes: Michelle’s performance here is not the strongest, but it improves as the show proceeds. Alan, Linda, Gayle and Danny give performances that cannot be missed. Excellent capture of this cast.
Cabaret - August 19th, 2014
Cast: Alan Cumming (The Emcee), Michelle Williams (Sally Bowles), Bill Heck (Clifford ‘Cliff’ Bradshaw), Linda Emond (Fräulein Schneider), Danny Burstein (Herr Schultz), Benjamin Eakeley (u/s Ernst Ludwig), Kaleigh Cronin (u/s Fräulein Kost / Fritzie), Kelly Paredes (u/s Rosie), Stacey Sipowicz (u/s Lulu / ‘Two Ladies’ Dancer), Caleb Damschroeder (u/s Herman / Customs Officer / Max),
Notes: The songs are shot fantastically - no spotlight washout at all and a wonderful mix of wide and close shots. However, to make up for it the scenes are just a little dark. Everything is still entirely visible, just a little bit darker than one would expect. Probably the steadiest and most well-defined bootleg around - although there is visibly a lot of image stabilisation going on. The main cast is as fantastic as always and Kaleigh and Ben fit right in.
Cabaret - March 14th, 2015
Cast: Alan Cumming (The Emcee), Sienna Miller (Sally Bowles), Benjamin Eakeley (u/s Clifford ‘Cliff’ Bradshaw), Linda Emond (Fräulein Schneider), Danny Burstein (Herr Schultz), Aaron Krohn (Ernst Ludwig), Hani Furstenberg (Fräulein Kost / Fritzie)
Comments: Sienna is incredibly reminiscent of Natasha Richardson in her take on Sally, and that’s a good thing! Ben Eakeley makes an excellent - and very earnest - Cliff.
Cabaret - February 27th, 2016 - National Tour, Chicago (NFT Until 7/1/16)
Cast: Randy Harrison (Emcee), Andrea Goss (Sally Bowles), Lee Aaron Rosen (Cliff Bradshaw), Shannon Cochran (Fraulein Schneider), Mark Nelson (Herr Schultz), Alison Ewing (Fraulein Kost), Ned Noyes (Ernst Ludwig)
Notes from the master: Beautiful HD capture of the new tour, with no obstructions. Randy does a terrific job in the role. Great cast and very strong performances!
My personal notes: So here's the thing: this production is a mix of very good and very bad. Andrea is an excellent Sally, quite possibly one of my absolute favorites; I mean really, she's exceptional. She manages to do her own thing in the role, very original (if I were to compare her to anyone else, I'd describe her as sort of a hybrid of Natasha Richardson and Jane Horrocks). Shannon is also a solid Fraulein Schneider, and Lee Aaron Rosen is a very nice Cliff (to be fair he's also very attractive but that's just my personal preference).
But the problem is, Randy is...awful. I mean really he's just terrible, one of the worst I've ever seen. His singing is quite nice, but his performance is too stilted and too awkward; he's trying to do his own sort of pseudo-macho thing with the role, but it just comes off as a flat performance. His emotions are just too understated for the stage; he's sort of like a hybrid of James Dreyfus and Jon Peterson (my two least favorite emcees). And when he does manage to get his energy up it's just cringey; he's just so wrong for the role. Also, Alison Ewing is so bad, like so sooooo bad. She's trying way too hard to be funny and it just comes off as mugging. I get it's a comedic role, but she overdoes it to the point that it's just unfunny and painful. It;s very reminiscent of a high school actress showing off for her parents. Also, dancewise, the production has returned to the version of the choreography that has the girls out of rhythm, which I get is more realistic, but it gives it an amateur vibe that throws it off. Overall it's a good video, but I just was very much bothered by these things.
Cast: Joel Grey (The Emcee), Alyson Reed (Sally Bowles), Gregg Edelman (Clifford 'Cliff' Bradshaw), Regina Resnick (Fräulein Schneider), Werner Klemperer (Herr Schultz), David Staller (Ernst Ludwig), Nora Mae Lyng (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Different from previous ones, this newly discovered video was probably done on the tour leading to Broadway, great sound and very well filmed with nice closeups. Small differences from the later revival - Sally was still wearing the red dress from the 1966 production for “Don’t Tell Mama" as opposed to the lingerie she wore for the Broadway revival, plus Cliff pretends to be Russian instead of English when Sally first calls him. Also, Don't Tell Mama ends as it originally did, rather than the ammended ending created later into the production.
Cabaret - 1987 Pre-Broadway Tour - Fall 1987, Los Angeles
Cast: Joel Grey (The Emcee), Alyson Reed (Sally Bowles), Gregg Edelman (Clifford 'Cliff' Bradshaw), Regina Resnick (Fräulein Schneider), Werner Klemperer (Herr Schultz), David Staller (Ernst Ludwig), Nora Mae Lyng (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Shot from the left mezzanine. Excellent video with amazing picture and sound; great quality with little generation loss; very nice! Video begins with ten minutes of pro-shot press reel footage - Contains Willkommen and Don’t Tell Mama. Video starts afterward, but doesn’t really focus until about 30 seconds into Willkommen. After that It’s pretty great, its nice to have a different angle to view this production!
Cabaret - 1987/88 Broadway Revival - October 21st, 1987
Cast: Joel Grey (The Emcee), Alyson Reed (Sally Bowles), Gregg Edelman (Clifford 'Cliff' Bradshaw), Regina Resnick (Fräulein Schneider), Werner Klemperer (Herr Schultz), David Staller (Ernst Ludwig), Nora Mae Lyng (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Video of the first Broadway revival, which I presume is from the last preview before the revival opened on October 22nd. Filmed from the orchestra with few zooms - but that's a plus! The show has lively full stage choreography and you don't want to miss it. You're able to see the set well, but faces are a little more difficult. Joel Grey is golden. Incredibly good for it's age and with very good sound. Missing a couple parts - video jumps from halfway through So What? to after Don't Tell Mama.
Cabaret - 1987/88 Broadway Revival - Semi pro-shot, from some point in 1988 (MP4)
Cast: Joel Grey (The Emcee), Alyson Reed (Sally Bowles), Gregg Edelman (Clifford 'Cliff' Bradshaw), Regina Resnick (Fräulein Schneider), Werner Klemperer (Herr Schultz), David Staller (Ernst Ludwig), Nora Mae Lyng (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Video is very good quality, interesting g to watch. Closest a person can get to seeing what the original 1966 production looked like. Shot with a tripod, occaisonal zooms.
Cabaret - 1998/1999 Revival - Press Reels :
1998 Cast: Alan Cumming (The Emcee), Natasha Richardson (Sally Bowles), John Benjamin Hickey (Clifford Bradshaw), Mary Louise Wilson (Fräulein Schneider), Ron Rifkin (Herr Schultz), Michele Pawk (Fräulein Kost/Fritzie), Denis O'Hare (Ernst Ludwig)
1999 Cast: Alan Cumming (The Emcee), Mary McCormack (Sally Bowles), Boyd Gaines (Clifford Bradshaw), Carole Shelley (Fräulein Schneider), Michele Pawk (Fräulein Kost/Fritzie), Denis O'Hare (Ernst Ludwig). Herr Schultz does not appear.
Notes: 1998 has almost every song, 1999 features nothing with Schultz in it and is more fragmented. Still, it is nice to have for the footage of the revival that started it all.
THIS IS NOT THE FULL SHOW. You would not think i would need to put this but you'd be surprised.
Cabaret - 1998 Reveival - June 6th, 2000
Cast: Joely Fisher (Sally Bowles), Emcee (Michael C. Hall), Carole Shelley (Fraulein Schneider), Michael Hayden (Cliff Bradshaw), Dick Latessa (Herr Schultz)
Notes: Some pretty bad spotlight washout, but you can still see most faces. Great audio quality, and Joely really is an amazing Sally. I can’t exactly ID who is playing Fraulein Kost, but it seems to me like its Candy Buckley.
Cabaret - UK Revival - November 4th, 2006
Cast: Anna Maxwell Martin (Sally Bowles), Michael Hayden (Clifford Bradshaw), James Dreyfus (Emcee), Sheila Hancock (Fraulein Schneider), Geoffrey Hutchings (Herr Schultz), Harriet Thorpe (Fraulein Kost), Andrew Maud (Ernst Ludwig)
Notes: Very…interesting revival. Partially brilliant, partially atrocious, with some both good and bad performances. It is an interesting watch, and some of it is quite fantastic, but it is a deeply flawed production. Quite good quality.
Cabaret - UK Tour - September 28th, 2008 (VOB)
Cast: Samantha Barks, Wayne Sleep, Jenny Logan, Matt Zimmerman, Henry Luxemberg.
Notes: All of Act 1 and the first ten minutes of Act 2. Slightly shakey with occaisional blackouts throughout, but overall it is is nice to watch. It has improved on the flaws of the original 2006 London Revival (this Emcee actually has a personality) and Samantha is quite a nice Sally.
Cabaret - UK Tour - March 22nd, 2009
Cast: Samantha Barks (Sally), Wayne Sleep (Emcee), Jenny Logan (Fraulein Schneider), Matt Zimmerman (Herr Schultz), Henry Luxemburg (Cliff), Karl Moffatt (Ernst), Susanne Braun (Fraulein Kost)
Notes: Highlights from this show. Contains all musical numbers. Very shakey footage, bizarre closeups, but it improves as the show progresses. Clear audio throughout.
Cabaret - March 30th, 2014 (MP4)
Cast: Leeds Hill (u/s Emcee), Michelle Williams, Bill Heck, Linda Emond, Danny Burstein, Gayle Rankin, Aaron Krohn.
Notes: Very clear footage, from first week of previews when Alan got sick. This was Leeds’s first performance as Emcee and he does quite well. Very nice to watch.
Cabaret - May 4th, 2014 (VOB)
Cast: Alan Cumming, Michelle Williams, Bill Heck, Linda Emond, Danny Burstein, Gayle Rankin, Aaron Krohn.
Notes: Michelle’s performance here is not the strongest, but it improves as the show proceeds. Alan, Linda, Gayle and Danny give performances that cannot be missed. Excellent capture of this cast.
Cabaret - August 19th, 2014
Cast: Alan Cumming (The Emcee), Michelle Williams (Sally Bowles), Bill Heck (Clifford ‘Cliff’ Bradshaw), Linda Emond (Fräulein Schneider), Danny Burstein (Herr Schultz), Benjamin Eakeley (u/s Ernst Ludwig), Kaleigh Cronin (u/s Fräulein Kost / Fritzie), Kelly Paredes (u/s Rosie), Stacey Sipowicz (u/s Lulu / ‘Two Ladies’ Dancer), Caleb Damschroeder (u/s Herman / Customs Officer / Max),
Notes: The songs are shot fantastically - no spotlight washout at all and a wonderful mix of wide and close shots. However, to make up for it the scenes are just a little dark. Everything is still entirely visible, just a little bit darker than one would expect. Probably the steadiest and most well-defined bootleg around - although there is visibly a lot of image stabilisation going on. The main cast is as fantastic as always and Kaleigh and Ben fit right in.
Cabaret - March 14th, 2015
Cast: Alan Cumming (The Emcee), Sienna Miller (Sally Bowles), Benjamin Eakeley (u/s Clifford ‘Cliff’ Bradshaw), Linda Emond (Fräulein Schneider), Danny Burstein (Herr Schultz), Aaron Krohn (Ernst Ludwig), Hani Furstenberg (Fräulein Kost / Fritzie)
Comments: Sienna is incredibly reminiscent of Natasha Richardson in her take on Sally, and that’s a good thing! Ben Eakeley makes an excellent - and very earnest - Cliff.
Cabaret - February 27th, 2016 - National Tour, Chicago (NFT Until 7/1/16)
Cast: Randy Harrison (Emcee), Andrea Goss (Sally Bowles), Lee Aaron Rosen (Cliff Bradshaw), Shannon Cochran (Fraulein Schneider), Mark Nelson (Herr Schultz), Alison Ewing (Fraulein Kost), Ned Noyes (Ernst Ludwig)
Notes from the master: Beautiful HD capture of the new tour, with no obstructions. Randy does a terrific job in the role. Great cast and very strong performances!
My personal notes: So here's the thing: this production is a mix of very good and very bad. Andrea is an excellent Sally, quite possibly one of my absolute favorites; I mean really, she's exceptional. She manages to do her own thing in the role, very original (if I were to compare her to anyone else, I'd describe her as sort of a hybrid of Natasha Richardson and Jane Horrocks). Shannon is also a solid Fraulein Schneider, and Lee Aaron Rosen is a very nice Cliff (to be fair he's also very attractive but that's just my personal preference).
But the problem is, Randy is...awful. I mean really he's just terrible, one of the worst I've ever seen. His singing is quite nice, but his performance is too stilted and too awkward; he's trying to do his own sort of pseudo-macho thing with the role, but it just comes off as a flat performance. His emotions are just too understated for the stage; he's sort of like a hybrid of James Dreyfus and Jon Peterson (my two least favorite emcees). And when he does manage to get his energy up it's just cringey; he's just so wrong for the role. Also, Alison Ewing is so bad, like so sooooo bad. She's trying way too hard to be funny and it just comes off as mugging. I get it's a comedic role, but she overdoes it to the point that it's just unfunny and painful. It;s very reminiscent of a high school actress showing off for her parents. Also, dancewise, the production has returned to the version of the choreography that has the girls out of rhythm, which I get is more realistic, but it gives it an amateur vibe that throws it off. Overall it's a good video, but I just was very much bothered by these things.