Cabaret (musical)

Cabaret
Original Broadway promotional poster by Tom Morrow
Music	John Kander
Lyrics	Fred Ebb
Book	Joe Masteroff
Basis	I Am a Camera by John Van Druten Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Premiere	October 10, 1966: Shubert Theatre, Boston
Productions	See list 1966 Boston 1966 Broadway 1967 US tour 1968 West End 1969 US tour 1986 West End revival 1987 US tour 1987 Broadway revival 1989 US tour 1998 Broadway revival 1999 North American tour 2006 West End revival 2008 UK tour 2012 UK tour 2012 West End revival 2013 UK Tour 2014 Broadway revival 2016 North American tour 2017 UK tour 2019 UK tour 2021 West End revival 2024 Broadway revival
Awards	1967 Tony Award for Best Musical 1967 Tony Award for Best Original Score 1998 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival

Cabaret is an American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Joe Masteroff. It is based on the 1951 play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten, which in turn was based on the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.

Set in 1929–1930 Berlin during the twilight of the Jazz Age as the Nazis rise to power, the musical focuses on the hedonistic nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around American writer Clifford Bradshaw's relations with English cabaret performer Sally Bowles. A subplot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub, and the club itself serves as a metaphor for ominous political developments in late Weimar Germany.

The original Broadway production opened on November 20, 1966, at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City and became a box office hit that ran for 1,166 performances. The production won eight Tony Awards and inspired numerous subsequent productions around the world as well as the 1972 film of the same name.