Whatever Happened To The New CABARET Movie??- Page 3

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 12:23pm

Glynis Johns was not?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 12:44pm

Shocking as it may seem to hear it from me, but I think Natasha Richardson's Desiree would have surpassed Glynis Johns's.

(I didn't not feel the same about her mother's Madame Armfeldt, though.)

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 1:10pm

Victor & Natasha - You Must Meet My Wife

Posted: 1/3/13 at 1:30pm

I don't think Sally's singing voice is the most important thing. I think you need a Sally who is enchanting and awful at all once. She's fun and quixotic and under it all kind of a monster- Liza in a nut shell.

[Johnnycantdecide]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 1:45pm

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the MC

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 1:49pm

NO. Alan Cumming will be the Emcee. There's not even a discussion to be had about that.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 1:54pm

He'll be fetching in his walker.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 1:55pm

I have never understood the attraction of Alan Cumming and his "me, me, me, look at me, aren't I so clever and wicked" style of acting. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an interesting idea, but I don't know if he has enough darkness.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 2:06pm

When not-yet-Dame Judi Dench played Sally Bowles in the 1968 London production, the producers had to put up a sign saying

Miss Dench does not have a cold.
This is her normal speaking voice.

Here is rare footage of Judy Dench rehearsing Sally Bowles:

http://youtu.be/v55VRyJMc0o



And here's the footage of her performing the title song:

http://youtu.be/z2bqujq1Qxs Updated On: 1/3/13 at 02:06 PM

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 4:35pm

From what I've seen and heard, Dame Dench was quite a terrific Sally.

I also lament Natasha Richardson not being able to do a full scale production of A Little Night Music. I've heard most of her big moments in the show and she was phenomenal. Such a perfect role for her, too.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 7:29pm

So...Gaveston...no. It's not 'more' interesting in the film. The film works really well on its own and Liza is terrific in it. But it's certainly not a 'better' choice. Just different. Justified. And thrilling. But not more interesting.

Robbie, I didn't see Richardson in CABARET, but I don't doubt she was brilliant, much as Lotte Lenya was always brilliant even though she wasn't technically a "singer". Ditto for Judy Dench. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that many of the great roles in musicals (Harold Hill, Henry Higgins, Daisy Clover, Vera Charles, Dolly Levi, et al.) were essayed by "non-singers".

But that doesn't change the basic argument (echoed by many here) that a Sally who is a great singer is truly tragic, in that she causes her own "suffering", while a Sally who can't sing is merely a victim of bad luck.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 10:31pm

I don't think her voice (good or bad) makes her a tragedy, it's her choices. But that said, by moving "Cabaret" in the movie to after she's had her abortion and after Cliff (or Brian or whatever is name was in the movie?) has left, not to mention the way in which she sings it, does seem to want to imply an ending of triumph for Sally, something the stage version doesn't.

No one wants to go to a musical and listen to someone who simply can't sing a note, but I'm in the camp that Sally benefits more from an actress with a voice like Richardson's than a voice like Minnelli's. But, almost completely over all, I prefer the stage version to the movie version. I prefer the tragic love story of Schneider and Schultz than I do the movie's comparable one with Marisa Berenson. I prefer the book songs that are lost and pretty much the stage's book itself.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 10:43pm

I agree about a billion percent with everything you said there.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 10:44pm

Oh come now. Sally's tragedy isn't the fact that she's not playing Carnegie Hall. It's that she cannot get past her demons enough to see the way out of the coming storm. The singing is incidental (which is why I have no problem with a great singer playing the role or just someone who can carry a tune). If she's got a great voice, she chooses to sing at the Kit Kat Klub for whatever reason the actress decides. If she doesn't have a great voice, it's the best she can get.

But the tragedy is her choice to go out like Elsie. And destroying any possibility of getting away from there.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 1/3/13 at 11:21pm

I know someone mentioned Anna Kendrick, but I think she's too demure or bubbly. Not sure how to put it, because she can do serious roles. Someone like Mila Kunis or Jennifer Lawrence could do it because they are more womanly. Natalie Portman could do, based on her work in "Closer" and "Black Swan."

[goldenboy]

Posted: 1/4/13 at 12:29am

The film is a classic. Leave it alone
Look at the remakes of the Women...all flops
or the tv version of Music Man..... very disappointing.
and even Bette Midler in Gypsy.... very disappointing.
You should not remake West Side Story, All About Eve, The Women,Citizen Kane and Cabaret because they are all "classics." and they can't be made better. Brittany Spears as Sally Bowles????
Please don't.

[Hex3]

Posted: 1/4/13 at 2:05am

I think you maybe should calm down and take a few deep breaths there. I don't think anybody here has mentioned a single thing regarding Sally Bowles being played by Brittany Spears. Maybe you just got caught up in the moment and saw Brave Sir Robin's avatar. And secondly, most here are not talking about a remake of the original movie but a film based on the stage version.

And concerning the remake of The Women: That was all the director's doing. She came out in an interview saying that she didn't understand why the characters were so mean to each other and was going to nicen them up by rewriting the script. The poor woman had obviously no understanding of what the original play was actually about. And then turned it into some amalgam of The Women and Sex and the City. How Claire Booth Luce's estate let that tragedy happen is beyond me.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 1/4/13 at 2:05am

Hmmm..... Mila Kunis. That's an idea. Then again, I'd see her in anything. Her acting would be amazing as Sally. Something is telling me that she's not a good singer at all though, like not even to the point where it can be faked. Don't know what it is, just a feeling. I'd love to be wrong though.

Updated On: 1/4/13 at 02:05 AM

[DEClarke]

Posted: 1/4/13 at 2:31am

I agree with the OP that this needs to happen. However, here are my requirements:

1.) It not be a remake of the butchered film adaptation starring Liza.

2.) I need it to be a faithful hybrid of the original book and score and the revival version. Thus, I'd like it to follow the recent production from Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre, but it should include "I Don't Care Much." Their not using it was a glaring omission IMO.

3.) I liked the rough vocals/non-polished of the revival. Sally is NOT supposed to be a great singer. So, find someone who can ACT the role. If she sings it marginally, that's fine. The book says she's not fantastic.

4.) No Bitney Spears. No Christina. No pop diva. Preferably no (HOLLYWOOD) name as Sally.

That is all!