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From: lovebette
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  • I don't know. I'm doing this version of Cabaret for a local theater and love our Emcee who is supposed to reflecting Cumming, but Joel Grey will always be the man when it comes to this role. 

  • alan is on Rocco's dinner party tonight on Bravo 10 pm with Sam Harris and the one and only LIZA MINNELLI!!!!

  • Alan's Voice is So Beautiul & remorseful in this song,I never get tired of listening to it over and over again.

    He puts so much Emotion into the performance that when you listen to him or in this case watch him he overwhelms you so that you cannot think of anything else and i would love to hear (or see) Joel Gray try to Cover This song and pull it off with half as much passion as Alan Gives it.

    I Adore this song so much that I feel it has a place in my soul along with only a choice few others.

  • this is what would dexter morgan sing if he had to sing while killing someone.

  • He has that accent down. I can't believe he can sing that beautifully and emotionally while maintaining a fake German accent. God he's awesome.

  • alan is amazing and sexy

  • He sounds like frankenfurter

  • I love frankie and i love alan,so i guess i will take that comment as a good one

  • @DhaliaFrantic Michael Hall did sing this

  • He's so talented!

    He's performing live in London at Lance Horne's album launch at the end of the month. I saw his solo show here in 2008 and it was amazing, so can't wait for this one!

  • @jbecker8082  Joel Grey never performed this number.

  • @ChildsPlayPro hahah thats soo true

  • This is actually my favorite of Alan's songs in Cabaret. His emotion as well as his voice is phenomenal. I also like this clip in that the blue lightning is very well captured, which perfectly highlights the mood of this song. Love you Alan! Keep being your awesome self!

  • why give a shit what the sexual preferences are of Cummings? he's a great performer, and that has nothing to do with his personal life.

  • One of the finest actors of our time. I'll watch anything and everything he's in.

  • Perhaps I'm a bit prejudiced by the fact that he once gave me a dirty look when he backed into my elbow, but still, Mr Cumming leaves me cold.

  • @SDePaul7 He might've thought you did it on purpose, forgive him.

  • Perhaps I'm prejudiced by the dirty look he once gave me for backing into my elbow, but still, Mr. Cumming leaves me flat.

  • he is amazing!! is the finale/ending posted anywhere on youtube?

  • Nobody comes CLOSE to Mr. Cumming's portrayal of the Emcee... A certain childish innocence, yet a sexual deviant... His voice is amazing.

  • he's bisexual.

  • Love this song to bad it was not in the movie. Love the fact that alan and Liza are great friends.

  • Amazing, I love Alan's acting in this part. His voice is so harrowing and full of mixed emotions, it's rich.

  • Interesting to compare Alan with Raul Esparza doing this song in this production, which is also on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=AXc6xicmjb­M

  • @cbraslow i was just comparing the two! their both just stunning right!

  • i like his version of Emcee, but i do agree Joel is FABULOUS!

  • @shrubbmeister ...can't barely carry a note? His performance here disproves your comment. How do you think he got the Broadway role? Do you think he fooled the Broadway casting director? Is he fooling everyone but you?

  • I have to say it He's my favorite Emcee!

  • does anyone have the entire alan cummings show of this... I would love it on DVD. please email me

  • So amazing.

  • thats the best part of alan as mc its a great song

  • true talent right there.

  • wow it echoed through my ears, such a beautiful voice so loud so lovely so brilliant i love him i want you alan cumming!!! :)

  • This is a Beautiful Live Rendition of an awesome song, by a truely inspiring performer.

  • what is the line from 4:22-4:25?

  • Um the song stops at 2:06.

  • haha! im laughing at ur scarcasim hehe nice one

  • he is soooooo fine! even in a dress and earings

  • He's even more incredible live than on the recording! This song is so gorgeous too...and he's one of the few men who can pull off wearing a dress and womens' earrings and not look odd ;) haha

  • did he record on a revival cast album for cabaret?

  • Yeah, there's a recording, but it's of a live performance. It's still pretty good.

  • is it of the individual songs? and where can i get it?

  • yeah it is. it's good quality but you hear the audience applausing and what not.

    it's on Rhapsody. search for Cabaret, and it's a picture of the Emcee's face and above it, it says "The New Broadway Cast Recording."

  • thanks :)

  • sup man, im a professional singer myself...can blatently tell that allan isnt miming...on top of that, i know him personally, and know that allan would never mime to a recording, he simply wouldnt go on if ill or if told to mime.

    His work ethic is too strong and his talent is quite simply too good for miming in my opinion.

    Watch closley my friend and if you have any experience in live vocal performance and recorded sound, then you will clearly note that this is a beautiful live rendition.

  • Yes! It's fabulous. He's on the New Broadway Cast Recording with Natasha Richardson and Mary Louise Wilson, it's great you should get it. The whole cast is fantastic.

  • Yes, he's the emcee on the 1998 revival recording.

  • BAMF

  • what a badass

  • one of my favorite songs EVER! I am so glad they put it back in the revival! damn I love Alan

  • Goodness, I love this song so much.

    We performed this play back in high school, and it was SO much fun... and one of the best performances during our whole run was when the girl singing this song started crying. So sad, so heartbreaking, SO good.

  • Did you have a girl playing the Emcee? Or did Sally sing the song?

  • It was a different girl in the cast, I forget which role she usually played. But she was a wonderful singer and definitely made this a memorable performance every night!

  • I had no idea I added this song back in for the revival.

    Does anyone know when in comes in relation to the rest of the play?

  • I believe it's II-5 after What would you do

  • I love this video and thank the person who post it. I had never seen him nor heard of him but was moved and appreciate for what is out there and for what we dont know or understand. For this I respect this piece of art and its creator.

  • i love kabarett with everything since le chat noir...kurt weill, brecht..ute lemper... and the musical "cabaret " to alan is very great in this musical

  • so amazing.

  • fabulous!!!!!

  • I didn't see Alan Cummings. I saw it with Raul Esparza who was the only other Emcee to really understand the role (and the best Broadway voice of all the posts!!). Check out the version of him from the Broadway show (it's posted). His delivery is complex and haunting. I think actually he is even better than Alan Cummings. All of the other versions posted range from well sung to crap but none of the other versions are as complex as Esparza's version. Bravo!

  • I see what you mean. I am in love with Alan Cumming's portrayal of the Emcee, he revolutionized the character and made him HILARIOUS.

    But Raul actually makes him a multidimensional character.

  • So haunting, I love it (and him).

  • OH GOD IM SCARED...

    ive never wanted to see this but i made myself......oh wow. im scrred now. AHHHHHHHH!!!!

  • Probably my favorite song on the whole play, but I'm sad they took out Money makes the World go Round

  • What exactly is Cabaret about? I've... never heard of it....

  • It is a concept show, a comparison between the US in the 70's, and Germany just before nazi-control. It's framed in a cabaret night club, and the songs are metaphors for what is going in in the characters' lives who, in turn, are metaphores for large groups of people (ex:the eldery Jewish man who doesn't see the gravity of what's happening around him.)

    the original shied away from the inherent darkness of the subject matter, and the film has a completely different plot.

  • it's an interesting idea, but where do you get it from that the show is comparing the rise of the Nazis in the Germany to the US in the 70's? Do you mean this production specifically, or the piece itself, as it was only written in 1966. And the film doesn't seem to draw any specific comparisons.

  • it's a CLASSIC!!! this production with Alan is a revival. the original had Joel Grey & Liza Minelli!!! C'mon now :)

    (it takes place during WWII & the rise of Nazi)

  • WW2 and the rise of the Nazis are seperated by around 6 years of history...Cabaret is set in the early 1930's, and the second world war didn't actually start til 1939.

  • Sorry, no... Jill Haworth... Liza didn't come along until the movie.

  • nope, it takes place in 1931, well before WWII. It shows the change from Weimar Germany, a very free place with no censorship on art, to Nazi Germany, a dictatorship. The Nazis were in power from 1933 on wards, when Hitler became the 'Fuhrer'

  • Yeah, this was cut out from the original 1966 version. Personally, I couldn't see Joel Grey doing this... but it would be really interesting to watch! Then, Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall added this to this revival, and it stuck ever since.

  • ohh!! I love him in this, every time!

  • I didn't know this song was from Cabaret - why the heck did they leave it out of the movie version...?

  • the song was written specifically for the revival and alan cumming

  • It can't have been written for his revival, because Streisand recorded it on one of her first albums way back in the 60's. Maybe he just decided to have it inserted. ANyway, it suits the play really well.

  • oh wow i didn't know that. i want to hear streisand sing it now

  • The song was originally written to be sung by Sally, but was cut from the original production. Alan took it for his own.

  • Your opinion. It's merely a different interpretation, more overtly sexual and more faithful to the Weimar Republic culture before HItler. The movie was sanitized for American audiences, who are generally considered sexually repressed by Europeans.

  • see my "vids" online now before youtube takes them off again k

  • You must have seen a different X-men 2 film than I did cause there was a clear set up for a Storm/Nightcrawler relationship in that movie. Alan did well as Kurt Wagner.

    Also Nightcrawler is a little campy in the comics and I think Alan got that across very well.

    Who an actor sleeps with or who he doesn't sleep with has f*** all to do with how he does his job.

  • Alan Cumming is a musical theatre legend.

  • i dont think he was gay... i loved it... its the reason i watched it. cause i found out he was in it. i love him as a actor and he has a great voice. and i dont care if you think im strange for it either

  • @AngelEatos41 His emcee was gay. In the finale, he takes off his trenchcoat to reveal a concentration camp uniform and it has a star of David, the sign for a Jew; and a pink triangle, the sign they gave for homosexuals.

  • @Thewaiter525600 the point the play was making was it shouldnt matter if your a jew or a gay or anything, were you paying attention, its very moving and alan is so amazing!!

  • @musicalbabe27 Um...I was paying attention and I agree with everything you just said...I was answering someone's question as to whether or not Alan Cumming's Emcee was supposed to be gay...This is one of my favorite shows and I think Cumming, Richardson, Kander and Ebb are geniuses. At what part of my last comment did I make any speculation about how moving the show was or Alan's performance?

  • @Thewaiter525600 alan cumming's emcee is bi. not gay. he has a fantastic voice.

  • @AngelEatos41 he's openly bisexual though and he is an amazing actor

  • @AngelEatos41 lol, project your own homophobia onto everyone else much?

  • @thedict Hey, same person, different login... i wasnt being homophobic, i would never be...trust me. If i remember correctly, bear in mind this was three years ago, i was responding to the comment above mine, the one thats flagged? because i flagged it, tho im not sure why it didnt tag him in my comment back. when i said 'i dont think he's gay' i was refering to Nightcrawler. I know Alan is Bi, and i would NEVER say anything negative about gays, lesbians or Bi's, seeing as im Bi myself.

  • You know, you can just make it easier on yourself to tag yourself "homophobic" at the end of your comments - that way, we can get the point quicker. Just a thought.

  • Such a great moment in the show, around when Sally Bowles decides to eff all, drop Cliff and stick around with the Germans and the drugs.

  • He is SO awesome!! To hell with John Stamos!

  • Amen. This is one of the best versions I have ever heard of this song. But Alan definately kicks Stamos' greek ass

  • wow. just...wow. i think alan cumming is so amazing as the emcee. so so so great.

  • I never thought anyone could compare to joel grey, but alan cumming is brilliant!!!

  • I somewhat agree. I have seen both versions live. The original Joel Gray version feels like 1930s Germany. The Alan Cummings version feels and looks more like 1980s Seattle. Cummings is a good actor but I don't think his singing can compare with Joel Grey's abilty. Sorry :)

  • Good gracious what a brilliant performance, it's so good it tears at my core. Alan Cumming is such an interesting person and a dynamic performer, I just wanna linger in his essence.

    haha, speaking of which, I recommend his fans to check out his perfume commercial spoof ;)

  • i cant believe im sitting here trying not to cry...

    god he's amazing

  • i gave up on trying not to cry a long time ago :) it's all just to much when he's this spectacular...

  • 'M.C' (Master of Ceremonies) or Emcee is wearing makeup because he works in a Cabaret-I suppose he could be homosexual, but I think he's most probably a bisexual swinger. The 'Pierrot' or 'Harlequin' makeup was commonly worn by the clowns of such establishments, and I guess it was a way that men could make themselves more eccentric and theatrical. I mean, the women get to flash their flesh and behave like sirens...what do the cabaret-men do?

  • This makes my heart simultaneously cry and smile. Alan Cumming is amazing as the Emcee, and Cabaret breaks my heart. thanks tons for putting this up

    cheers

    xx

  • I agree. <3

  • Why was in makeup and in drag? His he gay? but it was a beautiful song :D

  • I think he is singing how Sally feels. The whole show is beautiful! You should read pjcgatsby's comment below this one, he or she- it lol- has a good point about the song.

  • Please add more of the Great Alan Cumming in Cabaret. I wanna see him do the Money Song!

  • new obsession.

    fucking love him

  • Heart wrenching. I love it.

  • Alan = <3

  • the meaning?: when there is no hope, caring is a luxury one cannot afford--a political as well as psychological statement. the pain he's expressing in this song lies in the dilema that he cannot rid himself of caring--he's in a conundrum. i love cummings' interpretation. i love everything about him in this show. i literally fell in love with him after seeing him in this production.

  • Its a good song, but it sounds really chopped up here. Get it on itunes, it sounds so much better

  • Alan i love you

  • Encore!

    His face is so beautifully expressive and emotional, like his voice. This is brilliant, i'm off to buy the soundtrack! Thank you for sharing

  • Is this in the Donmar Warehouse production or the 1998 Broadway production?

  • Can someone explain the context/meaning of this song?

  • its about the girl's fears and disappointing over boys

  • During the play, he has a lover who is Jewish ("If you could see her"). The play takes place when Hitler comes to power so I assume she was taken away. He's singing about how he doesn't care about anything anymore. Hope it helped! Alan is the BEST Emcee!!

  • It isn't really his lover, it's all an act. He sings it with a girl in a gorilla suit after a brick is thrown through Herr Schultz's window. He sings "I Don't Care Much" after Sally and Cliff have a fight, and, if you look closely, you can see that he's wearing a dress, meaning he's supposed to be Sally.

  • The thing no one here seems to have mentioned is the use of the EMCEE in the show. The Emcee is a metaphor for our collective unconscious and, even within the "world of the show" does not technically exist outside this context. He is a Brechtian device, for the benefit of theater historians, and his relevance throughout the show (with this song as an example) is to be outside the action of the show and looking in and commenting on the characters' predicaments.

  • Sorry, but that is totally incorrect. "If you could see her" is a cabaret act where he is dancing with a gorilla. He sings the song about how people can't understand why he would love her. Then at the end, he says "If you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn't look Jewish at all". It was a statement how the Nazis looked at Jews like they were animals. This song has nothing to do with the Emcee. It is a musical comment after Sally and Cliff have a big fight about her apathy.

  • This is one of the saddest songs I've ever heard.

  • The guy at the end, "What the hell do you think...!"

  • I'm crying!

  • I just do not get the whole Alan Cummings thing.

    Different strokes, I guess.

  • beautiful! it's been in my head all day

  • If you give this less than five stars, it should only be because the clip isn't the entire song. The performance is amazing. Absolutely amazing.

  • genius. brilliant. the best. i cry each time i hear it.

  • best performance I ever saw, 4 times in fact

  • why all the insensitive cropping? would you snip off the edge of a van gogh?

  • good comment.

  • the. only. emcee.

  • i am on tour with the show and i play the same person it is very fun

  • This is easily my favorite song from this show. When I saw it (Alan wasn't the emcee unfortunately) it made me cry. Such a good song.

  • I saw it in Rochester NY and the MC I saw was just as good as the best MCs. When he sang this song I was almost in tears. He had his whole heart in it and it was just emotional

  • Does he play a transvestite?

  • No. He's representing the feelings of the girls, as someone else stated in an earlier comment. That's how I see it. The Emcee has several other costumes as well.

  • He was proving the sexual freedom of the club, so he does not care what people define as man or woman

  • Such an amazing performance. If only I hadn't been like 8 years old when this was being performed. I so would of been there.

  • now that i have seen the movie ( i know its WAY diferent from the play).. and ive heard the entire score i can tell that this isnt a three hour humpathon like i thought it was after seeing two ladies. It is really really deep.

  • he definitely topped this performance and set a new standard - I saw this show LONG ago and he made me cry...that's something I rarely do.

  • Alan is just so amazing.

  • If you'd like to see another version of this, Adam Pascal's rendition was just uploaded. Not taking away from Alan...just sharing info.

  • Alan Cumming is amazing in this movie!

    Kinda disturbed that he's wearing womens clothes though...

  • (fyi, i know it's a musical. everything is just a movie to me =] )

  • Well if the song wast in the movie, what is the plotline behind it? I never saw the newer versions of the play and i have been wondering.

  • It's one of the songs that the cabaret performers do, so it doesn't directly affect the plot, but it sort of carries across the idea that what happened in Germany happened because no one cared, they were living it up in the cabarets and not paying attention to the monstrosities that were happening in their own country. At least, that's my interpretation.

  • If you believe that the emcee of the show (Alan Cumming) is representing the state of Germany throughout the show; then the song demonstrates the apathy of the German people at that time. It also shows the hopelessness that many people felt they had under the Nazi regime. Alan sings the song like a torch song, where the lyrics contradict the mood. In fact the emcee is trying to convince everyone, even himself, that he doesn't care about the deterioration within the country.

  • It could also be a response about how Sally Bols feels about her abortion, which led to her ultimate decision to stay in Berlin when it was being taken over by the Nazis.

  • I may be wrong but that fist grab looks alot like a part of the Suzuki Method (I recommend looking it up for other actors out there)

    love the song

    love Cabaret

    Alan Cumming is a great actor

  • I've heard of Suzuki method, but only in terms of music (that's all wikipedia has in their article). Is there a branch of it specifically for acting?

  • i've never heard of it in terms of music. i'd like to lok into that. Yes, I did a small workshop on it a few months ago. It was very intense and I've been wanting to learn more about it

  • (swoons)

    I love his voice!

    uh..just wish he wasn't wearing girl attire but still...

    I LOVE HIM!

    (heavy sigh)

  • i dont remember this song when i saw the movie in theatres... what i s the deal?

  • This song was not in the movie, but in the original play ! :D

  • Lol when i saw the Tony video of him i thought that he would do awful in this song but he did even better than all of the others (except joel of course)

  • Alan Cumming just milks this song and makes all the girls sigh.

  • i LOVE this show...i never ever expected it to go the way that it did, like, i walked away, speechless, just in awe of how heavy the show was...but it was wonderful

  • Someone please explain the purpose of this song to me and how it relates to the storyline. (btw I've never seen the movie or Broadway production, but I basically know how the story goes.)

  • He's basically singing about how the woman feels. That's why he's wearing her dress and stuff.

  • If you listen really carefully you can hear his scottish accent. That's so cute.

  • i LOVE alan cumming :)

  • omg hes weird

    im going to have that face is going to be in my head ALL day

    he ok i geuss at sing but the make-up and the way he has it on i no he didnt pick it but

    ahhh lil-scary

  • the song is immaculate. this video is very poor though. all the nuance is lost in the faux gramophone style (i assume that is what you were trying to do) it doesn't work.

  • beautiful! it's been in my head all day

  • Alan is AMAZING. Thanks for posting this!

  • Dude bunnydevil yoo said "that's one lucky GUY", he's getting re-married to a man? I know that hes Bisexual, but thats hott!

  • omg!

  • lol but its funny wen hes done a guys all like"WHAT THE HELL D-" lmfao!