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From: BLU8
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  • anyone else think that the actress who plays Sally in this at 5:46 looks like a cat from the nose up? not dissing her personally i think its just the video?

  • Very nice video. I worked for this musical for 7 years so watching it brings me beautiful memories, although I remember cameras were strictly prohibited nice job.

  • Mmm... I prefer Alan Cumming´s performance, with all do respect, it´s more authentic and appealing...

  • i had the privilage of seeing Joel Grey do this show back in the early 90's. he did it much like in the movie. Alan Cummings reinvented the role. he updated it for modern audiences. the entire show was updated. the other actors who have taken on teh emcee since( neil patrick harris, raul esparza, john stamos, others) have basicaly repeated alans performance and they all did a good job. although rauls was to me the creepiest, but still very well done.

  • Raul is great, but i do still prefer Allan ;)

  • Why do so many people pick on Raul Esparza?? I think he is great! And, I love that he is an NYU grad, my hubby's Alma Mater. Oh come on now, guys - don't be jealous...!

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  • Holy crap, do i love Raul Esparza

  • ugh, I love how every pretentious douche who took an acting class in college or did some community theater all of a sudden thinks they are the utmost authority theater and acting

  • I'd like to see whoever is dissing this actor get up on a Broadway stage and do 8 shows a week. Let's see who the amateur is.

  • .....soo I'm pretty sure Alan Cumming did everything that Raul is doing. AND YES Alan Cumming did it FIRST. Raul is copying the hair, the blocking, and vocal style.

  • @Goodyearmonkey Realistically, there isn't much replacement actors can change about their character. The hair, make-up, & costume will be the same. The blocking will be about 99% identical, maybe with little unique flourishes that each individual actor adds. But overall, a replacement actor has nowhere near the level of creative freedom as the actor who originated the role. There are going to be a lot of similarities because they're both playing the SAME character in the SAME production.

  • @BLU8 I actually think Esparza puts on a much better show than Cumming! As far as hair goes and such there IS a general idea they have to follow as far as the character goes but when I watch Cumming I feel like I'm watching someone go through their blocking as if they might do it in rehearsal - just kind of dragging and not really enjoying his performance and connecting to the audience as well as Esparza does. I've seen several versions and no one plays the Emcee with as much fire as Raul!

  • @Goodyearmonkey Joel Grey did it best.

  • @YourMajestyFilms no i agree. i was just referring to this revival.

  • @funboy7979 With all due respect, it's a little far-fetched to assume YouTube users praising an actor are just numerous aliases for his publicist/agent. It is possible for him to have actual fans on YouTube, you know.

  • @BLU8 Same jive on all this guy's videos -- verbal blowjobs to the mediocrity in the video and attacks and harassment at anybody not gushing with praise. Transparent.

  • I knew Esparza originally from Company, so I wouldn't have expected him to play this role. I was very pleasantly surprised!

  • Raul Esparza has the scariest vibrato I've heard.

  • my god, the combination of raul esparza and the emcee's character is so hot.

  • this was basically alan cumming's performance, with some slight changes. personally, i like joel grey's. i respect alan cumming for trying something new, but by now, everyone is copying him

  • I have never understood his make-up.

  • Trying to think of a back story for this emcee to justify any of this. Starting with the physique: he is a former trapeze artist? A lumberjack? A ditch digger? When did he drift into his present job and how does look like he just came from the Reebok Sports Club? Why as the emcee of a nightclub in 1920s Berlin is he not wearing a shirt? Why is he shouting at the audience in one loud monotonous tone? Why does he not have any unique idiosyncrasies that might indicate another era & place?

  • @funboy7979 It's not a nightclub, in this revival it's strongly suggested that the "Cabaret" is a prostitution house common to Berlin at the time, the type the real Christopher Isherwood visited. That's why it's so much dirtier.

  • great, great, great performance!!!

  • no really we've tried everything there's nothing we can do with herman nothing works looool

  • Oh my. Raul should dress like this more often. :D

  • This play is about an American writer who meets an English girl in BERLIN! the musical is not about decadence and sex and the emcee role has been built by anal cumming into schlock loosing him to this monstrous hideous money making tourist trap for sexually repressed people who wont feel guilty if they're watching this bore under the guise of legitimate stage. Its should be a musical about the end of the Europe and the entrance into something terrifying and mechanical bittersweet innocence lost

  • @lloydsk anal cumming? lol

  • this emcee lacks teeth.

  • @atrain118: Berlin was the world's vice capital in the 1930s. Christopher Isherwood, who wrote the stories Cabaret is based on, went to Berlin to experience this decadence and permissiveness. Berlin was a *hugely* decadent place in the 1930s - for info on the city in the pre-Hitler era, look up a book called "Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin"

  • I'm seeing Raul in 'Leap of Faith' at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles. RAUL IS AWESOOOOOOOME.

  • I didn't know Bette Davis performed this role...

  • amazing the contrast with his (what seems to be his) natural reserved personality...

  • Wow, this was an interesting musical. >_> Loved it though.

  • Joel Gray is the only one I can tolerate singing this song. He owns this song and this role.

  • he could really work some on his german pronunciation. since the charecter is supposed to be german.

  • @kyrastube  sounds pretty good to me..are you German?

  • @gabsylv partly, yes. I dont live in germany, but I have german relatives

  • @kyrastube It supposed to be a mixture of german and french accents/pronounciations because the show takes place in Nazi occupied France. Just thought I'd give you a little research as to why his accent isn't all purely German.

  • @bwaygrl11 Berlin is in Germany...

  • @bwaygrl11 Berlin is in Germany, not France. In fact, it's the capitol of Germany...

  • @bwaygrl11 My bad. I meant to say that many of the characters who work in the cabaret are French, and they were forced to move to Germany. So that's why the pronounciations of German words might not sound totally correct.

  • @bwaygrl11

    The French accent is wrong too. So this musical is set in Berlin, the capital of Germany,during the Weimar Republic, just before the nazis took power. And that's what this musical is all about; decadence that will be soon completely ereased by Hitler and increasing discrimination against Jews.

    Sally Bowles, the main singer is British, there are dancers and musicians from different countries as their first name indicates and the MC, who knows?

  • @rickbmtl Excuse me, but decadence erased by Hitler? Hitler took power merely because there was a complete LACK of decadence; in fact, after the war to end all wars we fucked Germany financially so poorly that their depression was worse than ours. Hitler took over in a time of despair with the promise of restoring Germany to a dominant power in Europe (hence mein kampf)

  • @rickbmtl The Charakter is a French Conférencier working in a German Carbaret! ;-)

  • @bwaygrl11 oh, ok. I just thought it was supposed to be in germany, like the movie. but then it makes more sense. :) thank you

  • Wow . . .I wouldn't even know that was Raul just by looking at him . . .But that distinctive voice - love it!

  • At least he surprisingly looked the part in a decadently attractive way and he moved very sexily... You'd never think he'd do Dexter next.

  • Does anyone know if any performances were taped when Michael C. Hall was the Emcee? I can't seem to find anything at all.

  • Beautiful.......

  • soo good!

    THAT'S VICTOR! hahahaha

  • .,alan cumming and joel grey's version are the best but this is good...

  • 1:40 = Amazing. Haha, love it.

  • haha "you explain it to him" this guy is genius!

  • He is just channeling Eddy Izzard here

  • He's good but I like Alan Cumming the best.

  • I've seen 3 versions of Wilkommen,but i still love Joel Gray's....

  • I've come to appreciate all the performers I've seen so far playing the emcee. Joel Grey, Alan Cumming, Raul Esparza and Adam Pascal are all incredible performers. I love seeing the differences. :)

  • creepster much?...FWOOF!! amazing performer though

  • Hey, this was the same exact preformance that I saw about 2 weeks ago......They did it the same way, but of course it was diffrent people

  • For some reason, I prefer Alan Cumming's voice and interpretation. However, Raul brings a certain comedic element to the stage without the raunchy hip thrusts or obvious preference to men (as seen in the Tony performance). I like that a lot :) Although, I think the Emcee should maybe be a bit darker since he represents the Devil. Yet somehow, this playful version works a lot! Bravo Raul!

  • He's suppost to be Bi-Even though the Nazi's at the end flag him as a Homosexual.

  • What can I say??? just amazing!!!

  • omg.

    looove<3

    haha

  • he is ten thousand times better than any other emcee ive seen since they revived the show, he slays all the others, though joel grey is my fave always

  • Great!

  • Which... is the way the Emcee character is supposed to be played, no?

  • well damn lmfao

  • ummmmmmmmmmmm...............

  • ME-OW.

    oh you make me wanna cry and squeee.

  • right?!

  • I would have given a left arm... and possibly leg to see this live. The production itself, but ESPECIALLY with Raul as the Emcee.

  • My Lord!!! You would not think this was the same man who was in company. Oh well he is amazing in everything he does!!

  • oh i love him so much! lol!

  • i have the biggest crush on him in the world. his performance in this and company make me wanna cry.

  • can't stop watchin' thiiiss!!! i simply adoree Raul !!!!

  • He's really something else.

  • i love that you favorited this the day after i did. dame.

  • But of course!

  • He is really good.

  • For me, Raul is Jonny

  • Oh wow!

    I've seen a lot of actors take on the Emcee - a *lot.* From the clips of professionals on YouTube to people in community theatre to some of my friends. But Raul's version has to be my favorite. It's something totally different. Not suave like Joey Grey's or gritty like Norbert Leo Butz's, or particularly naughty like Alan Cummings'.

    He's justplayful. I like it.

  • Raziefan, your history is a bit off. Pre-Nazi Berlin was a ruin. The Nazis arose as a response to the chaos of post-WWI Germany. Cabarets were very common and open, and the material ranged from sharp satire to grindhouse skank. Ute Lemper did a great album of songs from real between-the-wars Berlin cabaret, in both original German and English translation.

  • what's the album called?

  • he and adam are the greatest

  • 3:24 LMAO-She's a very cunning linguist!!!

  • OMG its Brendon Urie!

    lol just kidding Raul's amazing but u can so see Brendon doing that

  • WTF! The only way that I know for a fact that's him is by his voice! Whoa, that's crazy amazing.

  • Or, as the good people over at [tos] say: cramazing. Say it with me kids: CRA-MA-ZING. Yeah, spread it like wildfire.

  • I'm not familiar with Raul's other work. This is my first time seeing him. I think as long as you're open minded and retain the idea that the show takes place during the '30's (where people weren't as outwardly sexual as they are today) you can appreciate the idea that the Kit Kat Club is supposed to be a sort of underground "playground" for adults where they can escape from the up and coming power of the Nazi regime. Thank you for uploading, it's fun to see different actor's take on MC.

  • DramaKing300:

    the character's supposed to be really camp

  • did raul take over alan cummings or was this later ?

  • He sounds like he's rushing it, the emcee needs to be charismatic and he's a little too fierce, which is a shame because he has a great voice and fantastic expressions, but his physical presence is too heavy.

  • Raul will always be Bobby.

  • unless he's alfredo from pushing daisies ;)

  • um, that's the character

  • I really love this performance, dodgy accent aside. I wish the emcee was half as good as Raul when I saw it a couple of days ago. I saw Wayne Sleep, he was terrible.

  • I know what you mean, I saw a version with James Dreyfus, but the night we went he wasn't performing so I was stuck with a less than cool version of caberet, somehow it missed a beat,

  • geeze i don't see Raul at all!

  • i really love raul esparza... but i feel like this role was not meant for him. :/

  • I would have loved to see Raul as MC!

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  • Can you hear the singing? It's definitely not Alan Cumming. Raul's voice is distinctly different from Alan Cumming's take on the song.

  • Wow. He's totally unrecognizable.

  • i love the humor. i like it more than the original version. obviously the movie is the best, i think. but i love this guy. a lot

  • I love how he says "A virgin"

  • Raul is such a talented and versatile actor.

  • Raul Esparza is an incredible actor and singer. He was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT in "Company", even though I didn't care for the staging using the case as the orchestra.

  • he is one of the gretest actors of all time

  • I loooove Raul! But why is NO ONE in the audience laughing... like at all?

  • I don't know. It makes it quite awkward. It's so sad when he asked the audience how they feel, and not one person responds.

  • That's not unusual. Some audiences respond to everything enthusiastically, other don't. I prefer audiences that show some restraint; they generally have better taste than audiences that go "wooooooo!" at any anything even remotely risque. You see that type of audience at tv shows like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich.

  • Right, but they were a little too quiet here. Oh well. I enjoyed it.

  • I hear laughter. Not huge guffaws, but laughter. The humor in the revival of "Cabaret" is very X-rated, and some people don't go much for that.

  • he looks , sounds amazing to me =)

  • The host in Cabaret is ALWAYS "creepy." The Kit Kat Klub is a sleazy dive; the host isn't going to be handsome and suave. I myself find Raul Esparza's performance here to be sexy and energetic.

  • Raul Esparza is one of the best MC's i've seen *second to Joel Grey, Joel Grey is magical*

    But I personally enjoy him in "Company"

  • dude he's awesome!

  • I completely bought his interpretation.

  • Does it bother anyone else that his German pronunciation is off?

  • yes! oh i thought i was the only one lol

  • bothers me a little, but then again it's Raul Esparza so barely lol

  • It's Raul. he can get away with it, he makes up for it with his finesse and talent *minus his accent of course*

  • I would so love to play the Emcee one day. Only thing is that I think I'm more baritone (I'm not exactly sure yet). Would the Emcee be good as a baritone or does it absolutely have to be a tenor.

    P.S.: Love the vibrato Raul does when he holds the "et" in "Cabaret"!

  • I baritone can handle it, if you have the range. I believe Raul Esparza is a baritone actually..

  • Great to know. Tanx for telling me.

    And I'm pretty sure Raul is tenor. You what what, I'll look it up.

  • i wasn't sure about this when it began, but i love that sexual energy, i think its a great interpretation of the master of ceremonies ^^ i do miss grey's impishness though xx

  • wow it does scream out sex

  • I LOVE raul!!

  • this doesnt even look like raul. lol

  • Raul Esparza...is sex on legs.

  • this screams SEX

  • Favorite line?

    "That's Victor."

    Lulz ensue :-p.

  • Me again. The TV play continues in 18 parts so find part 2, part 3...etc. I think it's been a little sanitized from the original.

    Most plays are choreographed ,usually, the same, with a little free-play for personal interpretation, but must usually be similar.

    No actor is COPYING another, but merely adding their personal touch. Check out the Cabaret Willkommen versions in French, Brasil,.etc. Similar but different.

  • Me again. Anyway if you haven't seen the play revival in it's entirety, type in the You Tube search field......Donmar Warehouse Productions Cabaret Part 1. It was a television version of the play, some parts and songs missing. It stars Alan Cumming and it is quite good. ENJOY!!!!

  • Hey, I'm gay and I think Raul is too drag-queeny. Must have had some lessons from drag queens. He's good. It's the interpretation of the part. I liked them all, but my fave is still John Stamos.

  • I think Raul almost brings a drag element to the character, rather than the androgynous or fey ways I've seen it done previously. I like it.

  • If there's one thing Raul Esparza does NOT need it's "acting lesson". And he doesn't copy anybody in this role; he makes uniquely his own.

  • Ditto. Anyway, I'd say Esparza brings more of a commanding presence to this role, which btw is not a knock against Cumming. Cumming's take on it was much more insidious. I can believe being corrupted by Cumming, like being mesmerized by oil slick. Just my opinion, but with Cumming, I feel like I'm getting sucked into the decadence; with Esparza, I feel like I'm an outside observer watching him in complete control of a decadent show. Both fascinating.

  • wow-great analysis! I wish I could have seen this show on Broadway:(

  • I can't accurately describe how much I detest that gay dance they all do at about 5:58 XD

  • Are you sure you really want to use "gay" as a pejorative here?

  • You're right. Maybe not gay, but very...I can't think of a word. It's a very odd dance, that's for sure though. I didn't mean any offense, btw, I really didn't.

  • Thank you for this; I saw the show w/ Raul and Molly, he was the best part; so sleazy/sexy, too much for some theater goers, no doubt.

    A funny aside is that he did Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a year or so after Caberet; versitile!

  • as if raul esparza has done this. amazing!

  • raul AND gina?

    wtf im sad i missed when they were there... =(

  • ok i would just like to add that i loveeee his spider tattoo on his neck

  • dang!!!! he was pretty good hot too but he lost his accent somtimes but nothing compares to allan cumming hes amazing and sexy

  • Not a fan of the way he does this. To me, no one beats Alan Cumming. He just IS the Emcee.

  • eh, im more of a joel gray man myself. its all just about how you interpret the character. but hey, check out the vid on here that has alan and joel doing the song together. awesomeness

  • you might not remember Joel Grey.

  • I like Raul Esparza much better than Cumming. He's MUCH sexier.

  • Is not

  • So disturbing, and I love it.

  • haha youre so right

  • this man is amazing- and gorgeous- and funny... why cant they make more like him???

  • Cuz he's one of a kind. There will never be another one like him. Such is the amazingness of Raul Esparza.

    Yeah . . . I'm a big fan.

  • I love watching him move his hips . . . *drools on keyboard*

  • Gawd. I love Raul. This is just another example of how amazingly talented - and utterly sexy - he is. :)

  • Saw him in Company on Broadway twice and at the Kennedy Center as George in Sunday in the Park With George and he is just amazing, a great actor, an amazing singer, and for me, just so sexual...when he is on stage, especially in Armani on Broadway in Company...he just makes me sweat...meaning a little hot...and I am just a simple 47-year old Gay Man...he has it all going on...and to see him live...he is one of our Broadway Stars...breathtaking in his consumption of roles.

  • each and every one...A VIRGIN

  • It's so disturbing I can't quit watching. It makes me want to gouge my eyes...XD But yet...

  • He looks like a cross between Boy George and The Joker.

  • was this from 2001? i saw gina and raul instead of going to my senior prom!

    raul esparza is going to be a Broadway legend very soon, mark my words.

  • It's back up! XD

    I loooove this one. Raul's sexy face.

  • lol he looks like patty in sweeney todd in that make up

  • as much as I love Raul Esparza I still love joel Grey more singing this. But Raul isn't bad at it. I'll tell you that much

  • I like this much better than alan cumming's preformance.