(spoken) Listen. My name is Sally Bowles. And I'm not just one of the girls at the cabaret. I am featured at the Kit Kat Klub. A spot all my own. Lots of people in Berlin come especially to see me! I have a following. It's just that I'm waiting for the right people, that's all. I am a strange and extraordinary person. I mean, people like Max Rhinehart. Or a producer from Ufer might just wander in one night. I mean, you never know. Oh darling, don't be ridiculous, of course I know I'm talented! And I could be working in MUCH posher places than this! But then it's like, it's like you've already been discovered. See, they find me in someplace like this, I'll REALLY be a surprise! Oh, don't you see? The sense of discovery is much greater in a dump. I mean, my god, look what happened to, to Marlene Dietrich, and she was playing right down the street in that awful place! All she did was sit on a barrel! I can sing, and I can move! So you see, Brian darling, I couldn't possibly leave Berlin right now. And besides, all of this political fuss won't come to one damn thing anyway, it'll all blow over. Communists and the Nazis... But you go ahead. I mean if you're afraid, Bri, go ahead. Run back to England. Not me. I'm stayin' right here, because it's exciting, and it's special, and it's divinely decadent. Excuse me darling, do you have a cigarette? I am desperate! Oh, fabelhaft! Fabelhaft... (singing) No use permitting some prophet of doom to wipe... (spoken) ...what? What? ...What're you talking about? ...What do you mean, that...? That producer is sitting out there tonight? Well why didn't you say something before?! My god, that's the man who discovered Lya de Putti! See, what did I tell you? You never know! You never know. I wonder... okay. Watch this!
What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play!
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret
Put down the knitting
The book and the broom
It's time for a holiday
Oh! Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret!
Come taste the wine
Come hear the band
Come blow that horn, start celebrating
Right this way, your table's waiting
No use permitting some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret!
I used to have this girlfriend known as Elsie
With whom I shared four sordid rooms in Chelsea
She wasn't what you'd call a blushing flower
As a matter of fact, she rented by the hour
The day she died, the neighbors came to snicker
Well, that's what comes from too much pills and liquor
But when I saw her laid out like a queen
She was the happiest corpse I'd ever seen
I think of Elsie to this very day
I remember how she'd turn to me and say...
What good is sitting all alone in your room?
Come hear the music play
Oh, life is a cabaret old chum
Come to the cabaret!
And as for me, ha!
And as for me
I made my mind up back in Chelsea
When I go, I'm goin' like Elsie!
Start by admitting from cradle to tomb
It isn't that long a stay
Life is a cabaret, old chum
It's only a cabaret, old chum
And I love a cabaret!
