Full Description
The stylistic remnants of cabaret music from Weimar-era Germany are all around us. During the 20th century, its most prominent American exponents were the Germans Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya, whose careers extended through the 1970s. Because of them (and others), the words and music of such artists as Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Friedrich Hollaender, and Marcellus Schiffer continue to be heard and exert widespread influence.
Major songwriters touched by cabaret include Lennon & McCartney, Bacharach & David, Kander & Ebb, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, and Patti Smith, among many others. African-American artists, beginning with Louis Armstrong, have been sympathetic interpreters of cabaret music. Modern-day Las Vegas appears to be the fulfillment of a prophecy made in the late 1920s by Weill & Brecht in their Mahagonny stage works. And today, the German Kabarett tradition remains strong with such stars as Ute Lemper and Max Raabe packing international venues.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Berlin via Paris
1. Le Belle Époque and Überbrettl
2. The Great American Cultural Invasion
3. Kurt Weill and Die Dreigroschenoper
4. Lotte Lenya, Future Tony Award Winner
5. The Long, Strange Journey of Marlene Dietrich
6. Hollaender, Spoliansky and Their Doomed Associates
7. Christopher Isherwood, Reporting from Berlin
8. Total Collapse of the Moral Universe
9. A Field Day for the Neue Sachlichkeit
10. Josef von Sternberg Captures It All on Film
Part II: Amerika and Beyond
11. From the Kurfürstendamm to Broadway
12. Kabarett Helps to Win the War
13. The Resurrection of Mahagonny
14. Louis Armstrong Connects the Dots
15. Bacharach and David Redefine the Brill Building
16. Cabaret on Stage and Film
17. The British Importation of Kleinkunst
18. Singer-Songwriters Become Bankable
19. Adoption by the Alternative Scene
20. A Turbulent New Century Begins
Conclusion
English Glossary of German and French Terminology
Chapter Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
