Book Review – Cabaret FAQ

CABARET FAQ – June Skinner Sawyers (APPLAUSE BOOKS – ISBN: 978-1-4950-5144-9)

Star rating: two stars ★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩

The latest addition to the FAQ series of books is Cabaret FAQ which, it says, takes a closer look at the show and film that has become a classic of the Broadway stage.

The book is 292 pages in length and so I settled down to read up on one of my favourite all-time musicals, expecting to learn some new and interesting facts. Maybe it is because I already know much of what is contained in this book, but I have to say I was sorely disappointed.

The first 69 pages are dedicated to German cabaret and its artists. This is fine, but does that really give you any further insight into the actual show? Especially when you see that there are only 38 pages dedicated to the actual source material, 33 pages to the actual show, and 38 to tours and revivals.

In the tours and revivals section there are six pages dedicated alone to Alan Cumming, whereas in the actual show section there are only paragraph mentions of the originator of the Emcee role – Joel Grey. The film fares even worse – 51 pages and a lot of those are either lists or talking about Chicago the musical!

Then we have 30 pages of stuff about David Bowie and modern cabaret in Germany plus the usual appendices of awards, cast recordings, etc. The few photographs relating exclusively to either the show or the film are minimal and most (if not all of them) you will have seen before.

This book (and I suspect the whole series) is aimed, I think, at people who have maybe ‘heard’ of the show but want to read a bit more about it. The enthusiast will already know roughly 90% of what they are reading. Also, there are a few little errors in the book which really stick out – nothing earth-shattering but things like: “The 2011 BBC film Christopher and His Kind, based on Christopher Isherwood’s autobiography of the same name, starred Matt Smith (who later gained fame as Dr. Who) …” Matt Smith had actually been playing the Doctor since 2010.

Under a photo of Bob Fosse it states: “Classic Bob Fosse on the set of All That Jazz: a camera dangling from his neck…” It’s not a camera but a director’s viewfinder, I know some people will say I am nit-picking, but details like that are sloppy and don’t inspire confidence in what you are reading.

For those who really know nothing about Cabaret then this is the book for you – if you do have a good knowledge of the show and are going to buy it to learn anything new and juicy about the making of either the stage show or the film, then you will be disappointed.

Nick Wakeham