The original drafts of Cabaret included the line 'Jewish' and the gorilla with the Emcee. Kander and Ebb wanted to put this in to satire the Nazis, but were unable to due to how shocking it was to the audience. It was taken as anti-Semitic, the line was changed to 'Meeskite', and a song was added with Herr Schultz to explain what the word meant. Bob Fosse restored it after the Nazis no longer had control over the censorship of the show.
Now what does this have to do with the gorilla?
The original line, and the changed line we are doing now, it is reference to the German mindset on Wiemar Germany. Some/many Germans viewed the Jews as sub-citizens, and the whole idea behind the gorilla is that the Jews were essentially 'gorillas' and that loving either one at the time is a ridiculous notion. This reflects the deteriorated relationship between Schultz and Schneider. The gorilla is essentially only a device used to reflect an idea, it does not have to be a gorilla. However, it is an iconic part of the show, and the 1920s were the first time that gorilla impersonators started appearing in films and shows. So this is why it is specified as a gorilla in the script.
Sources:
This one is an article about the issues brought up in Cabaret concerning fascism and the rising Third Reich:
it gets into the gorilla around paragraphs 2-3 of the excerpt
This is an ebook about Kander and Ebb, with an interview about the song. The gorilla is in pages 64-68 where they talked about why they changed the line and how risque it was for the time period, and how happy they were when it got changed back.
This is also an ebook, also about Kander and Ebb. It also explains the song a bit on page 46
The Nazi's view of Antisemitism was derived from both Christian views of the Jews as being possessed by the Devil, as well as a twisted version of Darwinism that the Germans were superior evolutionarily to the Jews. Applying this to the 'apes evolved into humans' theory, it would be a conclusion that in Wiemar Germany, the idea that Jews were equivalent to gorillas as far as evolution goes would not be a stretch. This is likely where the idea of having a gorilla, as opposed to anything else, represent a Jewish woman in Cabaret came from.
I think a gorilla is important because of the reference to Darwinism, which some also used as "scientific" evidence of racial superiority. One of the infamous experiments of the Nazi Doctors was harvesting Jewish skulls for measurement and study of evolutionary supported inferiority.
ReplyDeleteThis is true Deb! I was actually considering updating this after doing my genocide homework last night. They talked about how the idea of Nazi semitism came about, and half of it was from a twisted form of Darwinism.
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