Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Stay cool with us this summer with Musicfest at the Movies! We explore the evolution of musical films, starting from the 1930s into the 21st century, with each film representing an important contribution to the art form. After a brief introduction on the film’s music, we will view the film in its entirety and conclude with a brief discussion. Popcorn and soda are provided!
Our Musicfest at the Movies series continues with one of the most significant partnerships in the musical theatre canon – composer Fred Ebb and lyricist John Kander. Originally appearing on Broadway in 1966, Cabaret was based on an earlier 1951 Broadway play (and 1955 film) I Am a Camera, which was based on British novelist Christopher Isherwood’s 1937 novella Sally Bowles and his 1939 semi-autobiographical novel Goodbye to Berlin. This 1974 film, hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, defers significantly from the original Broadway musical, in that the director Bob Fosse wanted the material to stick closer to the original source material.
Uniquely, while Kander and Ebb’s music is used to forward the plot, most all of the music performed in the film is “diegetic” music – music that is actually truly being performed in the club itself, and not music that is sung as part of an inner monologue or as a heightened reality.
Set in 1929–1930 Berlin during the twilight of the Jazz Age as the Nazis rise to power, the musical focuses on the hedonistic nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around English writer Brian Robert’s (Michael York) relations with American cabaret performer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli). Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey) at the Kit Kat Klub, and the club itself serves as a metaphor for ominous political developments in late Weimar Germany. The music then, was written to reflected the style of music by Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, whose music was popular in 1920s Berlin.
This film (for which Liza Minnelli won the Academy Award for Best Actress) is but one version of Cabaret, a musical that has been continuously reworked over the years to try and best tell a difficult story through music. Due to the dramatic changes made from the stage musical to the film (with new music still being written for the film by Kander and Ebb), the Broadway revivals in 1987 and 1998 both adopted these changes from the film, thus Cabaret currently exists in three different versions, any of which you may see on a stage today.
Instructor
Josh Condon
As a pianist equally adept in the genres of jazz, pop, and classical, Josh Condon has served as music director/supervisor for over 40 musical theatre productions, in addition to leading concerts with symphony orchestras, choirs, jazz ensembles, and pop/rock bands. He has traveled the world as a music director and pianist for the Norwegian, Celebrity, and Princess Cruise Lines where he worked with numerous Broadway and West End performers.
Currently, Josh serves as Resident Artist and Director of Community Music Programs for Arizona Musicfest in Scottsdale, an organization which features concert performances of the music industry’s top talent. In addition to serving as Assistant Conductor for the Musicfest Festival Orchestra, he lectures on topics surveying a huge breadth of music history and analysis, including popular song, symphonic repertoire, jazz performance practice, musical theatre, and everything in between.
He also serves as Assistant Conductor for the North Valley Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as Guest Conductor with the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra, the Scottsdale Philharmonic, and the Arizona Musical Theatre Orchestra. Josh is passionate about using flexibility, positivity, and encouragement to create spaces where all can learn and perform to their best ability. He holds a BM in Jazz Studies from Ithaca College and an MM in Musical Theatre/Opera Music Direction from Arizona State University, and resides in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Lexy, their son Arlo, and their cat Sadie.