Cast of Characters - Cabaret

Cast of Characters in Cabaret

• Master of Ceremonies (Emcee) - The owner of the Kit Kat Klub.
• Clifford Bradshaw - American Novelist 
• Fraulein Schneider - A landlady who rents rooms in her large flat
• Herr Schultz - One of Frl Schneider's roomers and the proprietor of a fruit shop. 
• Fraulein Kost - One of Frl Schneider's roomers, earns a living by offering favours to sailors.
• Sally Bowles - A British Cabaret singer at the Kit Kat Klub.
• Ernst Ludwig - A friendly and likeable German.

Master of Ceremonies (Emcee) is the owner of the Kit Kat Klub that hires Sally Bowles. In the script he appears regularly as the cabaret club performing scenes which relate to the scenes before with the main characters. 

Clifford Bradshaw is based on Christopher Isherwood. Bradshaw comes to Berlin to find inspiration for his first novel. On the train he meets Ernst Ludwig who tells him of a place to stay. Bradshaw rents a room in Fraulein Schneider's large flat. Later that night he is acquainted with Sally Bowles who later moves into his room. Bradshaw falls for Bowles, who ends up pregnant and aborts the baby. In the meantime, Bradshaw runs errands to Paris for his Nazi friend Ernst Ludwig. Ludwig only reveals his political preferences at the end of the script when Herr Schultz a jew intends on marrying Fraulein Schneider. It is then that Bradshaw decides to flee Berlin. 

Fraulein Schneider is the character that I have chosen to research into more. I believe that there is possibly more to this character than meets the eye. Schneider rents out rooms in her flat to those in need of a place to stay, but doesn't like how Kost uses her room. Schneider is worried that people will think she is running a brothel, which would get in her in trouble with the Nazi's. She also needs to make enough money so that she can pay for the flat each month, if not this would also get taken off her by the Nazi.

Herr Shultz is a gentleman who rents a room in Fraulein Schneider's flat. He also owns a fruit shop of which he gifts Schneider from. The play sees Shultz fall in love with Schneider and eventually ask for her hand in marriage. Schneider then becomes conscious of the fact that Shultz is a Jewish person in an increasing Nazi environment. Because of this Schneider ends the engagement as to not endanger herself.

Fraulein Kost also rents a room in Schneider's flat. From the script, one assumes that Kost sleeps with the sailors because of Schneider's reaction when she catches one coming out of Kost's room. Kost pays for her rent by entertaining sailors. I have decided to base my contemporary character on Kost as I believe she is the character that could be modernised best. 

Sally Bowles is a performer at the Kit Kat Klub. Here she meets rich gentleman and believes that they will make her the Hollywood actress she dreams of becoming. Bowles comes from a rich background in England however in the film adaptation Sally is made American because they wanted Liza Minnelli who was a sought after actress at the time. Whilst in Berlin, Sally Bowles stays at Fraulein Schneider's flat where she meets Cliff Bradshaw The pair bond and become the best of friends and later sleep together. Sally finds out that she is pregnant after a romance with another gentleman, who leaves her 300 marks to look after herself. Sally uses this money to get rid of the baby. Bowles herself is only 19 years of age and has had multiple abortions, which shocks Cliff. Bowles also has a 17 year old sister who lives back in England with her parents. 

Ernst Ludwig is Clifford Bradshaw's acquaintance in Berlin. Ludwig approaches Bradshaw on the train into Berlin, it later comes out in the script that Ludwig approached lone Englishmen on the train so that he could transport goods under their name in the carriage. Ludwig is transferring items into Berlin for the Nazi party. Later on into the script Ludwig convinces Bradshaw to make a few of these trips in order to make some good money, once Bradshaw finds out what is really going on he stops. At the end of the script, it is revealed that Ludwig is a Nazi after refusing to continue attending the engagement party for Schneider and Shultz.