Originally released in 1997, this take on
Cabaret
is something of an oddity. Although this is the complete score to a hugely popular Broadway
musical
, this version was not the cast album of a stage revival, but simply a collaboration between the actor/singers
Toyah Willcox
(best known both as lead singer of the minor
new wave
era
synth-rock
act
Toyah
and as Mrs.
Robert Fripp
) and
Nigel Planer
(a longtime fixture on the British stage, but now and forever most beloved for playing the spacy hippie Neil on the cult classic TV series
The Young Ones
). Those songs not sung in the original score by either Sally Bowles (
Willcox
) or The MC (
Planer
), such as the creepy ballad
"Tomorrow Belongs to Me,"
are present here only as instrumentals, cheesily scored for clarinet and synthesizers.
and
attack their own songs with gusto and collaborate playfully on the familiar
"Money Money,"
and both singers do well by each character's signature song,
on the smarmy
"Willkommen"
on the now-standard title track. But especially given that the plot of the
is completely lost by the decision to ignore about half of the original lyrics, what exactly is the point of this pleasant but slight vanity production? ~ Stewart Mason