billy porter's emcee - cabaret

wilkommen, theater kids. 

billy porter, known for his role in pose, is currently part of an amazing cast of the revival version of cabaret on broadway, bringing the london rendition to america. 

for those unfamiliar with cabaret; set in berlin 1930-bad, is a compelling musical surrounding the topic and taboo of underground jazz clubs, the rise of nazism, abortion, love triangles, and the renowned kitkat club. porter’s character (emcee) is the master of ceremonies within the kitkat club.

so, what’s all the fuss about? porter has played the emcee on two prestigious stages, so obviously he knows the character well… right? not quite! from changing important lyrics, to butchering pronunciations of the introductory song… it’s as bad as it sounds. 

recently, audio snippets of porter’s performance have emerged, specifically of him singing wilkommen. in one, instead of the crisp, multilingual “wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome,” he delivers something closer to “wilkommmm byembyembagooo”... something that sounds more like someone fumbling through a karaoke machine in the dark than a seasoned broadway lead.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/4fec9b_e49929f96cf34ae5b8e42d70216ea8c0/360p/mp4/file.mp4

audio of porter's Wilkommen

the character porter is portraying is german so this characteristically makes zero sense for emcee to suddenly forget an introduction he does 7 days a week, in his mother tongue.

another instance of lyric changing is during “if you could see her”, the song that portrays a jewish woman as a gorilla in society's eyes. instead of the serious tone most other emcees adopted, porter decided to try to make comedy of this song. literally. 

the infamous final line of the song: “if you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn’t look jewish at all” was ruined by porter breaking the fourth wall to say “really?” to the crowd. 

???

i mean sure, maybe he forgot his lyrics. it happens to the best of us. but, when you pair it with some of his off-stage comments… it gets messier.

in a cbs interview, porter said his emcee escaped jim crow and claimed that “black people are replacing the jews.” he appeared to be referring to the fact that in this production the three main characters are black, while herr schulz, the only explicitly jewish character in every version of cabaret, is not played by a black actor.

his comment suggests that the mistreatment of black people has now overtaken the mistreatment of jewish people. this kind of comparison benefits neither group and only creates tension.

to make the statement even more questionable, the emcee is not a heroic figure in cabaret. he is a willing participant in the oppressive system and his complicity is one of the most discussed aspects of the character among fans of the show.

this matters because at its core cabaret is a story about the rise of antisemitism and the way it consumes ordinary lives. its tension and heartbreak come from watching characters you care about be crushed under that system.

one of the most chilling moments in cabaret is a line from the finale: 

“it’s only politics, what’s that got to do with us?”

given billy porter’s recent comments and how he’s reshaping the emcee, the attempt to flip the story by saying “black people are replacing the jews” misses the point. cabaret already is a story about oppression, about the consequences of turning a blind eye.

ignoring or rewriting that isn’t just tone-deaf; it’s a distraction from the show’s real power and warning.

A.