If You Could See Her
"If You Could See Her " is a song from the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret and its 1972 film adaptation by songwriting team Kander and Ebb. Performed in the middle of the show's second act, it satirizes the wide-spread and deepening acceptance of antisemitism in Weimar-era Germany as the Nazi party rose to power.
Synopsis
Background
Immediately preceding this number is a duet between the characters Herr Schultz, a fruit shop owner, and Fraulein Schneider, who operates a boarding house. Schultz, a Jew, tries to ease Schneider's concerns that the rising acceptance of antisemitism in Germany would, in the event of their interfaith marriage, threaten her business. Schultz’s singing is brought to an abrupt end by another character, the Emcee, who drops a brick between the two, symbolizing a brick thrown through the shop window. Schultz tries to reassure her that it is merely rowdy children making trouble, but Fräulein Schneider is afraid.Performance
The song is performed by the Master of ceremonies of the Kit Kat Club, a fictional nightclub in Berlin, as he courts and dances with his love interest, another performer in a gorilla costume wearing a dress. Throughout the song, he asks the audience to be open-minded about their relationship, and not judge who someone loves because of their appearance:In the final lines of the song, it is revealed that the gorilla is meant to be a symbolic stand-in for a Jew.
Reactions
The set design in the original 1966 production made use of a large, distorted mirror suspended above the stage. After the Emcee finishes the song, the mirror stops distorting the theater audience, allowing them to see themselves in the moment. According to scholar Bruce Kirle, "the audience was able to witness its individual reactions to this racist joke. Some laughed, some were shocked, while others were simply hypnotized into watching their own reactions and those of their fellow spectators."In the introduction to the libretto of the 1999 production, editor Linda Sunshine notes:
Changes to lyrics
Frank Ebb intended for the song to highlight the growing acceptance of antisemitism, noting that the original final lyric "got an amazing reaction from the audience, because they did laugh, and then they kind of realized what they were laughing at, and they would stop laughing." He elaborates on the lyric being the crux of the piece:The final line of the lyric was changed from "she doesn't look Jewish at all" to "she isn't a meeskite at all" by producer and director Harold Prince in reaction to pressure from local Jewish leaders during pre-Broadway runs in Boston. In earlier productions of Cabaret, "Meeskite" was a cut number performed by Schultz which established the term's negative connotation, and in doing so, his identity as a Jew. Joel Grey resented this change during the original run, which he saw as an effort to “soften the blow” and "impact" of the scene. During the pre-Broadway run, he would sometimes "forget" to swap out the original lyric during a performance.
Director Bob Fosse reinstated the original line in the 1972 film, and it is now included in modern productions of the musical.
Analysis
Jay Geller, a professor of Jewish Studies, uses the song as an example in his analysis of the history of antisemitism and ape imagery:Warren Hoffman, a professor at Rutgers University, compares the Emcee’s role in the number to another Kander and Ebb musical, The Scottsboro Boys: