Cabaret, the musical, is based on John Druten's play I Am A Camera. I Am A Camera, in turn, was based on the novel The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood. Welcome to the Cabaret sings the Emcee of the Kit Kat Club. Musical numbers include I Don't Care Much, Don't Go, The Money Song, Willkommen, Perfectly Marvelous, Sitting Pretty, Tomorrow Belongs to Me, Cabaret, Don't Tell Mama, It Couldn't Please Me More and Two Ladies.

Heading for Berlin in a railway compartment is Clifford Bradshaw, a young impoverished American writer. He is joined by Ernst Ludwig, a Berliner who appears to be in the smuggling business. When Cliff inadvertently helps him, Ernst gives him the name of a rooming-house in Berlin. It is Fraulein Schneider's house. She rents Cliff a room.

Cliff takes out his typewriter. But it's New Year's Eve. Ernst has mentioned a cabaret called the Kit Kat Klub. The Kit Kat Klub is a cross-section of Berlin night-life: thronged with the flotsam and jetsam of a doomed city. As Cliff enters the Emcee introduces Sally Bowles.

The next day Sally suddenly appears in Cliff's room with her baggage. Max has thrown her out. Can she stay with Cliff? Cliff finally agrees.  

Fraulein Schneider is being courted by Herr Schultz, a widower who lives in her house. He is Jewish and the owner of a fruit shop.

Months pass. Cliff is getting nowhere with his novel-but enjoying life with Sally.  But Sally is pregnant. Cliff is upset-then happy. Ernst arrives to offer him a job smuggling a briefcase into Germany. Needing the money, Cliff accepts. Everyone in Berlin earns money in strange, illegal ways-the Emcee announces in The Money Song.

Fraulein Kost, a prostitute, discovers that her landlady, Fraulein Schneider, is having an affair with Herr Schultz. Herr Schultz announces they are to be married in three weeks. Sally arranges an engagement party at the fruit shop. Cliff arrives at the party with the smuggled suitcase. He hesitantly gives it to Ernst, who wears a swastika arm-band. Herr Schultz, rather drunk, sings a Yiddish-type song. Ernst decides to leave, but Fraulein Kost lures him back by singing a Nazi song - Tomorrow Belongs to Me. When all the guests join in exultantly, the party suddenly turns sour.

Fraulein Schneider breaks her engagement to Herr Schultz. She is afraid the Nazis will come to power. 

Cliff decides to take Sally home to America. Berlin is not going to be any place to raise a family. But Sally refuses. She loves Berlin and her life there. They have a savage argument. Sally disappears-returning the next day. She's had an abortion. Heartbroken, Cliff prepares to leave alone-secretly hoping she will join him in Paris. But Sally informs him she's always hated Paris. Cliff sadly closes the door behind him. In the train Cliff begins to write about Sally and the people of Berlin as, in his memory, they surround the compartment-singing, dancing, living on the toboggan that led to the Third Reich.

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