So What Lyrics – Cabaret

Song Overview

Personal Review

“So What?” is Cabaret’s first gut check - a talk-sung shrug that hardens into philosophy. The lyrics say life cuts the price on your dreams, and the lyrics keep asking if that’s reason enough to stop living. Lenya doesn’t plead - she measures. One-sentence snapshot: a landlady in Weimar Berlin counts her losses, does the math, and keeps the door open anyway.

Song Meaning and Annotations

At street level, “So What?” is a room-rental negotiation. Underneath, it’s a worldview. Fräulein Schneider bargains with Cliff over fifty marks and reveals a rule for survival: take the offer, keep going. In the show’s arc, this becomes a moral weather report - the clouds have already rolled in. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

The arrangement sits in cabaret-patter territory - steady vamp, crisp reeds, small punches from brass. Don Walker’s orchestrations keep it intimate so Lenya’s consonants land like taps on glass. The song arrives early in Act I and tells you exactly who she is: practical, bruised, unsentimental. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

Its emotional arc runs from matter-of-fact to flinty grace. She starts with numbers - fifty marks - then stacks memories like receipts: summers by the sea, a maid, a body that once disappointed a man. Each “So what?” trims sentiment away, until only function remains.

Context matters. Cabaret premiered in 1966 and lives in 1929-30 Berlin while the Nazi tide rises. Schneider’s mantra - “It’ll all go on if we’re here or not” - reads like a defense mechanism and a warning. The line foreshadows her later choice not to resist. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

The lyric’s Baltic flashback ties the show to Christopher Isherwood’s source world - Goodbye to Berlin - where prewar comfort gives way to erosion. The song quotes that comfort in miniature and then strips it: a maid becomes a mop, holidays become floors and a chamber pot.

Within Cabaret’s many versions, “So What?” is a stage constant and a film absence. Bob Fosse’s 1972 movie kept a handful of numbers and relocated the music to the Kit Kat Klub; “So What?” stayed on stage. That gap tells you why the show needs the song - without Schneider’s creed, the piece loses its ground-level cost. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

“For the sun will rise and the moon will set / And you learn how to settle for what you get”

The rhyme is plain, almost nursery-simple. That’s the sting. Fate circles; you adjust. The verb “settle” carries the scene - to compromise, to calm, to inhabit. It’s a thesis wrapped in lullaby rhythm.

“When I was a girl, my summers were spent by the sea - So what?”

Class memory meets present reality. The image is postcard-clean, then she flips it with two words. The move repeats across the verse - miniature rise and fall, hope and haircut.

“And love disappeared and only the memory lives on - So what?”

The line reaches past the room into her broken engagement with Herr Schultz. Later, as the climate worsens, she withdraws. Love gives way to fear and routine.

Creation history

John Kander wrote the music, Fred Ebb the words, Joe Masteroff the book. The original Broadway cast album - produced by Goddard Lieberson for Columbia Masterworks - was released November 28, 1966, with Lenya’s “So What?” placed second on the LP. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

Verse Highlights

Opening exchange

Spoken haggling sets the key terms - price, age, compromise. The orchestra stays hushed, almost like a metronome for everyday life.

First refrain

“For the sun will rise…” - the melody broadens but never soars. She sings inside speech, the way people talk when they don’t want to cry.

Memory stanza

Baltic summers to chamber pots - a single cut from privilege to labor. Words do the heavy lifting, not melisma.

Body and loss

The body she has now arrives too late for the man who judged it. The rhyme clicks shut - trim/plot - and the orchestra answers with a small nod rather than a flourish.

Final refrain

Acceptance, not uplift. The cadence is a curtain pull, not a curtain call. The song leaves you with posture, not consolation.

Key Facts

• Featured: Lotte Lenya as Fräulein Schneider on the Original Broadway Cast Recording. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}
• Producer: Goddard Lieberson. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}
• Composer: John Kander; Lyricist: Fred Ebb. :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}
• Release Date: November 28, 1966 (first LP release). :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}
• Genre: musical theatre, cabaret song. :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}
• Instruments: pit orchestra with reeds, brass, rhythm section; orchestrations by Don Walker; musical direction Harold Hastings. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}
• Label: Columbia Masterworks. :contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}
• Mood: world-weary, pragmatic, steady.
• Length: 3:21. :contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12}
• Track #: 2 on the OBCR. :contentReference[oaicite:13]{index=13}
• Language: English.
• Album: Cabaret - Original Broadway Cast Recording; also anthologized on Lotte Lenya: American Theater Songs. :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}
• Music style, poetic meter: conversational patter with mixed feet - iambic turns inside speech rhythms.
• Adaptations note: not included in the 1972 film soundtrack. :contentReference[oaicite:15]{index=15}
• © Copyrights: ? originally released 1966 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. on the cast album. :contentReference[oaicite:16]{index=16}

Questions and Answers

Where does “So What?” sit in the show?

Act I, early - Schneider sets the practical tone before the club numbers take over. :contentReference[oaicite:17]{index=17}

Who’s on the definitive recording?

Lotte Lenya on the 1966 Original Broadway Cast album, produced by Goddard Lieberson for Columbia Masterworks. :contentReference[oaicite:18]{index=18}

Is the number in the 1972 film?

No - the movie reshaped the score for the Kit Kat Klub and omitted “So What?”. :contentReference[oaicite:19]{index=19}

Who has covered it notably?

Judi Dench (1993 complete studio recording), Mary Louise Wilson (1998 New Broadway Cast), Liza Sadovy (2021 London cast, recorded 2023), and Karen Ziemba in Kander & Ebb projects. :contentReference[oaicite:20]{index=20}

How long is the Lenya track?

About 3:21 on the OBCR. :contentReference[oaicite:21]{index=21}

Awards and Chart Positions

While “So What?” wasn’t a single, the Cabaret Original Broadway Cast Recording won the 1968 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album - producer Goddard Lieberson credited - and the show itself swept the 1967 Tony Awards, with Lotte Lenya nominated for Best Actress in a Musical. :contentReference[oaicite:22]{index=22}

How to Sing?

Think speak-singing with spine. Sit the voice low in the mask, keep vibrato narrow, and let diction carry the mood. Verses want crisp storytelling on a comfortable breath line; refrains want a wider legato without turning operatic. Aim for a conversational tessitura that a mature mezzo can own. Use tiny dynamic swells on “sun will rise” and “moon will set,” then dry the tone on each “So what?” to land the point. Keep tempo honest - a steady walk, not a waltz through nostalgia.

Songs Exploring Themes of acceptance and survival

“I’m Still Here” - Stephen Sondheim sketches a life in snapshots - breadlines, studio lots, comebacks. Where “So What?” shrugs to stay afloat, “I’m Still Here” plants a flag. Both prize experience over innocence, but Sondheim’s lyric turns the ledger into a victory speech while Kander & Ebb keep the tone pragmatic, even cool.

“Send in the Clowns” - Stephen Sondheim lives in resignation too, but the temperature is softer. Desire meets timing, timing fails, and the voice almost speaks its way through the melody. Compared with “So What?”, this one looks inward; Schneider looks outward to bills, rooms, and politics moving in the hall.

“Cabaret” - Kander & Ebb is the mirror image. Sally sells abandon as policy - “life is a cabaret” - while Schneider sells acceptance as policy - “you learn how to settle for what you get.” Hearing both inside one evening turns the show into a debate between coping strategies.