John Kander
Cabaret
[EMCEE, spoken]
And now, Meine Damen und Herren, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Kit Kat Club is so happy... to welcome back an old friend. I give you, the toast of Mayfair, Fräulein Sally Bowles

[SALLY]
What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret

Put down the knitting, the book and the broom
It's time for a holiday
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret

Come taste thе wine
Come hear thе band
Come blow a horn, start celebrating
Right this way, your table's waiting

What good's permitting some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away
Life is a cabaret, old chum
So come to the cabaret!

I used to have a girlfriend known as Elsie
With whom I shared four sordid rooms in Chelsea
She wasn't what you'd call a blushing flower...
As a matter of fact, she rented by the hour
The day she died the neighbors came to snicker:
"Well, that's what comes from too much pills and liquor!"
But when I saw her laid out like a queen
She was the happiest corpse I'd ever seen

I think of Elsie to this very day
I remember how she'd turn to me and say:

"What good is sitting alone in you room?
Come hear the music play
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret!"

And as for me, as for me
I made my mind up back in Chelsea
When I go, I'm going like Elsie

Start by admitting from cradle to tomb
Isn't that long a stay
Life is a cabaret, old chum
It's only a cabaret, old chum
And I love a cabaret!