Cabaret

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

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
Time for a holiday
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret

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

No use permitting some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away
Life is a cabaret, old chum
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 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
Time for a holiday
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
Only a cabaret, old chum
And I love a cabaret!