ELICA - mid 20's, actress, normally stunning no longer cares about appearance
LAURA - Stage Manager, she's caring but cares more about policy
NICK (Plays GEORGE) - 30, actor, attractive but would never be cast as the leading man
JAMIE (Plays CHARLIE) - late 20's, actor, leading man, in every sense of the word
TIME
June, 2020
PLACE
NOTES
There's a song, with no recording to go with it. May my words be filled with the 'music of the
night.'
"There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies...and there was a city called Berlin,
in a country called Germany...and it was the end of the world."
-Joe Masteroff, Cabaret
Editor's Note: This is the original script, as shared by the author.
The stage is black. We hear clicking and the stage is flooded with light. The stage was set for an
outdoor garden, featuring a park bench with a dead rose. Now part of the drop is ripped, piling
onto the floor, fake trees are out of place, some tipped over, the air filled with theatre ghosts.
ELICA enters the stage. Mid-twenties, a complete confusion - part red carpet ready, part mental
ward escapee. She moves forward as though pulled by an uncontrollable force, sits down and
picks up the rose.
LAURA (offstage)
Elica? Elica?
Elica doesn't hear or ignores the voice as she raises the rose to her nose before setting it against
her cheek, some of the dried petals crumble. LAURA enters. Stage Manager dressed
professionally.
LAURA
Elica, everyone else is clearing their stuff from the dressing rooms. What are you doing here?
ELICA
Remembering.
ELICA lifts up the rose. LAURA gasps, rushes to ELICA, tosses the rose with one hand while
with the other pulls out a bottle of hand sanitizer and applies it liberally to her hands, ELICA's
hands then after a second thought ELICA's face, before ELICA pushes her away.
ELICA
That about covers it.
LAURA
Lets go backstage. Get your things.
ELICA (bitter laugh)
What things? Spanx, character shoes, bobby pins?
LAURA
Elica, that is the one reason we were let back in.
ELICA
All right. I'll be down, just give me a minute. One minute
LAURA
One minute?
ELICA
I promise.
LAURA exits. They both know ELICA'S lying. ELICA pulls out her phone and begins playing a
recording of a stage production.
JAMIE (Recording - playing CHARLES)
This isn't giving up. Is there any time for sorrow? Or would you have me kneeling on the
sidewalk, ring in hand, ready to marry the first woman to say yes?
NICK (Recording - playing GEORGE)
Any time for sorrow? What have the last seven months been? She left. She's gone. She's not
coming back. I don't want you still sitting alone on a park bench when her grandchildren
graduate college.
JAMIE (Recording - playing CHARLES)
How can I move on, when the whole world reminds me of her? Buying food, I don't get spinach
because she hates it. I close my eyes and suddenly her smell floods me till I'm suffocating. If I
fall asleep she haunts my dreams, like a siren always trying to pull me deeper down.
NICK (Recording - playing GEORGE)
Lets go out tonight. No girls, just the two of us.
At some point during the recording NICK has entered the stage and is leaning against a table,
he's watching ELICA. NICK is dressed stylishly, but it doesn't hide that he's typecast as the friend
or sidekick.
NICK
That guy sounds like a dick.
Startled ELICA looks at NICK, pauses the recording, before turning away to compose her face.
ELICA
Which one?
NICK
The second one.
ELICA (laughs)
He is.
NICK approaches ELICA.
NICK
That's an illegal recording.
ELICA
And you're a method actor.
NICK waits
ELICA
It was the last performance before the shutdown. I wanted to hang onto that night as a memory.
Then when I found out how final the show was...
NICK
Elica...(reconsiders)...go get your things. Aren't your Grandmother's earrings downstairs? After
we can get a drink and talk or not talk, whatever it takes.
ELICA
The bars are closed.
NICK
(trying to be fun) Please, all the booze I got, I could start a speakeasy. What do you say? Be my
first patron? Ground floor investor before the cops break it up?
ELICA
No thanks, Nick.
ELICA continues the recording. NICK not taking the hint takes a seat across from ELICA.
JAMIE (Recording - playing CHARLES)
No thanks, George.
NICK pauses recording.
NICK
Look who memorized all the lines.
ELICA
Please Nick, go away.
NICK
I can't imagine listening to that.
ELICA
And I can't imagine not.
NICK
Elica, this isn't healthy.
ELICA
I don't care if I get sick.
NICK
That's not what I meant. Do you really think they'd let us back in here, for even a half hour if
they thought we could contract -
ELICA
Please, don't.
NICK
All right. I'll leave. But Elica ...?
ELICA shakes her head. NICK exits. ELICA starts the recording.
NICK (Recording - playing GEORGE)
Charles, it's no good coming to this bench every lunch with a rose.
JAMIE (Recording - Playing CHARLES)
I told Rosie I would.
NICK (Recording - Playing GEORGE)
And she told you to go to hell. Look, write Rosie, tell her you're stopping, that you're moving on.
Move on.
JAMIE (Recording - Playing CHARLES)
Every afternoon the rose I've left from the day before is gone.
NICK (Recording - Playing GEORGE)
It's a big city. Do you really think Rosie is hiding here, behind one of these trees and the moment
you're gone springs out and takes her prize?
JAMIE (Recording - Playing CHARLES)
No, I don't think that.
NICK (Recording - Playing GEORGE)
Then what?
JAMIE (Recording - Playing CHARLES)
I think she might! Not every day, but sometimes...sometimes George I feel her so strongly, she
must be there.
Music begins to play and JAMIE enters the stage a figment of ELICA's mind and begins
performing his blocking. JAMIE's the leading man, strong & attractive dressed in a post WWII
costume. JAMIE begins singing - the figment only moving his mouth, the sound coming from the
phone's recording - slow and tender. ELICA sings at the rests in his song, quick and desperate.
Moving through the stage, ELICA is performing alongside JAMIE's phantom.
JAMIE (Recording - Playing CHARLES)
'I'M WAITING FOR YOU'
ELICA
'WAKE UP AND SEE ME'
JAMIE (Recording - Playing CHARLES) ('You' comes out in a wheeze)
'YOU NEVER TOLD ME TOO'
ELICA
'TO ME, YOU'RE ALWAYS DREAMY'
JAMIE (Recording - Playing CHARLES)
'I PUT MY LIFE ON HOLD'
In the recording we hear coughing as ELICA sings
ELICA
'YOU'RE WITH ME EVERY DAY'
JAMIE (Recording - Playing CHARLES) (JAMIE's voice begins to fail)
'I GUESS I'M GROWING OLD'
ELICA
'THOUGH YOU'RE SO FAR AWAY'
The music swells and the two spin away from each other, JAMIE ending SR, ELICA ending SL
JAMIE (Recording - playing CHARLES) (Forgetting the words, he repeats the start of
the chorus, until he can't)
'HAVE MERCY ON ME - HAVE MERCY - HAVE MERCY - HAVE MERCY -'
There's a thud on the recording as JAMIE drops to the ground. A long silence. ELICA's back is
turned unable to watch even as ghosts of the past, rush by her - stage crew in all black along
with actors wearing 1940's costumes - again their mouths move but the only sound comes from
the phone. EVERYONE is talking over one another as they crowd around JAMIE
LAURA (Recording)
Hold! Hold!
NICK (Recording)
Shit! What happened?
LAURA (Recording)
Drop the curtain! Drop the curtain!
VOICE 1 (Recording)
I thought the test came back negative.
NICK (Recording)
Well it sure looks positive now.
VOICE 2 (Recording) (Call to 911)
I need an ambulance at Blythe's Theatre...
VOICE 3 (Recording)
They did say it was worse for smokers.
LAURA (Recording)
Jamie, can you hear me?
VOICE 2 (Recording) (Call to 911)
...an actor's collapsed...
VOICE 1 (Recording)
Does that mean I'm contaminated?
VOICE 4 (Recording)
F#@k. Everyone back away from the body.
VOICE 2 (Recording) (Call to 911)
...it was negative...
NICK (Recording)
Is he still breathing?
VOICE 2 (Recording) (Call to 911)
...that's not my fault!
ELICA (Recording)
JAMIE!
ELICA turns and moves deliberately from SR to her place by JAMIE's side. From the
PHANTOMS staging it's clear when it actually happened ELICA had entered SL, the real life
ELICA makes it to her spot by JAMIE's head, but her lips never move as she hears herself in the
recording.
JAMIE (Recording)
el...elicaah?
Unintelligible sound coming from Jamie
ELICA (Recording)
Jamie, it's okay. You'll be okay. There's an ambulance coming. Don't worry, you'll be fine.
JAMIE (Recording)
...EL!...
ELICA (Recording)
What is it?
JAMIE (Recording)
The show...must go - (gasps) - on.
ELICA (Recording)
Jamie?
The stage goes dark.
ELICA
JAMIE!!!
ELICA scrambles for her phone, the recording stops and her phone's flashlight comes on. The
stage is now empty of ghosts.
ELICA
Who's there? Jamie, oh please, Jamie.
NICK walks into her flashlights beam.
NICK
I'm sorry, I didn't realize -
ELICA screams and hurls the phone at NICK and the stage is once again dark.
ELICA
No! No, no!
The stage lights come back on and LAURA enters, carrying something. NICK is holding ELICA's
shoulders as she writhes in his grasp.
ELICA
My phone. I need my phone. Is my phone okay? It's Jamie. I have Jamie. I need Jamie.
As she stops fighting NICK crosses ELICA's arms across her chest and wraps ELICA into him,
gently rocking
ELICA
Poor Jamie, oh -
ELICA breaks into tears, sobbing into NICK's shoulder. He picks her up and carries her to the
bench and sits down with her. NICK looks up at LAURA
NICK
Her phone?
LAURA shakes her head. ELICA grabs the pieces of her phone from LAURA
ELICA
But we can get it back? We can get Jamie back? What's open? Do you know hackers?
LAURA
Jamie's gone. Nothing can make that any better.
ELICA
No, I have him...I had him...I...I...
NICK
Elica, what do you think Jamie meant when he said 'the show must go on?'
LAURA
It was one lousy apology. Putting all of us at risk. I don't care that he got a test, he never should
of been on stage. If my kids got sick -
NICK
Laura?
LAURA
(Sighs) Sorry.
NICK
What do you think he meant?
ELICA
That it was worth it. (sniffs) Dying for art was worth it.
NICK
Then why would he make sure to tell you?
ELICA
I don't know Nick! Let's just go. They can burn the theatre for all I care.
ELICA gets up & sways a little.
NICK
He loved you. Why didn't he say that?
ELICA
Nick, I don't know! I don't want to talk about it. I should never of come. Why did I think I could
have a quiet moment with Jamie? (waves phone) Everything's ruined.
LAURA
Okay. We'll go. I'll walk you home.
ELICA
I'll be fine.
ELICA starts to exit.
NICK
Elica. (she pauses) You'll always have him, just not the way you planned.
ELICA (finally catches his deeper meaning)
I'm sorry Nick. (nods to both of them) Thank you.
Elica turns to leave.
NICK (can't quite let go)
You'll be all right?
ELICA
Of course. (she straightens and in that moment she is the most startling woman in the world)
What is it Jamie used to say? 'The show must go on.'
ELICA bows and exits.
