Willkommen. Bienvenue. Welcome to the Kit Kat Club. Home to an intimate and electrifying new production of CABARET.
Experience this groundbreaking musical like never before. The denizens of the Kit Kat Club have created a decadent sanctuary inside Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre, where artists and performers, misfits and outsiders rule the night. Step inside their world. This is Berlin. Relax. Loosen up. Be yourself.
London’s hottest ticket arrives on Broadway this Spring with Academy® and Tony Award® winner Eddie Redmayne reprising his Olivier Award-winning performance as the Emcee, and introducing Gayle Rankin as the Toast of Mayfair, Sally Bowles.
CABARET has music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Joe Masteroff – based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood.
The unparalleled star power of Sally Bowles, the untalented and poverty-plagued good-time girl who sings and sleeps her way through the Berlin underground and charms pre-war Germany at any cost, is a dream that refuses to come alive in the woefully miscast Gayle Rankin. The greatest Sally in history is still Julie Harris in the black-and-white British film I Am a Camera (1955), from the play of the same name by John Van Druten, stunningly based on the autobiographical Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood. The most famous Sally will probably always be Liza Minnelli, who won an Oscar for the Technicolor movie by Bob Fosse. And the worst Sally is Gayle Rankin. With none of the glamour Julie Harris brought to the role and not a shred of Liza Minnelli’s vulnerability or poignancy, she hams it up all over the stage, massacring the songs and dedicating herself to the idea that no song is worth singing unless it can also be screamed. “Mein Herr” is now yelled with the fury of Medea killing her children, and both of the show’s enduring ballads, “Cabaret” and “Maybe This Time,” are all but incomprehensible. Clifford Bradshaw, the American character based on Isherwood, is now a boring bespectacled somebody played by someone named Ato Blankston-Wood, and if you can stand him, you can have him.
And then comes the show itself, which hasn’t upped the sexuality quotient, though it has definitely underlined what’s over the top. Everything that was extreme in previous productions is now even more so. As the Emcee of the Kit Kat Club, Oscar and Tony winner Eddie Redmayne has to separate himself from two legends (Joel Grey and Alan Cumming); he does so with exaggerated hand gestures and head bobbing and with vocal tics that sometimes resemble those of Jerry Lewis. Redmayne sings the show’s signature tune, “Willkommen,” in brown leather culottes, long black gloves, and a bright-blue party hat (costumes by Tom Scutt, who also did the sets), and seems to have veered outside the normal human range, going instead for a Cirque du Soleil meets demented puppet effect that’s often weird for weird’s sake. Each time Redmayne appears, the costumes grow more outlandish, though vocally his best moment is when his Emcee is dressed conservatively as a Master Race type, standing still and smoothly singing the Nazi anthem “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” to creepy effect. A succession of miniature wooden Redmayne dolls in the same garb (puppets of the puppet, as it were) appear on the edges of the rotating stage as he sings, foreshadowing the moment later in the show when the entire cast storms the stage, suited and looking like fascists.
Digital Lottery:
Price: $25
Where: www.luckyseat.com
When: For weekday performances, entries will be accepted until 9:30 AM ET the day before the performance with winners being selected beginning at 10 AM ET and continuing throughout the day as needed. For weekend performances, entries will be accepted until 9:30 AM ET the Friday before, with winner selection following at 10 AM ET and continuing throughout the day as needed.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Winners will have a limited window in which to purchase and claim their tickets, so those entering are encouraged to keep an eye on the drawing on the dates they have entered. Tickets are subject to availability.
1966 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1967 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
1968 | West End |
London Production West End |
1982 | Regional (US) |
Regional Revival Regional (US) |
1986 | West End |
London Revival West End |
1987 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
1993 | West End |
Donmar Warehouse Revival West End |
1998 | Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Broadway |
2006 | West End |
London Revival West End |
2008 | UK Tour |
National Tour UK Tour |
2012 | West End |
West End Revival Production West End |
2014 | Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Broadway |
2016 | US Tour |
2016 National Tour US Tour |
2021 | West End |
London Production West End |
2024 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Musical | Rebecca Frecknall |
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical | Bebe Neuwirth |
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical | Gayle Rankin |
2024 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design of a Musical | Nick Lidster for Autograph |
2024 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance | Gayle Rankin |
2024 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance | Eddie Redmayne |
2024 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Musical | Rebecca Frecknall |
2024 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Cabaret |
2024 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Musical | Bebe Neuwirth |
2024 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Cabaret |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Musical | Tom Scutt |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Isabella Byrd |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Steven Skybell |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical | Eddie Redmayne |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical | Bebe Neuwirth |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Gayle Rankin |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Tom Scutt |
2024 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Musical | Nick Lidster for Autograph |
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