I've been following this since it was announced -- a re-envisioned revival of Cabaret in London with Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley, who I adore. Among other things, they completely remade the theater into a small environment so that it's like you're at the Kit Kat Club.
As for the production itself, the show opened a night or two ago, and the few reviews I've seen have been falling over themselves in raves. This Playbill article here has links to many of the reviews. And the review from the Evening Standard – which begins with “Wow.” – seems typical. The first two paragraphs are: "Wow. Rebecca Frecknall’s new revival of Kander and Ebb’s musical set in interwar Berlin is a stunning, breathlessly exciting theatrical happening. It feels loyal to the 1966 original yet astonishingly contemporary, and properly immersive. The Playhouse Theatre has been reconfigured by the designer Tom Scutt as the Kit Kat Club circa 1929, with pre-show performances in the bars and food and drink served at tables surrounding a circular, central stage. By the looks of it, the hugely expensive, three-course menu package isn’t worth it. The show emphatically is. "Jessie Buckley sings her heart out as a fretful, doomed Sally Bowles: a powerhouse of emotion, she leaves everything on stage. Eddie Redmayne’s Emcee is a brilliantly twisted creation, part tribute to Joel Grey’s original performance on Broadway and in Bob Fosse’s 1972 film adaptation, part George Grosz grotesque, part baby crocodile. The louche, gender-fluid ensemble, writhing in variations of lingerie and lederhosen to Julia Cheng’s sinewy choreography, and the female-led orchestra are impeccable. Again, just wow." (You can read the full review here.) The “bad” news is not merely that I'm not in London. It's that ticket prices for the comparatively small room START in the $300-400 range. And yet the entire run is already sold out. Still, I wonder if videos will appear or if they’ll make a cast albums since (at the moment) it’s a limited run production of a few months.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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