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starchildrenofdustand-ashes · 1 year ago

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Cabaret at The Kit Kat Club at the August Wilson Theatre Experience !!

ALL RIGHT MEIN DAMMEN UND HERREN

So, I saw Cabaret at The Kit Kat Club at the August Wilson Theatre on Tuesday, June 18. There were quite a few replacements in that night, specifically Gabi Campo on for Sally- she's usually Lulu I think.

Also, I’ve seen this production within London with Nic Meyers and Jake Shears as Sally and the Emcee, respectively. You can read my review of that here

Though they were the same production, there were things I noticed that were different,,,, So without further ado, here are some things I noticed/ liked/ disliked about this production!

When you first walk up to the theatre you’re greeted by security and if you’re over 21 they’ll stamp your hand and welcome you into the club (or, if you’re like me, they’ll give you the hardest side eye and ask you to see your ID before they stamp you lol,, also pls enjoy my sally inspired makeup look I had so much fun with it hehe)

Once you’re inside the theatre, if you have a stamp, they’ll give you a complimentary shot of cherry schnapps. Then very similarly to London, you’ll travel through a red lit hall with the eye emblem glowing green at the end of the tunnel, and the headshots of the actors decorating the wall. Down the hall theres a glowing green eye. After this, they cover your phone with a sticker and you’re not supposed to take photos of any kind, including selfies.

Before you get to your seats, they’ll invite you to travel downstairs where there’s a bar and some dancers on stage. Very cabaret-esque. There’s this giant eye downstairs that has a disco ball as a pupil. Downstairs is also the red bar. Upstairs is the green bar. Or vice versa, I don’t remember.

My seats were in the first mezz, in the last row. Honestly, the seats were great, I didn’t even need to use my opera glasses and could see their facial expressions pretty well.

So here are some thoughts and a breakdown of the staging of this production:

💋So y’all saw the Tony Performance 💀 you know what it looks like. On a different note, I don’t know why he got so flamed for it, I quite enjoyed it until I opened up twitter. It’s very clear that Eddie Redmayne is playing an Emcee we’ve never seen before. When I first listened to the London album, I was kinda in shock because: Firstly, I love Eddie Redmayne, but I’m not the biggest fan of his vocal tone and second, he talks in this weird high pitch gremlin voice and upon first listen I found it cringy and hard to listen to 😭 it took me a REALLY long time for me to be able to say I enjoy the album. BUT. After seeing his performance, I think he’s amazing! His Emcee is awkward enough to be rather endearing and the robotic movements prevalent in the beginning of the song don’t seem to last.

💋I don’t know if I mentioned in my other cabaret review, after The Emcee notes the orchestra was beautiful, the girls and walk with black veils and while the orchestra is jamming, the emcee connects these things hanging from the ceiling to the top of the veils, so when the lights turn on, the veils are lifted off the girls

💋there was this one old dude at one of the tables and Eddie was chronically harassing him in true crass EMCEE fashion we have to sta. Eddie also made several adlibs to the audience during Willkomenn, like telling someone not clap, they haven't finished yet 💀

💋 I also made a note at the end of my other cabaret review, where I asked if anyone who saw Eddie could explain to me some of the noises he makes on the cast album lol 💀 After seeing him, I’m still not sure what the noises are 💀💀 it’s like this weird, harsh, ‘kuh’ sound he makes as punctuation? Or something? You can hear it especially in Wilkomenn and Money, does anyone have thoughts? 😭

💋During Wilkomenn Sally came on our side of the mezz! She squeezed through the first row of the audience and was waving and giving pure celebrity lol

💋 On another note, I actually liked Eddies Emcee in this song? Yeah he makes a lot of strange choices, and I’ve made jokes about him being a sleep paralysis demon, but I’ve never found is portrayal to be terrifying? Strange? Definitely. Off-putting? No. Unique? Absolutely. Terrifying? Absolutely not. The physicality takes some getting used to, but to me it was giving an awkward geek who is excited to finally be given a moment on the stage. The jokes he tells in this production are less outwardly seductive and the delivery is honestly a little awkward. I feel like the punchline is what makes it raunchy and even then, they seem unfitting because eddies Emcee comes across as so sexless 😭 which is what makes the character charming!! You still laugh at his jokes and are waiting for more from him. lol it’s weird, but if you find him genuinely terrifying… idk, I see more horrifying shit scrolling through my socials

💋 So. I have beef with Cliff. I was not the biggest fan of neither the actor, nor his character in the revival. Firstly, for both the London production and Broadway revival, you have to suspend disbelief that a Nazi (Ernst) would walk onto a train and immediately pick out a black man to befriend lol. Secondly, Cliff really takes a backseat as a character here. In all adaptations Cliff may appear rather small because he’s not larger than life like the Emcee or Sally, but here he falls absolutely flat for me. I just felt like Ato Blankson-Wood was very flat, even at the peaks of the play. I don’t know, just a personal opinion.

💋as for Gabi Campo, she was amazing! She was so vibrant as Sally, with such an amazing voice. I was a bit concerned at first because her performances of Don’t tell Mama and Mein Herr were kinda flat and lackluster but by Maybe this time I was absolutely in love with her Sally 😩😩

💋In the London production I saw, I really felt like Herr Schultz and Frauline Schneider were sidelined, which was 1000% not the case here. Bebe Neuwirth and Steven Skybell absolutely stole the show when they were on stage together.

💋Two Ladies. Omfg. I don't know man. First off?? I knew Eddie Redmayne was buff because his arms look incredible, but he also has a six pack, and I just?? what the fuck 😩 But I mentioned in my other review, Sally's suitcase is center stage from Perfectly Marvelous and The Emcee Pops out wearing a comically fluffy coat that resembled Sallys. In the London production, Sally also had on a bandana and glasses, but here he just had on the coat lol.

💋Tbh, Two ladies is just so chaotic in every production, my favorite one may be the simplistic, two people, and one sheet with lewd shadow gestures in the Mendez/ cumming one. But this number was similar to the London production: other Kit Kat ppl coming onto the stage, Hans in like bondage gear, people humping each other, one of the girls wanking and reading mein kampf.

💋 It Could't Please Me more could not have pleased me more!! I loved it. I felt so much more connected to these characters and was actively rooting for them! They seemed more spunky and young (and also actively horny) There was a part towards the end of the song where Scheniders opens the bag and Schultz slowingly puts it into the bag while maintaining intense eye contact. Then Schneider shudders and says she's overwhelmed and its very hot and cute lol.

💋Tomorrow belongs to me was essentially the same as London, but the ending is different. Eddie Redmayne comes on stage Left and holds one of the rafters and sings the song. I was close enough to the stage that I could see there were stamps of the eyes in a circle around the turntable. Then one by one, the ensemble puts these aryan dolls wearing brown suits onto each of the eyes. They spin around him until they remove them one by one. Redmayne sings the last line of the song on the stage by himself and then removes his red haired wig when he says 'to me'. Versus London when he pulls out the blonde wig and holds it up

💋 Maybe this time was pretty similar to London I think, but I don't recall. They were in an embrace before the song stars so when they break apart Cliff freezes with his arms bent and outstretchedd towards Sally. She sings the entire song with Cliff frozen and he singing the song in the same spot as well. At the end he unfreezes.

💋 Now. For money. I have always been confused about the imagery that the costumes are trying to envoke. It's an absolutely stunning costume, and I know the helmet is a stahlhelm from wwII and I read something about him being like an undead soldier? I don't know. I think this costume is more suited for when he appears in tomorrow belongs to me reprise. It's catering to the spectacle element of theatre and it's interesting to look at, but to me, I felt disappointed with this number both here and London- especially because I had seen the costume and was expecting to get some clarity watching the performance. but lol. yeah no.

💋Another thing about Eddie's performance in Money that I had questions about in my previous review was all the weird fucking sounds he makes, especially during this sound. And even though I saw him performance, and could see the physicality paired with the sounds it still makes no sense to me lol. I can provide a bit of clarity of what he's doing for each sound tho so, if you listen to the cast recording while reading this there will be time stamps of each sound lmfao

💵 2:26- he's wailing at the Kit Kat ensemble and kinda controlling them? They are at opposing ends of the turn table

💵 2:44- the girlies are clawing at him and wailing and he like blows them a kiss? and then cackles about it as the turntables continue to spin them.

💵2:56- he bends over with his arms extended behind his back a la anime run and wails in the faces of the audience?

💵 3:00- Interspersed throughout the whole thing he's making the weird 'kuh' spitting sound that drives me absolutely drives me crazy because WHAT IS IT EDDIE BEYOND A CHOICE? A WEIRD FUCKING CHOICE FOR WHAT??? TO KEEP ME UP AT NIGHT???

💋 So in the scene before Married with Kost and Schneider/ Schultz, where they do the whole bit with the men doing the walk of shame out of their respective rooms, Schultz exits Schneiders rooms stage Right putting her sweater on, then he realizes and whisper-shouts "Wait! Wait this is not mine!" and runs back the direction he came lol

💋 During Married, the two stand in the middle of the stage while Kost is stage right holding a pillar.

💋 Tomorrow Belongs to Me Reprise is the same as it was in London, immaculate Art the Clown cosplay done by Redmayne.

💋 The kick line is also the same- although, I don't remember if the members of the ensemble brought people onto the stage and made them dance in London lol . They did the same audience - waving your hands in their air thing too. They also were all wearing red party hats like London. Redmayne also pops up center stage holding a gun that shoots out a Nazi flag when the tune becomes more militarized.

💋 I remember much more from Redmyane's If you could See Her than I do from Jake Shears (although that's because I saw Redmayne a week ago and Shears half a year ago lol ) Because of this, I can't cite major differences- maybe they were the same lol.

💋The Gorilla is realistic and picks Eddie up and dumps him on the ground when she feels like it lol. Very animalistic and not as cute as the previous productions.

💋During the dance break, Redmayne gets on the ground and bounds across the stage in synch with the gorilla.

💋When he ask the audience, to live and let live, it got a lot of applause. I also didn't really like the way he delivered the last line of the song? I don't know, it didn't feel as impactful, and it felt kind of throw away.

💋During Married Reprise, Redmayne is kinda skulking around the wings, and pillars. If you're watching him instead of Schultz/ Schneider, you'll see him grab a glass and rap it into a cloth napkin. then he'll skulk back on stage, and stand in-between the couple and gently place the napkin in-between their feet. They continue singing and at the climax of the song he steps on the bundle, and a loud cracking sound effect sweeps the theatre. The lights cut off. When they lift back on slowly, there is white pieces of confetti falling and he's standing between the two of them, hunched over, arms outstretched behind him.

💋 After the song ends and the couple walk off stage, he pick up the bundle in silence and a whole opens in the floor and he dumps the shattered glass through it.

💋During what would you do, when Bebe Neuwirth sings the climax of the song, the center circle in the center of the turntable lifts her up and yellow light streams in.

💋 When Cliff is beat up the members of the club walk int and menacingly crowd around him, kicking him and also taking his coat.

💋 Sally is wearing nothing but her purple undergarments at the Start of I don't care much- The Emcee has a blonde wig now, and he's donned the brown suit. After he sings the first verse, he kinda puppeteers Sally, and she isn't really resisting him, she's more so just going along. At 2:33 you can hear it on the cast Album , like panicked breathing and whatnot. It's the same for the London cast, but it's Sally, when the Emcee finally grabs her. Then she dons the brown suit over her outfit and runs off the stage.

💋 So Gabi Campo's Cabaret was Amazing. Started off very emotionally numb and eventually goes stark raving mad. Loved it.

💋 In the finale Cliff is back on the train, The Emcee is the train guy in his aryan suit. When he and the Emcee start singing Wilkommen together, the Emcee grabs his hand and pulls him in and they kinda stare off. Then it's like the spell is broken, for one second when the quirky hunched Emcee comes back and adresses the audience.

💋The club members, appear in their suits, lining up ontop of the eyes around the circle. Cliff, Sally, Schultz and Sneider are also standing in the circle. The emcee is raised onto the middle of the platform, conduction the drum rolls and then the lights black out.

Honestly, I love this production. I think it's amazing that Alan Cumming made such a mark on Cabaret history that an Emcee not done similar to his is not an acceptable Emcee to many. Personally, I find this Emcee to be like Joel Grays Emcee, who I refer to as an 'impish little pervert'. and he just kind of smiles creepily and looms throughout the entire show. Joel Grays Emcee also isn't actually a queer character either, and it wasn't necessaryily a roll created for a queer actor, especially since Joel Gray was closeted at the time. So. I don't think this production is "spoon-feeding" the subtext of the show to anyone. It still provides thought provoking imagery and interesting performance/ directing choices. I also think so much of this particular show is up to interpretation, where Cummings Emcee is not- at the end he's in the uniform with both the star and the pink triangle. That imagery is quite clear. What does this new imagery symbolize? The death of individual or queer identities? The complacency or brainwashing within the Nazi regime? The goal to create a society that looked exactly the same? Is the Emcee an actual character or does he represent the city? What about this show makes negative reviewers think it's not thought provoking and the directors felt a need to spell everything out? Sure, this production delivers far more obvious 'hints' than the Mendes/Cumming one, but both productions deliver their points, and quite well.

If you read this far, thank you ily lmao🫶🏾

#Cabaret revival #cabaret 2024 #Eddie redmayne #the emcee #cabaret broadway #Gayle rankin #Alan cumming #sally bowles #bebe neuwirth #she speaks #she reviews #joel gray #musical theatre

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