#CABARET 2021

[ourownbelovedbohemians]

My Top 10 Musicals:

Sweeney Todd

Les Misérables

Cabaret

Moulin Rouge!

Jersey Boys

The Lightning Thief

Hadestown

Hamilton

The Great Comet

Grease

[eddieredmayneargentinablog]

New Video: #Repost @kitkatclubldn: "A huge congratulations from everyone at the #KitKatClub to the incomparable #JoelGrey and #JohnKander on being the toast of this year’s @thetonyawards. #LifetimeAchievementAward"

🎥 Source: Cabaret at Kit Kat Club on Instagram or here's also the link on YouTube:

#my screenshots

[bottomoftheriverbed]

Cabaret in the west end review/observations @steeple-sinderby-wanderers

Full disclaimer: my previous exposure to cabaret is limited and I also had no idea who the cast were (self esteem and the guy from scissor sisters) I have read Goodbye to Berlin though and am very interested in the period.

If you are in the stalls, particularly if you are at a table, it is quite an immersive performance, the ensemble are literally up in your face at times. I did not sign up for that, it just happened to be where the wheelchair seats were and it's not necessarily my favourite way of doing theatre, I find it takes me out rather than brings me in, but it is a necessary part of the show particularly for 'if you could see her'

The atmosphere is incredible, though part of that may have been where I was sitting (I don't know whether all of the pre show is available to people in the galleries) but it did do a lot to build up the setting. The cast is fantastic.

The costumes are extremely stripped back (as in they're literally underwear for the majority of the cast). Though it does change in the second half to evoke lederhosen and drindls in reflection of the changing atmosphere of Berlin (I suspect it and the bavarian sounding 'tomorrow belongs to me' is because the stereotypical german is (somewhat ironically) bavarian but I think it can be interpreted in regards to the Nazi's attempt to appeal to and create a german folk culture that isn't nearly as uniform as it is)

Emcee was brilliant. Like I said I had no idea who he was, nor the actress playing sally and I think I preferred it that way. Obviously he's at the centre most of the times he's on stage but you still struggle to take your eyes of him. They went very hard on the idea of Emcee as the spirit of Berlin. His costumes get more and more Nazi like as the play goes on ending in a brown suit and very 'normal' looking.

speaking of, Ernst is extremely affable even after it's revealed he's a Nazi which really hammers the purpose of his character home.

Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz almost stole the show. They were magnificent, their romance was so sweet and tender and very much felt like the heart of the show. It's reluctant break up is gut wrenching and is even more so by the fact that it's so obviously inevitable due to Fraulein Schneider's firmly established pragmatism.

Sally was very brash and confident, she had a sturdiness to her. She kind of had a private school horse girl vibe if you get what I mean, kinda Clare balding like in her mannerisms. I don't think she was played nearly as naive as she can be played. Many of her actions came off far more as a single minded almost desperation to just keep going and surviving and living how she wants to. She's not really succeeding and there's a real vulnerability to her but hey fake it till you make it.

I think this makes Sally's decision to stay in Berlin a little less selfish and naive. In their confrontation before her abortion, Clifford is almost violent towards her and combined with the androgyny of the cast and costumes, including Sally's costume for 'Cabaret' (a brown trousers and blazer over her lingerie) makes Clifford come across as, to Sally, just another controlling, oppressive force. Sally is clinging onto the ruins of Weimar Berlin because it is the only place she can be free and independent. Of course there is still a lot of selfishness and naivity in that but it's framed slightly differently if that makes sense. Her ignorance is exceedingly deliberate, just as much as Herr Schultz's or Frau Schneider's pragmatism.

Clifford also seems naive, if not politically per say then personally, particularly because his and Sally's relationship is actually presented as almost asexual. They never even kiss but Clifford does kiss one of the Cabaret boys with whom he has much more chemistry and it perhaps suggests that this life with Sally Clifford wants is as much a manifestation of his internalised homophobia as anything else. I find the more I think about it the more this makes me a little uncomfortable, for all this is an apparently queer production it still reduces bisexuality to an erotic spectacle without actually engaging with it while playing into the idea that all bisexual men are actually gay

Clifford himself remains very much an outsider. His costume for example remains very masculine and quite formal to the point where it's something of a visual indicator of his outsider status even as it conflicts with his actions and what we're told he's doing.

Overall it was amazing and I highly recommend it (in the galleries as good as it is 200 quid (not even the most expensive seat) for one seat is a bit much)

[starchildrenofdustand-ashes]

Cabaret at TheKit Kat Club Experience !!

So, I saw Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse theatre on November 15 (11/15/2023) with Nic Myers as Sally and Jake Shears as Emcee.

Below the cut is where spoilers start lol: honestly the whole thing is super secretive- from the stage to the venue itself. So if you ever plan on seeing it live or have the opportunity to do so, you have been warned!

When you walk into the theatre there’s this awesome:

You will see before you descend the stairs; at the bottom of the stairs, they put a sticker on your phone :)

You’ll continue walking down the hall where the walls are white and covered with pictures all over of the actors past and present.

You probably pass some of the actors who are milling about, chatting, flirting, dancing playing instruments.

I was in the first row of the upper dress circle and god it’s tight up there. Definitely wish I’d payed a bit extra to be on the floor and to at least have room 😖

Also note; I don’t talk about Herr Schultz and Frauline Schneiderall that much in these notes, but that’s because their scenes are so sweet and straight forward. These two give you the Schneider and Schultz you’ve seen and you know you love; there’s nothing outlandish or left field that happens with these two like some of the choices with Sally and Emcee. The same can be said for Ernst and Cliff. Nothing wild has been changed with their characters. In fact, most of this will probably be me trying to decode the strange new take on the Emcee and The Kit Kat Club. Anyway! Here are my thoughts and stuff that stuck out to me!

(Also if you’ve seen this production with Eddie Redmayne or have listened to it and have a hypothesis— he makes this strange sound like he’s spitting? In a lot of the songs- I thought it maybe part of the orchestration, but I didn’t notice it with Jake Shears and chalked it up to Eddies character choices. So if you know what the sound is or can give me staging It would soothe my brain)

Willkomenn:

🍷 in Willkomenn, when the Emcee does his whole “comment ca va?, do you feel good” speil he paused after every time, as if to test what language the audience would respond to

🍷 He kept the “do you feel good- yeah I bet you do 😏” line even tho it wasn’t on the revival album🥹

🍷The way to tell Victor and Bobby apart is to lift their arm and stick your face in their armpits and take a big wiff. Bobby did not want his armpits sniffed and Emcee had to beg him

🍷 Bro I love Hermann; he was so stoic and dead inside- he just stood there and did the most basic version of what everyone was doing. He was also fully clothed lol

🍷When they sing the whisper verse, they were all posing in various positions and the Emcee crawled between their legs

Don’t Tell Mama:

🎀 When sally screams at the beginning, she was lying on her back throwing a tantrum

🎀 The Emcee is on stage for the final verse and he acts as Sally’s brother: when sally says the line, “if he squeals on me i squeal on him” they squeezed each others nipples

Perfectly Marvelous

💚When Cliff and Ernst are talking and Sally barges in, she’s wearing her coat, a beige and orange scarf, funky sunglasses and carrying a ton of luggage

💚at the end of Perfectly Marvelous, when Cliff says “besides I’ve only got one narrow bed,” the Emcee rises out of the circle in the center of the platform wearing the exact same thing as Sally: the coat the scarf and the glasses. Two Kit Kat Girls come up the same platform in a suitcase that looks just like the one Sally was carrying

💚 Nic Myers didn’t do an American accent

Two Ladies

👯‍♀️ The KitKatGirl who “makes thebed” puts on a hardware belt and does explicit things with a hammer while the other has a spatula. Or a whisk ,, The One That “Does The Cooking” goes behind Emcee and uses the whisk to “thrust” into him and when he says daily bread, she pulls out a baguette, she also fills out a whip lmao

👯‍♀️ During the instrumental break all the other Kit Kat Members come up through the stage wearing explicit things and doing explicit things to each other. The one that stood out the most to me was Helga jacking off to a copy of Mein Kampf— it was super chaotic and I don’t remember details

It Couldnt Please Me More:

🍍More often than not the sailor Kost was fucking was either Bobby or Hans- even referring to the former as such. Also, they refer to her as Fritzie explicitly so it’s cannon that Kost=Fritzie and not just an actress double casted.

🍍Before Kost runs into Schneider after letting Bobby out, Schultz is leaving Schneiders room and accidentally is trying to out her robe on instead of his jacket

Tomorrow Belongs to Me

* So Emcee comes on stage holding a box and is dressed in a robe and only a wig cap

* One by one, the member of the Kit Kat Klub put these dolls that are wearing brown suits with Blonde hair on the stage. They are standing militanty. very much providing Nazi imagery

* During the song, the figures go around the turn table while emcee is singing

* At the end of the song when he says the last line, he pulls out a blond wig and holds it in the spotlight

Money:

💸Money was the song I was most excited for because of the images I’d seen of the skeleton costume. I had a hard time figuring out why the skeleton, but it was cool nonetheless.

💸 the Emcee rises out of the middle of the floor, his clawed hands reaching out first.

💸 I watched Emcee legit drool on the stage (Groffsauce in Hamilton vibes) he was spitting those lines out so hard

💸 I don’t know how to interpret the staging of the song, the real star of the scene is the costumes, but I took it as the Emcee represented money? Everywhere he went the KitKat Girls followed, wailing and begging him and the surrounding audience for money.

TBTM (reprise )

* I mean. I feel like the staging for this song is always consistent and similar throughout all shows; the individuals singing with Cliff, Sally, Schultz and Sneider standing somberly. The emcee is usually eerily looking on and depending on the show is seemingly jubilant or looking wistful.

* In this, the Emcee rises out of the middle of the turn table wearing his outfit from money. He has a conductors stick and begins conducting them with a smile on his face.

* My sister said the Emcee is “If Art The Clown could talk” and Yeah, that’s pretty accurate. He goes form being the raunchy Emcee we’ve all come to love- I think the Emcee, no matter who plays him is kinda creepy, so the creepiness didn’t seem unusual- to an evil nazi

* But when we see him in money and onwards, he’s definitely giving Killer Clown- she was right, Art the Clown from Terrifier.

* The Art The Clown juxtaposition to when he appears bare faced during some songs was super interesting. It really feels like the idea of “The Nazi’s weren’t demons, they were people who did things we thought demons were only capable of,” and that’s what makes it terrifying. The clowning character is seen praising nazis and cheerfully conducting their songs- he really does seem like a force of evil that’s simply from hell. But then he talks off his makeup in the coming scenes and you’re reminding- he’s just a human who behaves like a demon and that’s terrifying-. Idk if I’m doing the best at explaining my analysis of this, but that’s what I was getting

Kickline

💃🏾The kickline is lively and the members of the Club are trying to hype up the audience before getting into formation

💃🏾They were all wearing red party hats so when the emcee comes on in his red Pierrot clown get up, he has the longest, pointed and most menacing looking hat.

💃🏾he also has a gun? Thing? He shoots a Nazi flag out of it

💃🏾 The Members of the club form a hakenkreuz shape around Emcee and he hand the flag to Bobby and they march off.

Married (reprise)

🧱 the scene before Married Sneider and Schultz are talking about the engagement. Emcee is slinking around the stage and he has something in his hands wrapped in a napkin. His movements remind me of a mime, or as Chelsea says, Art The Clown, the facial expressions with overdramatized emotion and fluidity

🧱 he slinks between Schultz’s and Sneider with a smile on his face and suddenly there’s a loud ass crash that makes- I shit you not- the entire theatre jump. The lights black out. When they rise back on, there is white confetti floating downward, to represent the broken glass

If You Could See Her

🦍Usually, the gorilla in this is dressed up and it looks more cartoonish, but to, this was just a straight up gorilla- (A really good costume) with absolutely no elements of humanity. No clothes, no slightly upturned mouth, no walking on two legs and absolutely no understand what was going on.

🦍The Emcee would address the Gorilla as if she was human, but she would only respond in an animalistic way like scratching her ass, sniffing Emcees ass or flat out ignoring him and doing her own thing.

🦍 The Emcee seemed to be back at his usually self- joking and less like a demonic force - he’s clowning and making the audience laugh and there’s the Jewish line at the end of the song (which?? I was kind of disappointed by. It didn’t give me shivers and I felt it was a bit rushed.) also people laughed, but it could’ve been a “I laugh at funerals bc it’s awkward,” and not because they actually found the situation funny. My sister hypothesized simple confusion for people who had no idea what was going on. I will agree that some of the Emcees choices are strange if you don’t know the plot/ haven’t read up on this revival before hand.

I Don’t Care Much:

🎙️ Next time Emcee is on stage he is wearing a brown suit and a blonde wig, no makeup on his face- he very much resembles the dolls that were placed on stage during TBTM

🎙️I don’t care much occurs after Sally and Cliff have an argument as usual. But after Cliff leaves Sally is getting dressed. She is putting on the same jacket and pants the Emcee is wearing

🎙️during the song the emcee is doing some weird puppet thing behind her and she’s mirroring the moves she’s doing. it was an interesting choice during this song, but I think it’s been my least favorite change. It was like she was on strings and he was controlling her. I guess it provided a good visual for the notion that the Emcee isn’t a person, rather a representation of the deteriorating culture of the the city as a whole.

🎙️ This song is good at humanizing the Emcee, especially in Alan Cummings revival; smeared makeup, track marks, slurred worlds and stilted motions. It really paints a picture of a human at the end of their rope. In this version it just solidifies that the emcee is the city of Berlin and the evils that are taking over (Which, goes in direct opposition to my previous theory on his costumes providing human- demon Nazi images but whatever I dont have the brain power to think harder about it)

🎙️ After this song Cliff gets beat up by Ernst. After the tussle, the nazi thugs are actually the members of the Kit Kat club, they are wearing the same coat as Sally and the Emcee. They finish Cliff off and take his coat away

Cabaret

🍷I mean. Damn. There’s not much to say here. Outstanding performance. Like there are performances from different actors on YouTube so you could watch those to see the blocking because it’s pretty much the same.

🍷 Nic Myers did an amazing job, I got full body chills

🍷 one critique I’ve heard is that it’s over directed and this song is the perfect example of it. As an actor and a director, I understand both sides,; I don’t see much individuality between the actors on YouTube vs Nic Myers because the staging is so specific. I will say, through my opera glasses, the emotion painted in her face couldn’t be replicated and I think that’s really where the nuances will lie- in their faces.

Finale

📸 The Emcee is back on the stage, in the same position as Willkomenn- it’s like this weird pose with his arms and legs bent (you can watch the Willkomenn performance in gram nortons show,, that’s the pose I’m talking about ((I’ve heard people say it’s supposed to look like a hakenkreuz ))the only difference is now he’s in his brown outfit with his blonde hair. Super eerie.

📸 All the characters are standing on the turn table and the Kit Kat Members are on the outer circle of the turn table wearing the same beige suit the emcee has on. The other characters are all wearing brown and there’s an eerie sense of uniformity.

📸 Then there’s the long ass drum roll as they continue to turn before the lights blackout.

[holdmecloser-gandydancer]

sometimes I just need to shake this revival around in my teeth

Image description: Two images of Maude Apatow as Sally Bowles in the 2021 revival of Cabaret. The image on the left is a drawn image of the one on the right. In the image, Sally Bowles has a light red, chin length bob. She wears a light blue dress with large sleeves, cream ruffles all over the dress, and a bonnet with heart shaped cutouts. She holds a cigarette, smoke surrounding her. Her eyeshadow and lipstick are purple, she has two bright pink circles of blush, and drawn on freckles. She gazes to the side.

End image description

[laurelwen]

Eddie Redmayne in Cabaret, 2021

[alice-solo]

Cabaret (2021 London Cast Recording) Review

This began as a text to my mom, but it became something I’m honestly kind of proud of. I have no one else to send it to, so Tumblr it is.

I am completely blown away by the new Cabaret recording. Jessie Buckley is amazing as Sally. Her voice is incredibly smooth and jazzy, but carries her emotion so profoundly. It’s a vessel for pain, pleasure, fear, and extravagance. She can really sing, which is rare for most Sallys (they usually rely on screaming the whole time). In my opinion, her standout performances are “Mein Herr,” “Don’t Tell Mama,” and “Maybe This Time.” The only song her voice is slightly underwhelming on is, ironically enough, “Cabaret.” That’s the only recorded performance from the show they’ve released though, and from what I’ve seen from it, this is her chance to act rather than sing. It’s more unhinged, but equally as chilling.  Redmayne brings his Les Mis vibrato to the Emcee, which is rare for the character, and it’s just stunning. As iconic as Liza and Joel Grey are, the London cast certainly rivals them. Tomorrow Belongs to Me sounds like a church choir instead of a creepy Small World Doll (the reprise is like a soldier’s march), and Money is like a chilling mystery-movie score instead of a quick gag to separate acts. Buckley and Redmayne are inarguably the standouts, but not to a fault of the rest of the cast. No one leaves Cabaret and says “I guess Liza Minnelli was okay, but wow that Fraulein Schneider really blew me away!” It’s okay to have standout performances. I really like that, I’m assuming, they recorded it live. The laughing sounds really organic and without it a lot of Redmayne’s comedic timing would fall flat. The score and vocal performances become grittier and more like the “typical” Cabaret as it progresses, symbolizing Berlin’s fall to Nazism. It brings a lot of nuance and artistry to the show that is usually sidelined for the sake of it being Cabaret. The third to last song, “I Don’t Care Much,” sounds like it’s out of Phantom or such. It’s always been in the show, but this is the first time I’ve taken note of it while listening. That really speaks to Redmayne’s portrayal of the Emcee. The last number is chilling. It wraps up the absurdity of the show and weighs it down with the gravity of the reality of 1930’s Berlin. Redmayne ends the show singing alone with a single accordion, then with a gradual build-up of percussion that finally resembles the brutal sounds of war.

[scamanderishredmayniac]

In a part of the interview they ask Eddie if he would love to dive back into the wizarding world for the fourth film if it comes out. Eddie mentions that

“at the moment, there’s nothing that I’m aware of. So, as I’m aware, it’s not something that’s on the cards.”

When he says there’s nothing on the cards, he’s not confirming anything, he’s just saying at the moment he’s heard nothing. Simple comprehension goes along way. Eddie doesn’t have the answers about weather the next films will be made or not. He’s not part of the production team, or part of the writing team to know what the future holds. He’s just the actor playing a character in the story, written and directed by other people.

In any case the question wasn’t even asking Eddie to comment on weather the film was going to be made or not, and yet people are jumping to conclusions as though Eddie has just told them what’s happening, when in reality Eddie himself doesn’t even know. Yet everyone latches onto a few words and twist them to support their own narratives.

Coming onto the next thing, I personally feel he answered the question already when they ask him;

Looking at your wider career, do you think you’ll be known as Newt from the Fantastic Beasts films?

“I love Newt. So if that’s the case, then I’m thrilled by that.”

Yeah try telling that to the people at the back Eddie, they don’t seem to hear you loud enough, only hear what they want! I love Eddie as Newt, and he’ll always be known as Newt from Fantastic Beasts, because that was the film that brought me to Eddie, the film that introduced him to me. It’s also the film that speaks to me, and Newt is the character who holds a special place in my heart, and it was through him that Eddie came into my heart alongside him. I will always see Eddie as Newt. He is probably my favourite character played by Eddie and I have yet to find one that has taken Newt’s place out of all Eddie’s characters.

I don’t know what the future holds for the franchise, and nor does Eddie. If people want answers then instead of trying to put words in Eddie’s mouth, journalists need to ask the right people who are directly involved in making those decisions instead of making those decisions fall on the actors! I know a lot of people won’t like what I’ve said, but it’s true.

[meta-holott]

2021 Paris, backstage, burlesque performer

[ourownbelovedbohemians]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDDIE REDMAYNE!!!!!!

[eddieredmayneargentinablog]

New/old photo of Eddie with a multiple Tony Award winning Broadway Producer Corey Brunish during the Oliver Awards ceremony, and in where Eddie won this award for "Best Actor in a Musical" for Cabaret in London, on April 11st, 2022.

📸 #Repost Corey Brunish on : "Eddie Redmayne stars in Cabaret now in previews. Opens April 21. #kitkatclub Cabaret New York at the Kit Kat Club".

[unsertraumschiff]

Seeing jesus christ superstar with graham this month I’m gonna be really normal about it btw

[starchildrenofdustand-ashes]

Nobody:

Cliff in the 2021 Cabaret Revival Album:

🎶Fremduh, Echtrahnjay, Stranger 🎶

[commiefaggoth]

Been unwell about this musical recently

[datshitrandom]

Darren Criss + Piano🎹

[gothmusiclatinamerica]

"Pos Novela Negra" by Oaxaca, Mexico-based darkwave and electro cabaret act La bande-son imaginaire off of 2021 album La muerte en vintage