Willkommen (to another revival of Cabaret), bienvenue (to another revival of Cabaret), welcome (to another revival of Cabaret). Is there any show that is less of a Fremde, étranger, stranger? The production of Cabaret currently playing on the West End is crossing the pond and will premiere on Broadway in spring 2024, with Gayle Rankin (Kindred) as Sally Bowles and the West End’s Emcee Eddie Redmayne making the journey, according to an October 23 press release. The show was a smash in London with seven Olivier wins including Best Actor and Actress for Redmayne and Jessie Buckley, who played Sally. “It was whilst playing ‘the Emcee’ in a student production of Cabaret over 25 years ago that my love for theater was properly ignited,” Redmayne said in a release. “It now feels completely thrilling and a little surreal to be a part of Rebecca’s truly unique vision of Masteroff, Kander, and Ebb’s brilliance as it arrives on Broadway, where the piece has such a history.” “Cabaret has been a wildly profound marker in my life,” Rankin added. “How I understand myself as an artist and citizen in the very fragile world we live in has proved to revolve on its axis.” Additional casting includes Steven Skybell as pineapple gifter Herr Schultz and the iconic Bebe Neuwirth as pineapple recipient Fraulein Schneider.
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club will play at the August Wilson Theatre. Based on the 1951 play I Am a Camera, by John Van Druten, which was in turn adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, Cabaret first appeared on Broadway in 1966. It was then made into an Oscar-winning film starring Liza Minnelli and has been revived on Broadway three times: in 1987, in a 1998 reimagining, and the same reimagining restaged in 2014. Now, ten years later, Cabaret is back, back, back again for another round on the Great White Way, led by London director Rebecca Frecknall, and designed by Tom Scutt. Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club will begin previews at the August Wilson Theatre on April 1 and will open with “decadent twin gala opening nights” on April 20 and 21. Twin gala opening nights? Well, Cabaret did always have a penchant for twos.
This post has been updated with cast information.
