ago, @edb_belly and I had an idea of bringing Cabaret to London with a Kit
Kat Club
all around it. Eddie Redmayne said he’d like to play the Emcee, then Jessie
Buckley
said yes to Sally Bowles and Rebecca Frecknall as our director. ATG and ATG
Productions came on board with Adam Speers @pumpkin25 and brought along
the brilliant idea of converting the Playhouse Theatre. Together with the
equally
brilliant Adam Speers, we’ve produced it and last night we opened it (and
had a bit
of a party). All with the awesome help of @tomscuttdesign Tom Scutt
(designer)
who’s made the whole Club as well as designing the show, Julia Cheng
@juliachenghoa
(choreographer), Jennifer Whyte @msjenwhyte (Music Supervisor and Director),
Isabella Byrd @isabelllaa (Lighting Designer) and Nick Lidster (Sound
Designer)
and our perfectly marvellous cast and Ensemble who blow you away every
night.
Omari Douglas @marsdoug (Cliff), Liza Sadovy @lizasadovy (Schneider),
Elliot Levey @elliotlevey (Schultz), Stewart Clarke @stewclarke (Ernst),
AJ Casey @annajanecasey13 (Kost), Sally Frith @sallyfrith (Frenchie),
Matthew Gent (Hans), Theo Maddix (Lulu), Daniel Perry @daniel_h_perry
(Victor),
Andre Refig @andrerefig (Max), Christopher Tendai @christophertendai
(Bobby),
Bethany Terry @bethany__terry (Helga), Lillie-Pearl Wildman @lillie.pearl
(Texas),
Sophie Maria Wojna @singreadsophiew (Rosie).
After the nightmare that Covid has been for Underbelly and our wider
industry,
there were a good few tears shed opening what I think those who have seen
it,
think is pretty darn good, again against the backdrop of more Covid news
and losing freedoms (which echo the context of Cabaret)."
🙌
Quotes from the rave reviews published today
Marianka Swain,
BroadwayWorld: 'Conducting the action (sometimes literally) is Redmayne,
who is making only his second West End musical appearance following a
juvenile role in Oliver!.
On this evidence, that's a crying shame. His performance is absolutely
magnetic - and he has both
the pipes and the moves to match. Redmayne puts a fascinating new spin on
the Emcee: less
sexually aggressive, more a giddy, shape-shifting imp with elements of the
broken doll or Charlie
Chaplin clown about him. He twists his body into strange positions, delivers
his comic patter
with gentle self-mockery, delights in his scantily clad company, or, dressed
in a Pierrot costume
and tiny party hat, suddenly seems impossibly vulnerable. His "Tomorrow
Belongs To Me" is
both sonorously beautiful and spine-chilling.'
Dominic Cavendish,
Telegraph: 'This is it. This is the one. At the end of the year, Rebecca
Frecknall’s production of Cabaret – starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie
Buckley – stands
revealed as 2021’s kill-for-a-ticket theatrical triumph...
Redmayne, returning to theatre after a decade, offers a dazzling vision of
the Emcee role,
so long associated with Alan Cumming in the Mendes production, that makes it
freshly
glinting and sinister...
Sporting an androgynous skort, tiny party-hat and attitude of leering
mischief, he refashions
the greeting song Willkommen, applying a thick, sickly Teutonic accent but
ambushing you
with roof-raising bellows, unpredictability the watchword.
Where Cumming was brazenly sexual, there’s something abstract and parodic
about
Redmayne’s nonetheless consummately physical characterisation, as if
conjured from
a nightmare. He keeps pivoting during that rabble-rousing first number,
enacting
a carousel of calibrated poses, like a figure from a musical-box.
Then, his shrouded dancers suddenly revealed, he becomes the gleeful
conductor of
an orgiastic frenzy, scuttling impishly beneath artfully arranged legs and
buttocks.'
Arifa Akbar,
Guardian: 'But from the moment we are “Willkommened” by Redmayne,
it is clear he is in control of his material and electric in his part. As
the soiled soul
of Berlin, Redmayne’s Emcee mirrors the movement from light to dark; he is
a comically twisted Rumpelstiltskin at the start, uncoiling to a figure
resembling
a terrible evil fairy or angel of death by the end.
There are several moments at which we catch our breath, one coming in “If
You Could
See Her” in which he pushes the comic absurdism of singing a soppy love
song to
a gorilla and then chills us with the last, antiSemitic line, spat out
like snake venom
rather than whispered like Joel Grey’s comic aside in the 1972 film.
It does not matter that Redmayne’s voice is drowned out by the orchestra
at times.
He gives an immense, physicalized performance, both muscular and delicate,
from
his curled limbs to his tautly expressive fingertips...
'Redmayne creeps around the fringes of the stage when he is not
performing, watching
scenes from afar. If this show is sold on his star turn, we get more than
our money’s
worth with his blinding performance – in this blinder of a show.'
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.'
Sarah Crompton,
WhatsOnStage: '" in here, life is beautiful. The girls are beautiful.
Even the orchestra is beautiful." The line is delivered by Redmayne,
rising from beneath
the stage like a strange master of misrule, red party hat askew on his
ginger-wigged head,
arms jutting out in crooked curves, every word from his twisted mouth
freighted with
double meaning. He's surrounded by a sea of individuality, writhing bodies
making small,
singular gestures, pushing themselves into frenetic shapes...
Redmayne's Emcee – a proper performance rather than a star turn, though
it is thanks to
his determination that this entire production happened – is not at all
ingratiating.
His movement is twisted, his singing strong but staccato and very
precise.
He is almost Mephistophelean in his journey from boy in braces, though a
masked and
armed Pierrot, to blond conformist still conducting events but now to a
different tune;
he sings "I don't care much" with uncommon savagery and you believe he
doesn't.
Alexandra Pollard,
Independent: 'Enter Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee, an impish,
mercurial presence who serves as both compere of the cabaret and a sort of
all-seeing
narrator. In the strange and seductive opening number “Wilkommen”, he
promises
an escape from the real world – but his gurning presence becomes more
disturbing,
his songs a metaphor for the darkening soul of Germany as it descends in
Nazism.
Redmayne is excellent, contorting his sinewy body and singing with
a closed-throated vibrato and hammed-up German accent.'
the Emcee created by Joel Grey, so Redmayne offers another, extravagant
take of his own.
From the moment he launches into “Willkommen,” dressed in vest and baggy
purple pants,
a party hat perched on his head, his body arched, German accent harsh
and mocking as
he introduces his band of dancers, Redmayne exerts a mesmerizing hold
that never falters.
As we know from Les Miserables, he has a strong singing voice. He’s also
quite the clothes
horse, which serves an Emcee who is something of a chameleon
abstraction, the perfect
mirror both of the permissive decadence and freedom of self-expression
of Weimar Berlin,
and the evil to come.
For “Money,” he rises from the floor like a demonic creature, clad in
black with
skeletal markings and a helmet; for his cutely choreographed dance with
a gorilla
and the anti-Semitic kick in the teeth of “If You Could See Her,” he’s
in resplendent
clown costume; when he appears in a conventional, if immaculately
tailored suit, it’s
quite a shock. The actor can sometimes be overly mannered (as on screen)
and
misses the flesh-and-blood, wink-wink familiarity that Cumming gave the
character.
But Redmayne remains audaciously effective, exuding charisma and menace,
along with a suggestion of melancholy in the margins, and with a degree
of
showmanship that matches Cumming’s...
'Interestingly, Redmayne could just as easily have been cast as the
writer (he bears
a passing resemblance to Michael York, from Bob Fosse’s film version),
which
might have elevated Buckley closer toward her own, very high bar. But
then
we wouldn’t have his Emcee, or half as much fun.'
Greg Stewart
Theatre Weekly: 'As the Emcee, Redmayne gives the performance of the year,
playing the role differently to notable predecessors; less evil than Joel
Grey and less lascivious
than Alan Cumming. Redmayne initially comes across as a more caring and
compassionate
Emcee, almost a reassuring presence, which in itself is disconcerting given
what the character
is supposed to represent. This changes in the second act when everything
becomes much more
sinister, but where Redmayne really excels is in the way he conveys sadness,
you can see it
quite literally in his eyes, and the audience can’t take their eyes off of
him.'
Stuart Wilson
to do list: Eddie Redmayne is a simply outstanding, astounding Emcee –
from his very first appearance, he holds the attention like the brightest
star in the sky, and
his commitment to the role is breathtaking. This is an Emcee for the ages,
which frankly
eclipses all those before it barring originator Joel Grey. There’s a danger,
with a top-billing
Emcee, that the main thrust of the story can feel a bit ‘so what?’ – no
danger here though,
because Jessie Buckley stakes a convincing claim for being THE Sally Bowles.
Emmy Griffiths
Hello Magazine: 'Eddie Redmayne wastes no time in proving why he is
one of the best actors of his generation as the entrancing enigma that is
Emcee. He goes
from clownish to sinister at every given turn, with his body and face
contorting as
he descends from humorous frivolity to seething hatred, taking the raucous
chorus –
an immensely talented group who appear to be having the time of their lives
– along
for the ride with him. We also have to give a special shout out to Liza
Sadovy, who is
wonderful as Fraulein Schneider.' (agree)
late 20th century musical theatre. Almost like a Greek Chorus, or Lear’s
Fool, he holds
up a mirror to the Club’s audience (literally, in this staging, the theatre
audience),
parodying the hopes of the outside world (“Life is disappointing? Forget
it”) while
equally mocking the rise of Nazism and the persecution of the Jews. As
Redmayne
delivers If You Could See Her, the brutality of his satire chills to the
bone.
The actor is a tour de force throughout the piece such that when he is at
times mute in
the Finale, it only adds to the horrors that Germany as a nation will soon
descend into.'
of physical commitment and unlikely charisma. He contorts his body beyond
even
the most ambitious Fosse choreography, making hunched and twisted
silhouettes
that discomfort and beguile. Throughout the evening, he changes into a
number
of beautifully conceived and constructed outfits.
Costuming is outstanding across the board, but particularly so in the case
of the Emcee
whose wardrobe reflects his shapeshifting, impossibly high-status presence
in the show.'
All That Dazzles: It's not every day you get to see an Oscar winner in the West End. Eddie
Redmayne makes it clear why he is the proud recipient of that award with his
astonishing
performance as The Emcee. His physicality is amazing to witness as he
effortlessly contorts
his body and his features as the tone of the show changes. Eddie skulks
around the stage
and audience as a constantly dominating presence - sometimes fun, sometimes
sinister but
always captivating. He really delivers a performance that proves why is at
the top of his game.
Carl Woodward: 'I don’t think I have ever seen a more demented Emcee. I fell
headfirst into Redmayne’s shape-shifting approach here. There was a
strange
menace to his otherworldly appearance, standing alone, facial features
altered
by extraordinary makeup.
In his party hat and Bowie attire, Redmayne resembles some kind of pale,
alien
clown being. Staking the stalls and swinging from the circle – you can’t
take
your eyes off the Oscar winner. His crumpled physicality is a
marvel.
Like a first-rate evil clown, he twists his impish body and tongue around
the slippery role. He also has a beautiful singing voice.'
David Benedict
Variety: 'The triumph – that’s not too strong a word – of director
Rebecca Frecknall’s stunner of a production is that, despite piercing
performances
from Jessie Buckley and Eddie Redmayne, her supremely intelligent,
emotionally
draining vision of the show turns it, enthrallingly, into “All About
Berlin.”...
Marshalling the almost circus-like atmosphere, forever insinuating himself
amid
choreographer Julia Cheng’s highly individual, deliciously tawdry yet taut,
near-genderless dancers, Redmayne’s highly stylized Emcee is a cross between
a gleaming, lean and savage ringmaster and King Lear. It’s very definitely
A Performance, but it’s also utterly at one with the heightened tone of the
club.
The staging of the initial rendition of “Tomorrow Belongs To Me,” with
Redmayne
gently crooning over a ravishing a cappella vocal arrangement beneath
Isabella
Byrd’s alternately sepulchral and scalding lighting, is spectacularly
chilling. It’s
highly stylized, with identical statues slowly revolving on a turntable, but
that
degree of stylization paves the way for the extremes of Buckley’s arresting
Sally.'
Simon Button
Attitude: 'Our host for the evening, he is nothing like the impish
Joel Grey in the film version nor anything like the naughtily sexy Alan
Cumming
in the London and Broadway revivals of the original stage musical.
No, Redmayne’s master of ceremonies is a physically twisted pierrot with a
pointed
party hat atop his red wig, spitting out lyrics like ‘in here life is
beautiful, the girls
are beautiful, even the orchestra is beautiful’ with sinister glee.
His angular, androgynous beauty has never been better used and he’s
mesmerising -
the very epitome of a decaying Berlin as Weimer decadence is about to be
trampled
underfoot by the Nazi Party.'
Fiona Mountford
inews: 'Redmayne’s Emcee is a chillingly compelling host for this
party at the end of the world. He gives a weird, wired and wonderful
performance,
by turns creepy, hunched and amiable, and at one point sports a costume I
can only
describe as “Pierrot dresses as Richard III for Halloween”...'
thrill and chill in sensational Cabaret ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
ever experienced. eddie redmayne was brilliant, magical and all together
amazing..."
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXhiW4sJVKB/
