Willkommen. Bienvenue. Welcome to the Kit Kat Club. Home to an intimate and electrifying new production of CABARET.
Experience this groundbreaking musical like never before. The denizens of the Kit Kat Club have created a decadent sanctuary inside Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre, where artists and performers, misfits and outsiders rule the night. Step inside their world. This is Berlin. Relax. Loosen up. Be yourself.
London’s hottest ticket arrives on Broadway this Spring with Academy® and Tony Award® winner Eddie Redmayne reprising his Olivier Award-winning performance as the Emcee, and introducing Gayle Rankin as the Toast of Mayfair, Sally Bowles.
CABARET has music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Joe Masteroff – based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood.
Kander and Ebb's Cabaret is a much-loved and -revived property such that its twists may not be secrets anymore. Despite the stellar Gayle Rankin’s best efforts to inject the latest revival with a sense of urgency as star performer Sally Bowles, director Rebecca Frecknall’s production, now on Broadway after winning multiple awards in London, stays stagnant. This is not due to the excellent company of dancers at the Kit Kat Club (into which the August Wilson Theatre has been remodeled), but to a disconnect between the production’s design and its book by the late Joe Masteroff.
And then comes the show itself, which hasn’t upped the sexuality quotient, though it has definitely underlined what’s over the top. Everything that was extreme in previous productions is now even more so. As the Emcee of the Kit Kat Club, Oscar and Tony winner Eddie Redmayne has to separate himself from two legends (Joel Grey and Alan Cumming); he does so with exaggerated hand gestures and head bobbing and with vocal tics that sometimes resemble those of Jerry Lewis. Redmayne sings the show’s signature tune, “Willkommen,” in brown leather culottes, long black gloves, and a bright-blue party hat (costumes by Tom Scutt, who also did the sets), and seems to have veered outside the normal human range, going instead for a Cirque du Soleil meets demented puppet effect that’s often weird for weird’s sake. Each time Redmayne appears, the costumes grow more outlandish, though vocally his best moment is when his Emcee is dressed conservatively as a Master Race type, standing still and smoothly singing the Nazi anthem “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” to creepy effect. A succession of miniature wooden Redmayne dolls in the same garb (puppets of the puppet, as it were) appear on the edges of the rotating stage as he sings, foreshadowing the moment later in the show when the entire cast storms the stage, suited and looking like fascists.
Digital Lottery:
Price: $25
Where: www.luckyseat.com
When: For weekday performances, entries will be accepted until 9:30 AM ET the day before the performance with winners being selected beginning at 10 AM ET and continuing throughout the day as needed. For weekend performances, entries will be accepted until 9:30 AM ET the Friday before, with winner selection following at 10 AM ET and continuing throughout the day as needed.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Winners will have a limited window in which to purchase and claim their tickets, so those entering are encouraged to keep an eye on the drawing on the dates they have entered. Tickets are subject to availability.
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