Good morning, and welcome to Broadway News’ Broadway Review by Brittani Samuel — our overview of reactions, recommendations and information tied to last night’s Broadway opening of “Cabaret.”
RUNDOWN
The “Kit Kat Club” is an adorable name for a night venue in Berlin brimming with so much debauchery and sin. And that’s exactly what the August Wilson Theatre has become in director Rebecca Frecknall’s visually arresting production of “Cabaret.” She, along with scenic and theater designer Tom Scutt, have rendered the August Wilson unrecognizable, beginning with a dark descent into the intestinal tract of the theater, now a velvety, swank club. Downstairs, champagne flows, cocktails glitter and a group of dancers, voguers and instrumentalists perform a live pre-show act, called the “Prologue.” When the billed show begins, audiences ascend back into the theater — which has also been reset, in the round. There are small tables and candle lamps, we have indeed been welcomed “im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret.” The lush bacchanal of the theater’s dressing seeps into every aspect of this production, from Julia Cheng’s sensual, prurient choreography to Eddie Redmayne’s eerie performance as the Emcee.
