FIRST LOOK: Fra Fee, Amy Lennox, Omar Baroud and Vivien Parry in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

CABARET at the Kit Kat Club has recently been nominated for 11 Olivier Awards including Best Musical Revival, Best Director, Best Set Design, Best Costume Design, Best Theatre Choreographer, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design. 

Fra Fee (Emcee) most recently starred as Kazi in the hit Disney+ series Hawkeye, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He created the role of Michael Carber in the award-winning play The Ferryman at the Royal Court, the Gielgud Theatre in the West End and the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. His other theatre credits include Owen in Translations and Amiens in As You Like It, both at the National Theatre and the title role in Candide at the Menier Chocolate Factory. He played Courfeyac in the film of the musical Les Misérables and also appeared in the stage production at the Queen’s Theatre.

Amy Lennox (Sally Bowles) received an Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical for her portrayal of Lauren in the West End production of Kinky Boots. Her other credits include Ellie in the London premiere of the David Bowie and Enda Walsh musical Lazarus. She was in the original West End cast of the musical Legally Blonde and created the role of Doralee in the original UK production of 9 to 5 The Musical.

REVIEW: Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (Playhouse Theatre)

This production of Cabaret is probably one of the most anticipated productions of the year, with a star cast and a mysterious element to it the excitement for this show is at an all-time high. There have been multiple productions of Cabaret over recent years, in the UK we’re used to seeing the Bill Kenwright production which has toured numerous times and has made a couple of pit stops in London, so this new and fresh take of the show is very welcomed. 

As you walk into the theatre, you enter the KitKat club. The main entrance is out of use and the audience are guided through the stage door (although this isn’t the case for some tickets), through some dark corridors you enter the immersive space of the underground bar. You are immediately drawn in and then enter into the main space, passing through another theatre bar into the newly renovated auditorium which is now an in the round space with regular theatre seating, two separate dress circles and even table seating around the stage. This makes you feel totally a part of the story however there is a disconnect between the immersive side of the show and the piece itself. 

Best Shows of 2019

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens at the Union Theatre

"This has to be one of the best things I’ve ever seen and I implore you to see this show because you will not regret it. I hope this show has more life after this run at the Union Theatre and I’m sure this won’t be your only chance to see this production but you need to go and buy a ticket now otherwise you’ve missed one of the theatrical highlights of 2019."

Click here to read the full review 

Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre

"I have never come out of a show feeling the way I felt about this play. It is time to face the facts and realise the wrongs in history and change them now, our voices can be heard... This is the play of the year, if there is one story you are to be told this year, its this one."

Click here to read the full review

REVIEW: Cabaret at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley

To say this production of Cabaret doesn’t shy away from the darkness of the era in which it is set is an understatement. It positively embraces it. In doing so the awful rise of the Nazis is made more real and the resonances with our 21stcentury world more powerful.

Rufus Norris’s direction sets out to unsettle us. Despite the jolly banjos and honky-tonk piano in the band playing Kander and Ebb’s oh-so accessible tunes, the setting in a Berlin ‘Kabaret’, the Kit Kat Club, is unnerving from the start. John Partridge as Emcee establishes the tone as he welcomes us, peering eerily from an out-sized camera iris (a reference to I Am a Camera, the play on which the show is based). Throughout he gives a hugely committed performance, becoming more weird and perverse with each number. Like the stories about frogs gradually boiled to death by slowly heating water, we too are gradually seduced by the apparent glamour and sparkle of the entertainment he presents for us, only too late realising the awful truth about the story we are being told.

Oblivious to what’s going on around her is Sally Bowles. She blithely ignores the news and the evidence of her own eyes, simply seeing the Kit Kat club where she performs as a vehicle for her own talents. Played by Kara Lily Hayworth, we see Sally grow through her songs. Her multi-layered interpretation shows us Sally Bowles as performer, as naïve, as vulnerable and, in the title number towards the end of the show, as awakening to what the world is really like.

REVIEW: Little Death Club at the Spiegeltent, Underbelly Festival Southbank

Bernie Dieter’s Little Death Club is a raunchy cabaret, hosted by the ‘gin-soaked’ woman herself. The show has little narrative but is a collection of freakshow- type acts to get the audience laughing, gasping and exhilarated in the versatile Spiegeltent at the Underbelly Festival Southbank. 

The opening song was off to a surprisingly slow start and didn’t represent the rest of the spectacle. Close your eyes and you’ll feel like you’re at a Lady Gaga concert, Dieter and Gaga’s vocal resemblance is uncanny. Dragging men onto the stage (by carrying her), she set the tone with hysterical observations, flashing dick pics and belting out their original songs, all the while not taking herself too seriously. No one in the audience is safe from Dieter and her contagious energy. 

THEN AND NOW: Cabaret the Musical

Cabaret is a musical theatre stable in anyones collection; its an incredible score and amazing story. After the original production its been remounted so many times in many West End and Broadway revivals and has featured many huge stars including Judi Dench, Teri Hatcher, Samantha Barks, Natasha Richardson, Brooke Shilds, Neil Patrick Harris, Adam Pascal, Norbert Lee Butz, Carole Shelley, Kim Medcalf, Wayne Sleep, Harriet Thopre, Emma Stone and Siân Phillips to name a few! We look back at some of the major productions that include the original Broadway production, the 1993 London Donmar Warehouse proaction, the 2006 London revival, 2014 Broadway revival and the most recent UK tour featuring Will Young and Louise Redknapp. Take a look and share your favourite moments of the show with us on Twitter! @PocketSizeBlog #PocketThenNow

The Emcee

Joel Grey (1966), Alan Cumming (1993), James Dreyfus (2006), Alan Cumming (2014) & Will Young (2017)

Sally Bowles

Jill Haworth (1966), Jane Horrocks (1993), Anna Maxwell Martin (2006), Michelle Williams (2014) & Louise Redknapp (2017)

12 production shots that describe the struggles of being in a Musical

When you get a whiff of your costume and clearly it hasn't been dry cleaned in weeks.

2016 Revival of Half A Sixpence 

When you catch a glimpse of a really fit audience member. 

2017 UK tour of Grease the Musical 

When its a double show day and your legs just say no. 

2012 production of Cabaret at the Savoy Theatre

Full casting announced for UK tour of CABARET, starring Will Young and Louise Redknapp

A new UK tour of Cabaret is to star Will Young and Louise Redknapp. 

Young will reprise his Olivier-nominated performance as the Emcee in the piece, while Redknapp will make her stage debut as Sally Bowles. 

The production, which is a revival of Rufus Norris' staging, will open on a tour from 21 September at the New Wimbledon Theatre, before touring to Blackpool (2 to 7 October), Cardiff (17 to 21 October), Leeds (24 to 28 October), Milton Keynes (31 October to 4 November), Salford (7 to 11 November), Edinburgh (14 to 18 November), Bromley (21 to 25 November) and Brighton (5 to 9 November). 

Minimal vs Actual art work!

Inspired by our feature last week, we thought it may be interesting to compare the Minimal Musical designs against some of the real designs used by the shows. Do you prefer the alternative version? Tweet us which one is your favourite, or if you like a particular design from a different production of the show then share that too! 

Cabaret 

2012 London revival vs Minimal Musicals 

The Velma Celli Show: Cabaret Review

The Hippodrome has a history of producing fantastic entertainment shows, one of the recent stars being Velma Celli. The alter-ego of performer Ian Stroughair, who most recently was seen on the Rent In Concert Tour, has previously played this space earlier this year with Velma. The Matcham Room at the Hippodrome Casino is the perfect setting for the evening, being my first time going to the place I was really impressed with the beauty of the room. A very classic and elegant feel which matched the evening impeccably. 

Velma Celli makes her entrance singing Cry Me A River, coming through the audience and taking the occasional small sip (or chug) of the audiences wine. The opening set the standard or the rest of the night at such a high level you’d think it would go down hill from there; Not at all. It just got better! 

Olivier Awards: Full Short List of nominations

BEST ACTOR

James McAvoy for Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios
Luke Treadaway for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the NT Cottesloe & the Apollo
Mark Rylance for Twelfth Night at Shakespeare's Globe & the Apollo
Rafe Spall for Constellations at the Royal Court & the Duke of York's
Rupert Everett for The Judas Kiss at Hampstead & the Duke of York's

BEST ACTRESS
Billie Piper for The Effect at the NT Cottesloe
Hattie Morahan for A Doll’s House at the Young Vic
Helen Mirren for The Audience at the Gielgud
Kristin Scott Thomas for Old Times at the Harold Pinter

Cabaret the Musical: Theatre Review

 

The premier production of Cabaret opened on Broadway in 1966 with a US Tour and a West End production opening in 1968. The iconic film starring Liza Minnelli was released in 1972 after the success of the musical. After three West End revivals and two Broadway revivals the show returns to London, playing at the Savoy Theatre after a short UK tour. The musical is based on the play ‘I am a Camera’ which was adapted from the novel ‘Goodbye to Berlin’.
The story focuses on nightlife at the Kit Kat Club in World War II Germany following the relationship between English Cabaret performer Sally Bowles and American writer Cliff Bradshaw. This recent revival reunites the creative team from the 2006 London revival at the Lyric Theatre, however they’ve re-imagined the show and given it a new life but stuck to the original idea that they put together for their last production. Rufus Norris really understand this production and what he wants to give to the audience, he’s presented an intelligent but entertaining piece which presents the story in a way in which the audience are completely engaged and the links he has created between the Kit Kat Club and 1931 Germany is astonishing.