Cabaret - Playhouse Theatre

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Aimee Lou Wood is, in short, remarkable.

John McRea...is not.

Having seen the new cast yesterday, I feel this is the weakest set of leads so far, but I will caveat that by saying this was their first performance and things may change. The vocals were not great, although the whole show is still strong. I thought that both John and Aimee were doing their best to be different to their predecessors, different movements, different ways to saying the lines etc and some decisions just got irritating. With that said, if we take the view that Sally Bowles is meant to be only a seedy nightclub level singer, Aimee Lou Wood did perform with energy throughout and made up for a disappointing Maybe This Time with a powerful Cabaret. I would watch the second half again with this cast, but I'm not sure I'd want to watch the first half again.

Does Sally have any songs outside of the club environment?

Thanks. Now that actors are highlighting Sally's lack of talent in her club performances, I was wondering if anyone ever did these outside songs in Sally's 'interior' voice... ie, trained, polished, professional singing since I'm sure she thinks that's how she sounds.

The last time I got chills in a theatre it was thanks to the Liverpool Empire treating its audience to an immersive performance of White Christmas, leaving the heating off on a freezing cold December evening.

The Kit Kat Club was a comfortable temperature yesterday afternoon so I can only put the return of the goosebumps down to Aimee Lou Wood's sensational performance as Sally Bowles.

She's funny, high-energy, vulnerable, heartbreaking and completely mesmeric to watch. I enjoyed John McCrea too and the ensemble were always engaging but it was Aimee everyone was talking about as we filed out of the Kit Kat Club at quarter to five.

Honestly you'd be fine with the £30 front row edge grand circle A or B seats or even centre row C seats. If you want to splurge a bit more, the £50 back of the stage side dress or £70 back of normal side dress are really good. Going to the box office on the day can also get you a good deal. I wouldn't rely on the lottery, very low chance of winning.

I was in front row of Upper circle A2 & perfect view. However if you are tall {I'm not} you may need more leg room. Awful toilets.

How time flies.

Well I finally made it and I can honestly say that's the most intimate West End show of my life. I can't believe the transformation from the standard layout for Women on the Verge some eons ago. Not a weak note in cast nor music. Love Aimee going from strength to strength. A fab double day contrast to Standing on Sky's Edge.

Aimee Lou Wood was off tonight, as was Richard Katz. On in their places were Emily Benjamin as Sally Bowles, and Grant Neal as Herr Schultz.

I really enjoyed myself tonight regardless, as this is such a wonderful production.

Some spoilers follow. . .

John McCrea is my least favourite of the 3 Emcees I have seen in this production, as he plays the first part so detached. Consequently, it's very hard to get into "Willkomen," for example, as deep down he's going through the motions and has no warmth for the audience at all. By contrast, Callum Scott Howells was determined to barrell the audience into submission, and Eddie Redmayne was so enormously ebullient and stand-up comedyish that those two brought the house down with "Willkomen," with Redmayne having the clear zany entertaining edge.

However, McCrea is the most chilling of all, singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," because his voice is so angelic. The combination of angelic and detached is hellishly frightening, serial killer like. This frightening quality is at its zenith for "I don't care much," cos he evidently doesn't, and like David Tennant's sociopath in the recent "Good," he'll clearly watch the world burn without batting an eyelid: or maybe he'd just perform an angelic song, like "Walking in the Air" while the world burns.

As Herr Schultz, Grant Neal is beautifully beckoningly heartwarmingly gentle, more gentle even than Richard Katz, but he lacks Katz's astonishing zany comedic timing, so his "Pineapple" song is not half so funny. My heart broke to see such a gentle soul in such awful circumstances, though.

Emily Benjamin is a great Sally Bowles. More so than Jessie Buckley (unstable Sally) or Madeline Brewer (extremely unstable Sally), she is commandingly good as a singer: you feel this in particular the way she gets the entire audience to stop breathing simultaneously just by deliberately modulating certain moments. She's less tragic than either of the aforementioned Sally's at the end though, as her jolly hockey sticks commanding presence and ability to stop time never leave her. She is like if Lewis Hamilton drove a car drunk: sure, she's out of control at the end, but she's still Lewis Hamilton, so even under the influence of emotions, she can still steer the (theatrical singing) car, and I just didn't worry about her Sally half so much as Buckley's breakdown of a Sally or Brewer's absolute train wreck of a Sally.

Anyway, Benjamin is a delight to listen to, McCrea is chilling and angelic simultaneously towards the end, and Grant Neal's Herr Schultz is like aiming a machine gun at a teddy bear.

Another great night at the Kit Kat Club! 4 and a half stars for this lineup.

Rebecca Frecknall must be the most highly rated theatre director in the UK currently, with Streetcar also getting acclaim.