Cabaret - Playhouse Theatre

A new EP with ‘Wilkommen’, ‘Don’t Tell Mamma’, ‘I Don’t Care Much’ and ‘Cabaret’ from the recent BBC Radio 2 session with Rebecca and Jake is being released 8th March

http://instagram.com/p/C3-B4udtymt

This did make me laugh because Rebecca’s Sally was one of the worst theatre performances I have seen in over three decades of theatre going, and I gave her another couple of chances to win me round because of going to see other covers on etc.

I have to say how pleasantly surprised and shocked I am by Cara’s first show! I went in with low expectations and couldn’t have been more surprised. She’s quite a remarkable stage actor, if I had to compare her to other portrayals - she’s a mix of Amy Lennox and Madeline Brewer, she’s made some brilliant choices that I haven’t seen before, and she really leaned in to the physicality of it. She isn’t sustaining notes yet which I anticipated (as didn’t think she’d sing it well) but she more than made up for it with her acting.

I will be really intrigued to see how Luke settles into the role,
there were a lot of nerves tonight but I can see some him being one of the more darker Emcees.

is it a controversial opinion to say that i don't think someone who has left at the interval can give a full or fair report of a performance - as they've not seen an actor's full offering?

I stayed for the whole show tonight and thought it was fabulous.

Having seen all this production's Sallys, apart from Amy Lennox, I found Cara Delevingne to be one of the better ones.

Luke Treadaway is definitely a very dark MC.

Neither of them would class among the best of singers (although not the worst either, as they sing in pitch) but both are very good actors, which for this part, is more important for me, as both create unique and indelible portraits of the characters.

For me, Michael Ahomka-Lindsay is my favourite Clifford.

Some spoilers follow. . .

I'll preface my remarks by noting this is an early performance for these actors (maybe their fourth or fifth in front of a paying audience) so I expect all three of these performers to get even better, unless they start losing their voices on account of giving so much.

Delevingne is not the funniest Sally. That would be Aimee Lou Wood.

Nor is she the most damaged and unhinged Sally. That would be Madeline Brewer.

And she certainly doesn't have the singing chops of Jessie Buckley or Emily Benjamin.

She is definitely the most overtly sexual Sally, performing "Don't Tell Mama" like a showgirl in pursuit of a tip.

But what impresses about Delevingne's Sally is the variety and freedom of her moods and attitudes and emotions, and how suddenly they can turn on a dime.

In "Mein Herr," she is a tightly controlled manipulator of her audience, acting the acting of Sally Bowles' fierce commitment to holding her audience.

And then, as suggested above, Delevingne's Sally lowers her guard for Clifford to reveal a soft and soulful inner life, that maybe even she herself had forgotten was inside her. The turn is slowly, superbly and sensitively acted.

And in "Cabaret," Delevingne unleashes possibly the widest and most varied, yet convincing, set of emotional releases imaginable, funneling through soulful despair, hopeful dreams and wild teeth-clenched fury and aggression. Such a performance could only be possible through a longstanding commitment to acting as a craft.

Luke Treadaway's Emcee is the least funny I've seen, getting almost no laughs from his "Willkommen." He is simply too controlled and machine stiff to bond genuinely with the audience and get laughs. (Again, this may change as the run matures). By contrast, Eddie Redmayne, the funniest Emcee, was so warm and loose that he got almost everyone laughing constantly.

So too is the earthy humanity of Mason Alexander Park a distant memory.

While he is not as robotic and apparently superhuman in his modulated movements as Callum Scott Howells (the former Emcee his performance most resembles), Treadaway's Emcee is definitely a conduit for the Nazi machine's relentless drive, more casually patrician than Howells, like an army officer stalking an objective relentlessly.

He exerts the most confident apparent authority over the gorilla, and his "Money makes the world go round" is one of the most insistently dark, creepy and unstoppable renditions of that song.

Treadaway's singing is competent but not good, and certainly never great, like the extraordinary singing of John McCrea. Indeed, he does not even attempt to sing some of the high falsetto notes that made McCrea so eerie and diabolically ethereal.

Facing down Michael Ahomka-Lindsay's super soft Clifford, Treadaway's Emcee feels like a serial killer with easy prey in his sights.

Ahomka-Lindsay is absolutely wonderful as Clifford, a timid Clifford who is nonetheless ravenous for new experiences, and who reacts emotionally to every one. His performance is such that he magnifies, through his careful thorough scrutinizing gaze, the import of the intentions and actions of everyone he interacts with, and that is a boon to the production. My favourite Clifford.

Eddie Redmayne and Aimee Lou Wood remain my favourite Emcee and Sally, respectively.

But for me, this new casting returns the production to a form it hasn't seen since McCrea and Lou Wood left the production.

5 stars from me

Gosh that is horrible

Update: firefighters rescued Delevingne's two cats, which she had initially thought passed away, so that's good news:

people.com/cara-delevingne-confirms-her-cats-survived-massive-blaze-her-home-8610012

In my experience, it doesnt. 

I'm with you. 

I saw this on Fri and have to agree. I know people love Michael Ahomka-Lindsay, but he just doesn't hit for me. When he's doing an American accent it feels very community theatre for some reason. I would LOVE to see him in a non-American role to see his acting chops without that hinderance. I figure if people love him so much he must be great, but this and Newsies it just felt off. Feel like I'm missing out. 

Cara was great. Where she wasn't strong vocally she stayed on pitch and acted through it in a way that almost made the role seem more real. I thought she was the stand-out as far as acting went. 

The emcee seemed to be having a rough night. Sometimes he hit the vocals, other times he REALLY missed. He also started the show absolutely DRENCHED in sweat and seemed like he was potentially unwell, which makes me want to give him another shot. Maybe just an off night. 

Hi everyone! This might be a long shot, but yesterday I bought a ticket to see the matinee of Cabaret today. I just saw that there’s a new (and better) seat available for the same price I paid. Does anyone know what the chances are that they’ll let me change my seat? I sent an email to ATG, but changes are supposed to be made 48 hours prior to the performance. Many thanks!

I saw the new cast last week and have to say I was disappointed with Cara Delevingne’s portrayal of Sally. People in the audience were holding their breaths when she had to reach the high notes. Vocally she sounded like she was a performer in your average karaoke club and her acting choices weren’t very interesting either. Luke Treadaway was an okay Emcee. I’d see the show again, but would definitely wait for a cast change.

Id quite like to see jessie in the role of sally!!