Cabaret - Playhouse Theatre

{Spoiler - click to view}
There is an awful lot to enjoy and the cast is pretty strong. I think the show was let down a little by the direction: when the book is so episodic you need a strong vision to hold it together, and I think it was often missing. It's definitely a slow burner and it takes a little while to find its footing. I thought it really started to work in the scene that precedes "Perfectly Marvellous", while Willkommen and Sally's first two songs were thrown away. After that it works much better and the crescendo toward the end of act 1 was thrilling.

Act 2, on the whole, is in much better shape, but I found the title song completely cringeworthy. It's not really Jessie Buckley's fault, it's just overwrought and overdirected. It reminded me of Imelda's Rose's Turn toward the end of the run of Gypsy but ten times stronger in the worst of all possible ways. If there is a song that really needs the singer to stand and sing it, that's Cabaret. There are much more subtler ways to convey a breakdown than the three-act one-woman opera currently going on during the title number. Honestly, in the past three months I've seen so much stuff that was just too over-directed, and I don't know if it's because directors don't trust the material or simply think that the audience is a bunch of morons. "Cabaret" is a perfect showtune with a clearly delineated structure and evolution, you really do not need all that ACTING™️ to get the message through. Part of the problem is the staging in the round, that always forces actors to turn around every two seconds in the most unrealistic way. But seriously, just trust the material and tone it down a little. It has worked wonderfully for 55 years, just allow it to work its magic.

Also, I think Eddie Redmayne was very good but also somehow underused? As in, in every scene he hides behind a different elaborate costume and make-up, in this production the role of the Emcee doesn't need to rely on the performer's charisma as much as in other versions of the show (most notably Mendes'). That's a pity, because atm Redmayne is very good, but hundreds of other actors could deliver pretty much the same performance. If you have an actor of his calibre you should definitely put him to better use.

It's a three and a half production that could get much better, and I hope they'll do good use of all the previews. I have a ticket for next week and I'm tempted to return it and revist it in a few months.