Cabaret

 

I adored CABARET 
From its flamboyant start to its somber , and given recent events in Ukraine, all too relevant  ending.

The whole of the Playhouse theatre has been transformed into the 1930s KitKat Club with many of the patrons sat at tables around the stage with drinks and lamp lighting. 
Nu and I sipped our champagne from real glasses and sat back and emmersed ourselves into a heady art deco Berlin galloping towards fascism 
Eddie Ramayne was suitably seedy, asexual and knowing as the ever present Emcee,  Jessie Buckley provided a rather different Sally Bowles with her plummy English accent and short stature but she truly smashed her big number " life is a Cabaret " with style. 
I found the sub plot story of the September love affair between the aging apartment owner Frau Schnieder ( Lisa Sadovy )and Jewish fruit seller Herr Shultz (Elliot Levey) 
 incredibly poignant, and when the Nazi threat started to show its teeth their predicament is wonderfully moving. 
A standing ovation summed up everything for me. 
The best show I've seen since Come From Away

Elliot Levey

Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley

Lisa Sadovy



40 comments:

  1. It sounds amazing. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was innovative and thought provoking and a fine bit of theatre

      Delete
  2. It sounds a fascinating, enthralling production. So pleased you got to enjoy it with Nu. Hope her arm is healing well. xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another great review,

    ReplyDelete
  4. veg artist1:55 pm

    I would love to see that show. I love the film, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes that’s the only version I know. I hated Michael york in it but thought Liza was fab. Jessie’s role was very different

      Delete
  5. Cabaret sounds fabulous. Stage performances well done in a theater with great ambiance is perfection. Love the champs as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A nice touch. To have converted the whole theatre into a club, was a genius move

      Delete
  6. That sounds and looks amazing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought it wasn’t going to be my cup of tea but how wrong I was

      Delete
  7. "Cabaret" is always worthwhile! And oooo, Eddie Redmayne!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He has quite a presence on stage, odd

      Delete
  8. Eddie Redmayne! That's awesome. It looks like a great show. Was the ending reverent, or relevant? :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a cast. I’m envious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The two older leads were fabulous too

      Delete
  10. Barbara Anne3:26 pm

    Completely marvelous! That's a Christmas gift that will stay with you for the rest of your wonderful life. Well chosen, Nu!
    Will you now look for something from the 1930s to add that aura to the cottage?

    Hugs!

    Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our next jaunt from the Christmas before is the long awaited west end production of TO KILL A MICKINGBIRD AT the Gielgud theatre. With Ralf Spall as Atticus Finch

      Delete
    2. Barbara Anne8:09 pm

      Hope it's as wonderful though in a different way.

      Delete
  11. Live theater done well is worth the price of admission. What a great staging choice to have the audience sitting in a night club!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The people playing “ table” prices had drinks served to them

      Delete
  12. It's amazing. So glad you enjoyed it. At the performance we attended the show had to be stopped just as Frau Schneider was about to break into song as there was something wrong with the sound. They got a huge round of applause when they came back and continued, seamlessly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wasn’t her songs heartbreaking
      I cried buckets

      Delete
  13. Oooh, you even had Champagne served as I always think it should be too!
    Champers should, in my world, always be served in a coupe, which, legend has it, was modelled on the breasts of Marie Antoinette! X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have six 1930 coupe glasses
      It was lovely drinking out of one

      Delete
  14. Glad you enjoyed it so much.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm so glad you were able to go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We almost missed it, Nu forgot where it was

      Delete
  16. Sounds like a fab time for you both. The club theme sounds inspirational. And Champers ... what a treat.

    Jo in Auckland

    ReplyDelete
  17. Would LOVE to have seen this, mainly for witnessing Eddie Redmayne as EmCee, which I can't even begin to imagine.
    I suppose this followed the usual manner of musicals which have been filmed by including numbers that weren't in the original stage production but were specially written for the film version or were imported into the film from another source ("Maybe This Time"), all for fear of not living up to the audience's expectations.
    I've only seen 'Cabaret' live the once, which WAS based on the original theatre version - and even though I knew it would be so I have to admit that after having by then seen the film several times, it did seem incomplete without some familiar numbers. Anyway, glad you got the REAL experience.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Great to read this I am so excited by this production I'm seriously thinking of coming over. The stage production is an English Sally and an American Cliff, but as the film wanted Liza Minelli they switched it. I think it works either way really. Pity the film cut so much of the other love story, it makes the whole thing so much more poignant.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ooooh! How fun! I love Jessie Buckley. She's got a great set of pipes on her. :)

    ReplyDelete

I love all comments Except abusive ones from arseholes