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
It sounds amazing. xx
ReplyDeleteIt was innovative and thought provoking and a fine bit of theatre
DeleteIt sounds a fascinating, enthralling production. So pleased you got to enjoy it with Nu. Hope her arm is healing well. xx
ReplyDeleteShe’s luckily got no pain
DeleteAnother great review,
ReplyDeleteThank you David
DeleteI would love to see that show. I love the film, too.
ReplyDeleteYes that’s the only version I know. I hated Michael york in it but thought Liza was fab. Jessie’s role was very different
DeleteCabaret sounds fabulous. Stage performances well done in a theater with great ambiance is perfection. Love the champs as well.
ReplyDeleteA nice touch. To have converted the whole theatre into a club, was a genius move
DeleteThat sounds and looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteI thought it wasn’t going to be my cup of tea but how wrong I was
Delete"Cabaret" is always worthwhile! And oooo, Eddie Redmayne!
ReplyDeleteHe has quite a presence on stage, odd
DeleteEddie Redmayne! That's awesome. It looks like a great show. Was the ending reverent, or relevant? :)
ReplyDeleteI puzzled over reverent too?
DeleteI changed it, damm auto cottect
DeleteLol auto correct
DeleteOughta connect.
DeleteLOL
DeleteWhat a cast. I’m envious.
ReplyDeleteThe two older leads were fabulous too
DeleteCompletely marvelous! That's a Christmas gift that will stay with you for the rest of your wonderful life. Well chosen, Nu!
ReplyDeleteWill you now look for something from the 1930s to add that aura to the cottage?
Hugs!
Hugs!
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
DeleteHope it's as wonderful though in a different way.
DeleteLive theater done well is worth the price of admission. What a great staging choice to have the audience sitting in a night club!
ReplyDeleteThe people playing “ table” prices had drinks served to them
DeleteIt'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.
ReplyDeleteWasn’t her songs heartbreaking
DeleteI cried buckets
Oooh, you even had Champagne served as I always think it should be too!
ReplyDeleteChampers should, in my world, always be served in a coupe, which, legend has it, was modelled on the breasts of Marie Antoinette! X
I have six 1930 coupe glasses
DeleteIt was lovely drinking out of one
Glad you enjoyed it so much.
ReplyDeleteI did pat
DeleteI'm so glad you were able to go.
ReplyDeleteWe almost missed it, Nu forgot where it was
DeleteSounds like a fab time for you both. The club theme sounds inspirational. And Champers ... what a treat.
ReplyDeleteJo in Auckland
It was a lovely Christmas gift
DeleteWould LOVE to have seen this, mainly for witnessing Eddie Redmayne as EmCee, which I can't even begin to imagine.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteOoooh! How fun! I love Jessie Buckley. She's got a great set of pipes on her. :)
ReplyDelete