Vanity Fair: As director Rebecca Frecknall was rehearsing a new cast for her hit London revival of Cabaret, the actor playing Clifford Bradshaw, an American writer living in Berlin during the final days of the Weimar Republic, came onstage carrying that day’s newspaper as a prop. It happened to be Metro, the free London tabloid commuters read on their way to work. The date was February 25, 2022. When the actor said his line—“We’ve got to leave Berlin—as soon as possible. Tomorrow!”—Frecknall was caught short. She noticed the paper’s headline: “Russia Invades Ukraine.”
2 comments:
Cabaret is truly a devastatingly timeless piece of theater and one of my favorite shows. When I heard that it would be revived yet again, I was elated. Reading this article only made me more excited for this production. Each new production of Cabaret that is produced is almost an entirely new work of theater. Every production brings something new and different to the piece and it sounds like Rebecca Frecknall’s version continues this beautifully. I grew up knowing a Cabaret that was seedy, gritty, and beautiful with an Emcee that you knew by the end of the show would meet his tragic demise as a gay Jew in a concentration camp. For a long time, this was the only version I knew and was the version I became attached to. However, Frecknall’s version seems to have a completely different take on the Emcee which, while keeping the story the same, will dramatically change the meaning. I am excited to see what message this take on Cabaret will send and how the show will adapt to our modern world yet still be relevant.
Cabaret is unabashedly my favorite musical of all time, and this article perfectly summed up why. It’s complex and nuanced, has outlandish personalities, and is historical in plot yet retains a timeless nature. I saw it in London on the West End last October and the immersive design was remarkable. Cabaret is so reliant on casting; as it tiptoes the line of insulting and powerful, a transformative actor is needed. While this article didn’t particularly touch on it, I thought the revival has made such a strong choice as casting Cliff as a person of color. It raises the stakes to his urgency to leave Berlin and furthers the conflict between himself and naive Sally. The discussion on abortion is one rarely mentioned it Cabaret that I’m so glad this article touched on. It paints a real-life ironically non-dramatized picture of the nuance behind it. Especially in the backdrop of a world crumbling down around them, the abortion discussion in Cabaret retains such relevancy.
Post a Comment