One of Broadway's greatest productions returns! Alan Cumming ("The Good Wife," Roundabout's The Threepenny Opera) reprises his Tony-winning performance as the Emcee in Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty) and Rob Marshall's (Nine and Chicago, the films) Tony-winning production of Cabaret. Three-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn, Brokeback Mountain) also stars, making her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles, alongside Tony nominees Danny Burstein (Follies, South Pacific) and Linda Emond (Death of a Salesman, Life (x) 3). Right this way, your table's waiting at Cabaret, John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff's Tony-winning musical about following your heart while the world loses its way.
Starting November 11, the Kit Kat Klub welcomes Golden Globe nominee Emma Stone (Easy A, The Help), making her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles for a limited time only.
Times, they have a-changed. And suddenly the sexual aggressiveness of the 1998 'Cabaret' seems tame. To put it another way: imagine watching Britney Spears' 'Baby One More Time' video for the first time today. Would you be as outraged by Spears' sexy schoolgirl look having seen Miley Cyrus swing around naked on a wrecking ball? Just because this 'Cabaret' doesn't carry the same shock value as it once did doesn't mean we should strip this production of its worth...Cumming's Emcee is mischievous and funny as ever. But age has allowed Cumming to mature his character in ways we haven't seen before. His Emcee is more in command now, and when he peers in on the action from the shallows, it feels less observant and more foreboding. Like he knows the inevitability of what's ahead...And then there's Michelle Williams' stunning and heartbreaking portrayal of nightclub singer Sally Bowles...It took me a bit to notice the nuance and layers the three-time Oscar nominee has built into Sally...Williams' voice is lush, for example, but she adds shaky moments to show us that Sally's internal insecurities. Throughout, Williams gives us these little crumbs of what becomes a tragic, beautiful character.
Anyone who is unfamiliar with 'Cabaret,' or even just this version of it, should definitely check it out. But as for everyone else, it's really just more of the same. Even a new production that proved to be less innovative would have been more exciting than this rehash. As the Emcee, Alan Cumming retains the sleazy presence that made his performance so entrancing originally. On the other hand, Michelle Williams makes a shaky Broadway debut, coming off as too fragile to portray the sexually aggressive singer Sally Bowles.
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