CABARET at the Kit Kat Club (2024) Opening Night Critics' Reviews — Page 6

When any show's concept or conceits don't hook or work for someone, they often are grating (sometimes increasingly so) for the two hours or so of a production.

Instead of being pulled into the performance, you can find yourself increasingly disconnected, maybe irritated, and thinking more about what could have been rather than feeling connected to what is happening on stage.

Sounds like that is the case for some when seeing this version of Cabaret. I'm not totally surprised given Fracknell is the director. When her choices have clicked for me, it often is quite great. But when they haven't, they really haven't by a lot.

I’m glad that NYC critics have seen through this production. It completely mystified me how they got away with it in London.


As one review says, Redmaynes Emcee is just a collection of outlandish costumes and nothing more. That sums up the whole production- just a collection of ideas, none of which hang together.



Sunset Blvd is in another league. There’s a vision for the whole piece that is consistent , and will killer performances. That’s going to be just fine.

Mordden, Ethan, (2001), Open a New Window, page 157

On the original production in 1966

"The critics didn't get the show. A few responded to the sheer theatricality of the event, but the ones with intellectual pretensions were thrown by the paradoxes, the seriousness of the spree. A unique work is seldom understood when new. Critics prefer an important work to be the ninth or tenth of its line...

A few of them bashed (Jill) Haworth, one of the best Sally's I've seen; even Prince ended in resenting her... In Boston, Haworth was little-lost-girl blond, dressed in prom-dress white, till Prince put her into a black wig and garish bugle-beaded skirts in reds and greens... "It's the only way I can get her to play it."

Updated On: 4/22/24 at 07:11 AM

I know people are saying that it should sell well while Eddie Redmayne is in the show. Is he really that big of a draw? Prior to the reviews I was going to wait for him to leave and hope prices come down.

Audiences in London loved (love) Cabaret too, so not sure how same reception in London for both is supposed to indicate that Sunset will do better?

It is also weird that Adam Feldman does not seem to understand the concept of color blindcasting...

I am still angry about that this director did to this brilliant show.

Disgraceful..

lopside said: "Audiences in London loved (love) Cabaret too, so not sure how same reception in London for both is supposed to indicate that Sunset will do better?"

I saw both in London and can only give my personal takes on both. I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about my reaction to both productions.

I think Cabaret is one of the greatest musicals ever written. The Mendes/Marshall production in 1998 was formative for me. But, even at the time, I thought they pushed the boundaries of what the show could withstand in terms of interpretation to the limit. Frecknall pushes even further and I think, at some point, this ends up not being Cabaret. Like...I hear the spoken words and the dirge-like music and I vaguely recognize it as the material that makes up the musical Cabaret, but the point of the show ends up being rather incomprehensible.

On the other hand, I think Sunset Boulevard is a crap musical. I am a huge fan of the film (my Roman Empire is the 1951 Oscars and the battle between SB and All About Eve). I thought the stage show lost all of the wry, meta-commentary of the film and missed the here-and-now feeling it contained. The deconstruction by Jamie Lloyd and the insistence that Norma is Nicole and Nicole is Norma (down to Pussycat Doll choreo) demands that we experience SB as an in-the-moment experience. Some of it could get a little silly, but it was never less than enthralling. And, unlike this Cabaret, this musicality and vocal performances are out of this world.

Basically what I'm saying is 'I'm the barometer of NY theater and you should all listen to me.'

Kind of nice that after all the ridiculous heat Feldman took from his Lempicka review, the comments about his Cabaret review are mostly praise and agreement.

https://twitter.com/FeldmanAdam/status/1782220557301199232

Owen22 said: "It is also weird that Adam Feldman does not seem to understand the concept of color blindcasting..."

I think it's worth having the conversation though that does color blind casting work in a historical show? Like sure the characters can be any race, but it is still dealing with actual historical events, so I could see how that might be a bit of a brain twister.

And Broadway's depressingly tepid musical season trudges on...

sinister teashop said: "Owen22 said: "A London theatre website tries to make sense of it all:

https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/what-is-going-on-with-the-cabaret-reviews_1594068/"

I think the article is right about one point thathere in the US fascism is currently less "fascinating" because it's so close to home."

I think these points they make are stronger:

"But I think there’s something more artistically significant going on here. Frecknall’s vision, influenced more by continental theatrical trends, interprets the material quite clearly through a class lens – the rise of fascism is tied to the acquiescence of the middle classes (the company all don greige suits as the show comes to a close, desaturating the earlier extravagance).

Nazi Ernst Ludwig is only able to continue his hate-fuelled work because those like cash-strapped writer Cliff Bradshaw are willing to take on lucrative jobs without looking too closely at unpleasant realities. The interpretations of numbers like “I Don’t Care Much” and “Cabaret” act as central tenets to the overall vision. Class discourse, invariably, feels more pronounced in the UK than the US."

All very fair points.