Cabaret Casting Rumor: Orville Peck & Eva Noblezada — Page 14

FunathonGroff said: "From anyone who's seen it, is there any explicit drug/needle use in this production? I vaguely remember some in the Alan Cumming one."

Saw the Mendes production a few times and do not remember that, but no in terms of the Frecknall staging.

Doesn’t someone do a line of coke?

east side story said: "Made a return visit to the Kit Kat Club last night, and:

Orville: He is good. Less clown, more menace. Something about “Money” didn’t land for me.

Eva: Sang her face off, and her Sally is quite petulant, coming across very much like a little girl. It works. Liked her more than Gayle Rankin, but Jessie Buckley is still the standard, for me.

Ellen Harvey: My goodness, what a terrific performance! She actually stole the show for me, and she got the loudest applause from the audience. There were two people behind me audibly sobbing during her final scenes. Just remarkable.


Ultimately, the piece is still the star here. This is probably the greatest musical, or my favorite, at the very least. I loved this production when it first opened in London a few years back, but something about the New York production feels like a puzzle piece that just doesn’t quite snap into place. Even with Eddie opening the show when it transferred to the states, something was off.
"

Harvey is astonishing. “What Would You Do?” made me sob.

My mom was at today's matinee and Orville/Eva were both in, which surprised me given their track record. Calvin Leon Smith and Steven Skybell were out.

TheatreFan4 said: "They posted Billy's I Dont Care Much on the New York Insta and... oh boy. That is not appealing to me literally at all. Just so unpleasant."

The ego overcomes the melody. A free ticket will not get me back there.

I find Billy Porter’s ‘I don’t care much’ to be so soulful and full of broken emotion, I love it. I wish his vocals were a tiny bit stronger but the essence of what he does is still there. I really find it hard to understand why everyone seems to hate him in the role. Would you really prefer Eddie R’s boring vocals over this for example? I mean they were fine especially for an actor but Billy is on another level.

binau said: "I find Billy Porter’s ‘I don’t care much’ to be so soulful and full of broken emotion, I love it. I wish his vocals were a tiny bit stronger but the essence of what he does is still there. I really find it hard to understand why everyone seems to hate him in the role. Would you really prefer Eddie R’s boring vocals over this for example? I mean they were fine especially for an actor but Billy is on another level."

Well... we've had multiple opportunities to see that our options are bigger than Eddie or Billy so I'm not sure why you're acting like those are our only choices. They brought Billy and Marsha over because it meant they don't need to spent money to creat new marketing materials and can just repurpose everything from London and just let them run as long as they feel they can keep the lights on.

It's more that no one seemed to have a problem with Eddie but everyone seems to have a problem with Billy (it's pretty widespread on YouTube comments, reddit, theatreboard etc.). But I take the point that especially after many good replacements the bar might have shifted now.

I just hope people go in with an open mind because if people go in expecting to hate it, they might hate it. I saw Billy and Marisha twice, late in the run (maybe Billy had warmed up by then although he voice still cracked) and maybe the theatre was full of Billy fans by then but it was quite an exciting experience. The audience was packed full of young people making a night out, the lobby band and drinks etc..(especially in London) part of the charm. Billy was making everyone laugh and seemed to own the room. Marisha was excellent and has an extremely unique take on the role and vocals.

So I don't see this transfer as a cheap ploy or desperate effort to try and keep things afloat, I do think they are performances that belong in New York City and I am eagerly excited to see how they are received. Hoping Billy also doesn't miss so many performances, which probably hasn't helped the word of mouth.

I would not say ticket sales look very encouraging right now but I'm always shocked how last minute people buy tickets these days.

"it's supposed to be a horrendously gut wrenching song where everyone has just given up and there's nothing anyone can do. It's not some jazz number, It's an actual song with its meaning and life stripped from it, and literally anyboy else could do it better. "

I can see how Billy's performance might seem like a shallow jazz take on the song rather than gut wrenching but for me it's the kind of jazz improvisation and soul that makes it gut wrenching - it's like he is singing deep from his soul, crying through this rich beautiful textured layered voice, slow vibrato, and the improvisation around the notes is his personal and unique self expression. Like someone has given up all hope but all they know what to do is start singing. It also feels a little to me like it's a bit of self therapy too. And maybe a bit of nostalgia/reminisce of important lost relationships ('gooo or stayyyyyyyyyyy' [that very low note he does later on in the song]) and then he has just the right amount of hoarseness in his voice to convey that he has been through a lot of **** and experienced the real world.

I know that all sounds weird, but that is what I hear when I listen to the song. I recognise I'm in the minority. It's a different take than say Adam Lambert's torch version of the song, that's for sure. But it works for me.

Updated On: 7/17/25 at 02:54 PM

Maybe I'm misremembering, but doesn't Alan Cummings emcee come out with clear evidence of injecting drug use before he introduces Sally's 'Cabaret'?

I really don’t remember anyone complaining about the singing of Eddie’s “I don’t care much”. Did they? If so fine I just don’t remember that.

Why are you having a whole meltdown over people not thinking the same as you?

And lmao, if I recall you were one of the first people to see the production in London and couldn't stop praising Eddie R then?

lopside said: "Why are you having a whole meltdown over people not thinking the same as you?

And lmao, if I recall you were one of the first people to see the production in London and couldn't stop praising Eddie R then?"

Yes, but that’s not what I am questioning. What I am wondering about is why everyone seems to hate on Billy’s ‘don’t care much’ but didn’t seem to care about Eddie’s.

I don’t agree that I am ‘having a melt down’. I’m giving my experience and having a discussion, and I always give my honest and sincere thoughts, I rarely make things personal or attack anyone personally - I even caveat I know I’m in the minority to make sure I acknowledge that I am not trying to dismiss or invalidate widely held concerns with Billy, I am just simply saying I don’t understand and hence trying to have a discussion about this.

This forum can honestly be the worst sometimes / maybe you want me gone. It’s frustrating when I think I objectively provide value to this forum. Good luck finding someone else posting their thoughts at intermission of the Jamie Lloyd Evita so that BWW is literally the breaking source of what is happening right now over no where else.

Yesterday I also had someone questioning the value of my posting in the Gypsy closing thread about my post mortem of the show (a post I spent a lot of time writing FOR YOU BWW - I obviously hold these thoughts in my head so I don't actually need to write them down if I don't want to). I’m sick of this childish bull****. Either accept that I am going to speak and let me speak, or block me. I am not new to this forum and everyone knows my style of posting. I will not be silenced until the admin of this board bans me permanently.

I also think maybe it’s a little healthy there is SOMEONE speaking positively about Billy or do you just want to have a bitch complaining session about how much you all hate a performer most of you haven’t even actually seen in the role?

This is what a meltdown ACTUALLY looks like, FYI.

Updated On: 7/18/25 at 03:02 AM