Saw the show tonight. Gabi Campo was on for Sally. I had gotten my ticket through TodayTix rush and got an email mid-afternoon that Eva would be out. A little while later, I saw there was another email and became concerned, but it was just about transit suspensions due to the NJ Transit workers' strike.
I was seated in mezzanine 4 (what would traditionally be backstage), and because this seating area was smaller than the main one, I definitely noticed how heavily the show is played to the rest of the audience. I previously saw the show late last year (from the main, more populous side), and it looked like the performers were playing much more equitably to both sides, but from mezzanine 4, you are watching the backs of people's wigs as they hit big notes and start and end songs. Orville did a much better job playing to both sides of the theatre than some of the other performers, though I'm sure some of this is simply due to the choreography.
Ellen Harvey was incredible as Fraulein Schneider. I think I may have preferred her interpretation to Bebe's. Her "What Would You Do" is heartbreaking (despite the fact that I was staring at the back of her head for all of her big note), and her chemistry with Steven Skybell's Herr Schutz is really undeniable, making their ending all the more tragic. Steven Skybell remains charming as ever as Herr Schultz.
Orville's transformation and the anger in his voice as he barked Sally's introduction before "Cabaret" was jarring and very reminiscent of clips of speeches made by Hitler.
A weird moment came during "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" when the emcee raises his arm in the Nazi salute. A weird laugh came from the other side of the audience, and Orville turned his head quickly in that direction, but then it stopped. Other people definitely noticed, because I heard some "WTF?"-type remarks muttered around me. I feel like it may have been the same individual who felt the need to vocally respond to the emcee at the start of the show when he's rhetorically engaging with the audience. I was waiting to see if this person would also have an outburst after "If You Could See Her," but that number ended the appropriately silencing, horrifying way it should. Those who commented on Orville's delivery of that line are right; its delivery stuns the audience, and eventually, some minimal, uncomfortable applause started.