Cabaret Limited Run?

[Citygirl.grace]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 10:11pm

Okay, sorry if I'm the only one that didn't know this, but is the new Cabaret Revival going to be a limited run? I thought it was open ended but on the RTC website it is listed as closing on August 31st, 2014. Anyone know anything about this??

[theatreguy]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 10:33pm

It's a limited run unless/until it does well enough to extend. That's the party line, anyway, as it is for all non-profit productions. Roundabout is certainly planning to get a long run out of this.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 12:53am

This will run for years.

[BobbyBubbi]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 1:44am

Is it just a copy of the '98 revival?

Did anyone see the London revival in 2012? It looked stunning!

[Theatrefan2]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 1:58am

I saw the London version and was very moved by it. I really do not know if they could/would do that version in NY (US). It made other Cabaret's seem like a childs birthday. This was raunchy, deep, very dark and raw. And I am not quite sure the ending would be accepted here. The whole reworked story line actually.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 8:41am

This is a revival of the last b'way revival. Which was far from a child's birthday.


But the above posters are correct: roundabout always does "limitied" until there is proof of an ongoing audience. I would wonder about how long either Cumming or Williams have agreed to beyond the initial run. Glad I'm seeing it in April.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 11:59am

Theaterfan, I would love to know how the London production reworked the story line and how they ended the show. We found the ending in the '98 revival brilliant and appropriate and can't imagine someone bettering it. Also curious to know what the design was.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 1:44pm

I think, like Inch, this truly is a limited run. Maybe it will run for years, but due to Alan Cumming's schedule for The Good Wife, he will definitely be leaving at the end of August. I don't know if he is the draw for most people, though.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 1:46pm

The actors (even the two stars) are contracted longer than has been announced for the initial run, so there is certainly every intention for this to run forever like it did before.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 1:50pm

Roundabout isn't actually advertising this as a limited run.

[Kad]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 1:54pm

It could be retitled: Cabaret: The Roundabout Needs Money Desperately So This Will Run As Long As It's Profitable Revival.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 1:57pm

That's how they announced it to the press. "CABARET will play a 24-week limited run at the newly revamped Kit Kat Club at Studio 54 located at 254 West 54th Street. Previews begin on March 21, 2014, with the official Opening Night scheduled for April 24, 2014." If it runs longer, that's great but I still think Cummings will be leaving to go back to The Good Wife, just like he did with Macbeth.

Posted: 2/9/14 at 2:41pm

The only thing i really remember about the end of the 2012/ uk tour was Will Young and the ensemble walking from the front to the back of the stage naked. It seemed a lot racier than previous productions however.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 3:13pm

"It could be retitled: Cabaret: The Roundabout Needs Money Desperately So This Will Run As Long As It's Profitable Revival."

Precisely.

I was at a social event yesterday with someone attached to the production. The Roundabout is hoping this will be a long-running cash cow for them.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 3:51pm

Can anyone elaborate on the ending for the London revival? Why was the cast naked?

[Zoot]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 5:39pm

I was just reading on a forum that the London 2012 revival ended with the cast naked, huddled together with either snow or ash falling and the sound of the hiss of gas.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 5:46pm

^ Wasn't that the 2006 London revival? I remember people talking about nudity in that revival as well.

[luke-h***]

Posted: 2/9/14 at 6:41pm

The 2006 and 2012 London revivals were essentially the same production, just reworked a little by the time it arrived back in town in 2012.

I saw the 2006 revival in is final months in 2008. I enjoyed it - great performances. Lots of mixed messages and abstract technique derived from a slightly confused mash-up of a few too many ideas, but it was fine. Nudity was very prominent throughout. It was at it's most striking point during Tomorrow Belongs to Me (Act 1 Finale) as black screens slide in front of a group of Kit Kat Klub dancers; when they are again revealed, they are fully naked, dancing a beautiful march-like balletic sequence. It was supposed to repesentative of the perfect form that the master-race takes, and how perfect their bodies were etc. Powerful image and completely suitable.
By the end of act two, seeing the whole chorus naked again was lovely, but not quite as powerful. The idea was the whole cast (including a starkers Emcee) were entering the gas chambers; which was a strong image, but ten times less strong than it could've been, considering we'd seen it all (literally) at this point.

It later toured, with Wayne Sleep. I saw it twice on tour, once at the start, once at the end, and by the end of the tour, most of the nudity was dropped. Wayne Sleep was dire. Stranger, often pointless directorial choices were made; i.e no band on stage. The whole design was glitzed up big time. And most of the abstract direction remained, but with a fresher sleeker, glitzier design, worked even less than it had before.

By 2012, this show was not Cabaret. It was the Will Young comedy night. He played the role like some possessed child, and it wasn't good. Don't Tell Mama was ommitted, bar a verse for scene change, post Mein Herr. The whole thing was too funny. Some stupid "metaphor" of the Emcee as a marionette puppeteer for the Kit Kat Klub dancers replaced the beautiful balletic sequence from it's sister production's Tomorrow Belongs to Me 6 years prior, and by the end of Two Ladies, he was in bed with all the Kit Kat Klub dancers and a giraffe....yes, a giraffe. Not Cabaret. Again, more glitz and glamour was added to the design in exchange for less of what Cabaret should be.

It was abstract for the sake of abstract. I don't know what Rufus Norris found about directing this piece that prevented him from just doing Cabaret, but it didn't work. Everytime it came back round, it was further away from the perfect musical it was a production of.

I cannot wait to see Sam Mendes' definitive production of my favourite musical in New York this Summer. You should be glad that you get his perfect production instead of the mild trainwreck of the Norris revival.