West End CABARET with Jessie Buckley and Eddie Redmayne — Page 4

I’m very excited. And yeah I already have my tests booked. Not happy with it but I’m so used to it at this point, it is what it is.

…

The title number, she is welcomed back and comes on stage wearing if I recall some kind of jacket (not a ‘Sally’ performing costume we had seen earlier), makeup smeared on face, looking very distributed and almost catatonic movements looking out to the audience switching between both sides of the round singing in what felt like a slow pace. It builds and builds into basically screaming - her mic was even malfunctioning and/or volume peaking at points - which kind of added to the shrillness. Tbh I didn’t fully understand the choices. It was much clearer to me in the Sam Mendes version that Sally was performing the song and going on a journey/something is not quite right but this was a whole other level of weird/crazy.


In general her performance vocally is very ‘acted’- it felt like she barely sung Don’t Tell Mama and Mein Herr because she needed to convey that Sally wasn’t good (which is fine but a bit too much/annoying for me). ‘Perfectly marvellous’ was athletic where she actually sung the song imitating various people/characters if I recall (which I liked actually). Maybe this time was well sung and I found the very vulnerable end to be quite moving (if I recall Emma Stone did a similar thing there).

Her performance to me felt very thoughtful and fleshed out, like they were examining every line reading and scene with so much care - but I think for me it came across as a little too over baked and a little over the top rather than natural. I do think it’s the kind of thing that could grow into something amazing though.

So far, it sounds like she’s going the same route as Jennifer Jason Leigh (my favorite Sally), bringing a grittier quality to the character.

blah6 said: "Thank you for this thoughtful review of her perf. Would you mind sharing more on Eddie R as well? I'm happy to hear that he might manage to create something diff from Alan especially"

I think of all the performances Eddie R was the most surprising and not at all what I was expecting. His Emcee is not ‘sexy’ (although we get to see him be ‘sexy’ and shirtless during two ladies) - he is a bit of an endearing oddball, and because of his sometimes awkward postures, physical appearance and costume/costume changes (there are a few!) you kind of feel again maybe not all is quite right behind the scenes in his personal life. He is showing a lot of versatility in the role. He isn’t sexy and charismatic like Alan Cumming and he isn’t creepy like Joel Grey. But you are always on his side and he never feels the same/boring because many of the scenes are played so differently. It feels like his character is using the stage and performances of the Kit Kat club to express himself and that charisma and personality is a result of a lot of hard work rather than natural charisma like Alan Cumming. It’s partly why I think the production might feel heavy handed in terms of direction because I actually could see the part being almost as effective with someone else playing the part besides Eddie. He has been given a lot to work with, whereas I feel that in the Mendes version unless you bring that natural ‘thing’, charisma or whatever - you’d drown as it’s too exposing.

Will think of whether I can find better words to describe but I just am so impressed how they managed to breathe so much new life into this production, and Eddie’s character is a perfect example of this. It doesn’t feel derivative to me at all.

Updated On: 11/17/21 at 09:30 AM

Any news on a cast album? Is the song stack essentially the same as the last revival?

Sauja said: "Show’s about 2:50. The audience was rapturous. I was…just immensely disappointed. Redmayne was in beautiful voice, but the character felt sort of…goofy. Not sexy, not sinister. Sort of just there. I don’t blame him. For me, the entire evening was a directorial let-down. Buckley seems to have overshot “broken woman” and landed in “deranged.” Can she sing? I don’t know! She can speak the lyrics of “Perfectly Marvelous” in an American accent. She can rhythmically get to the end of the world’s limpest “Mein Herr.” She can whisper then snarl and scream her way through the title song. The audience response was rapturous. I was baffled by the whole thing. Maybe I’ve just been too spoiled by the Mendes version across the years, but this one left me shockingly empty. But! Think I’m going to be in the vast minority on this one."

I was disappointed too. There is a lot to enjoy and the cast is pretty strong. I think the show was let down by the direction: when the book is so episodic you need a strong vision to hold it together, and I think it was often missing. It's definitely a slow burner and it takes a little while to find its footing. I thought it really started to work in the scene that precedes "Perfectly Marvellous", while Willkommen and Sally's first two songs were thrown away. After that it works much better and the crescendo toward the end of act 1 was thrilling.

Act 2, on the whole, is in much better shape, but I found the title song completely cringeworthy. It's not really Jessie Buckley's fault, it's just overwrought and overdirected. If there is a song that really needs the singer to stand and sing it, that's Cabaret (and Losing My Mind). There are many subtler ways to convey a breakdown than the three-act one-woman opera currently going on during the title number. Honestly, in the past few months I've seen so much stuff in London that was just too over-directed, and I don't know if it's because directors don't trust the material or simply think that the audience is a bunch of morons. "Cabaret" is a perfect showtune with a clearly delineated structure and evolution, you really do not need all that ACTING™️ to get the message through. Part of the problem is the staging in the round, which always forces actors to turn around every two seconds in the most unrealistic way. But seriously, just trust the material and tone it down a little. It has worked wonderfully for 55 years, just allow it to work its magic.

Also, I think Eddie Redmayne was good but also somehow underused? As in, in every scene he hides behind a different elaborate costume and make-up, and in this production the role of the Emcee doesn't need to rely on the performer's charisma as much as in other versions of the show (most notably Mendes'. That's a pity, because atm Redmayne is very good, but hundreds of other actors could deliver pretty much the same performance.

It's a three and a half star production that could get much better, and I hope they'll do good use of all the previews. I have a ticket for next week and I'm tempted to return it and revisit it in a few months. But frankly I doubt much will change. The audience's reaction was indeed rapturous and the ovation after the title song really left me baffled (and again, I don't think it's Jessie Buckley's fault: she is a great actress, a great singer and her Maybe This Time is very touching). But tbh I think that if the audience comes and wants to see something brilliant they'll end up seeing something brilliant whether what they are actually seeing is good or not. If they expect it to be good, it will be good not matter what.

Updated On: 11/18/21 at 07:28 PM

I would predict it doesn’t go to Broadway due to challenges in re-creating the same immersive experience, the recent revival of the Sam Mendes revival and difficultly getting names. However, I hope it is filmed (or at the very least a cast recording!).


Im glad I’m not the only one that thinks the title number just isn’t working right now. I hope they can ignore the applause and fix it a little. Trust me the audience is going to applause no matter what. For me this is the most urgent priority to fix and the only moment that truly took me out of the show.

Stephen75 said: "Can someone elaborate on what exactly going on during the Cabaret number?"

There is nothing specific going on during Cabaret, just a lot of ACTING™️. First of all it's staged in the round so she keeps turning around every few seconds, which affects the sincerity and realism of the performance. She begins the song as a very emotionally numb Sally, apparently just going through the blocking as if she wanted to be anywhere else, with exaggerate gestures as if she were somehow being sarcastic about what she sings. Then emotion kicks in and she starts doing all these hysteric movements (while always turning around every other second) and starts shouting the lyrics more and more until she goes into a full musical theatre mental breakdown in which she holds the last note of Cabaret for like two seconds before being overcome with emotions and hiding her face into her arms for the last few bits of music. This is what she did in the third preview, dunno how the situation is evolving, but the audience reacted as if they had seen some kind of miracle. Jessie Buckley is a great singer and actress, but the direction is very heavy handed

emcee1740 said: "As someone that lives in the US an probably won't get a chance to see the show, would someone be able to describe the shows ending in this version?"

During Tomorrow Belongs To Me – which Eddie Redmayne sings quite beautifully – the cast put a number of "dolls" (not really dolls, more like slightly grotesque miniature figures a couple of feet high) around him and they start circling on the revolve. It's quite a gripping image but definitely obscure, the true meaning is to be understood only at the end. In the last couple of scenes, the Emcee appears not in extravagant clothes but with a greyish/beige suit and a Hitler Youth-like wig. This is what he is wearing as he introduces Sally for the last time, and Sally sings cabaret wearing a similar suit over her dress. In the final scene, as the Emcee is saying "Auf wiedersehen, A bientot" at the centre of the stage, the rest of the cast comes in all wearing the same greyish uniform, thus recreating on a larger scale the image suggested in "Tomorrow Belongs to Me". I think the general idea is that Herr Schultz was wrong and now everybody in Germany has become a Nazi, but as the stage faded into darkness I thought all the people in line looked like they might be about to be deported. It's an okay finale, but the impact is not as strong as in the Mendes' revival, and I kept expecting something else to happen. But again, I watched the third preview and much can change.

imeldasturn said: "Stephen75 said: "Can someone elaborate on what exactly going on during the Cabaret number?"

There is nothing specific going on during Cabaret, just a lot of ACTING™️. First of all it's staged in the round so she keeps turning around every few seconds, which affects the sincerity and realism of the performance. She begins the song as a very emotionally numb Sally, apparently just going through the blocking as if she wanted to be anywhere else, with exaggerate gestures as if she were somehow being sarcastic about what she sings. Then emotion kicks in and she starts doing all these hysteric movements (while always turning around every other second) and starts shouting the lyrics more and more until she goes into a full musical theatre mental breakdown in which she holds the last note of Cabaret for like two seconds before being overcome with emotions and hiding her face into her arms for the last few bits of music. This is what she did in the third preview, dunno how the situation is evolving, but the audience reacted as if they had seen some kind of miracle. Jessie Buckley is a great singer and actress, but the direction is very heavy handed"

I was at the 2nd preview and overall I agree with you. It reminded me of seeing one of those people high on some drug on the corner of a street looking like they're twisting/turning by themselves.

Anyways, since it was in the round, I wish they just let her sing and have the turntable actually turn so there wouldn't those awkward turnarounds. I sat on the other side in orchestra and I felt I mostly saw her backside for 90% of that song (yes she occasionally would turn her face to my side but briefly.) I was not a fan of the direction for that song and preferred Sam Mendes's back in 2014/2015 when Michele Williams and Emma Stone performed it.

MORE SPOILERS mmm and along with the Emcee in this production leading "Tomorrow Belongs To me" not ironically but in that beautiful harmonic OBC style PLUS more explicitly in "I Don't Care Much" where the Emcee is actually dressed as full German nazi-eqsue with died blonde hair and everything I do think the implication could be more that the Emcee is succumbing to the ideology rather than a victim of it....though I don't know if it's as fleshed out or clear as your production describes (when I return I'll pay more attention). The Emcee in this production basically changes costume every scene so it was a little hard for me to keep up with the concept!