re: Cabaret

[ChristineDaae]

Posted: 6/2/03 at 4:19pm

HEY!
I just wanna say, that I saw Cabaret yesturday!! It was really good and funny!! Michael O'Donnel was the Emcee ( he was understudying) and Debbie Gibson was Sally. Alot of people say she stinks but I thought she was good. It was also Michael's first performance and he was REALLY good and he's also pretty cute! lol I got the chance to meet some cast members and they were all very nice. If you havn't seen Cabaret, go see it!

[MlleDaae]

Posted: 6/2/03 at 4:20pm

Updated On: 7/12/19 at 04:20 PM

[ChristineDaae]

Posted: 6/2/03 at 4:39pm

TRUE! -Mlle Daae
I thought there were other Cabaret fans on here!!

[Deannaizme]

Posted: 6/2/03 at 6:28pm

There are other Cabaret fans here! I have to say that I love Cabaret. I saw it first in San Francisco during the first national tour. Norbert Leo Butz was the Emcee, Joely Fisher (the weak point) was Sally Bowles. I have to say that I fell in love with the show, and saw it 4 times while it was here in San Francisco (it had an extended run) and I saw it in New York in March. Neil Patrick Harris was the Emcee then.

I've seen strong performances, and weak. But I still love the show.

Deanna

Posted: 6/2/03 at 6:43pm

talk about strong and weak points, yah i saw the tour a few years ago with Leo Nobert Butz, or something like that, and he was phenomenal, but I saw Teri Hatcher's understudy, Dianne Frantantoni, and she was hideously AWEFUL. My god, her resume was skyhigh with broadway credits and such and she was horrible. She sung too pretty, had no guts, wasn't attractive at all, and was chubby!! What??!?!? Anyhow, Faulein Kost, and the old couple were amazig, all in all a terrific show, but when will we eve get an amazing Sally like Natasha, or Liza???
My Liza CABARET page

[Deannaizme]

Posted: 6/2/03 at 7:02pm

I never saw an understudy for Sally Bowles, although I wish I could have seen Heather Laws as Sally on Broadway. (Everyone on the other board who saw her said that she was outstanding.) Deborah Gibson was surprisingly good, though. I also saw Andrea McArdle (I think I spelled her name right) in the Sally role. I didn't get the chance to see Natasha.

I did see Derek Isetti perform the Emcee role. He was understudy the second time through San Francisco. It was, I think, the first time he performed the role. He was a little weak at first, but did get into it as the show continued.

Still, I do love the show.

D

[Broadwaylady]

Posted: 6/2/03 at 7:32pm

I loved Cabaret. I saw it twice. The first time with Matt McGrath. The second time, Lance Avery was the understudy for Raul Esperanza. No comparison between McGrath and Avery. I do want to see it again......

[Broadwaylady]

Posted: 6/2/03 at 7:33pm

I loved Cabaret. I saw it twice. The first time with Matt McGrath. The second time, Lance Avery was the understudy for Raul Esperanza. No comparison between McGrath and Avery. I do want to see it again......

[BrdwyThtr]

Posted: 6/2/03 at 8:45pm

I'm very excited because I'm seeing Cabaret for the FIRST time next week and can't wait!

[Caligula Wess]

Posted: 6/3/03 at 3:09pm

Hey, I'm so jealous that you got to see Michael O'Donnell go on for the Emcee! Actually, I am the proud owner of the first website dedicated to his talent.
Michael O'Donnell ONLINE (a fansite)

[Deannaizme]

Posted: 6/3/03 at 3:34pm

I think you'll have a lot of fun at Cabaret. Where are your seats?

When we went in March, we were sitting in the back row of chairs (seats 3 & 4), at the table in the middle of the front row. Helga propositioned some guys at the table next to us, and the two teenage girls sitting in front of us. I caught some of the "money" that Neil Patrick Harris had kissed and thrown during "Money". Very cool. Very fun evening.

We had dinner before the show at Carnegie Deli, which is pretty much just around the corner. Deli before musicals ... very good thing to do. :)

~D

[orion59]

Posted: 6/3/03 at 3:43pm

Cabaret is one of my all time favorite shows. I had the extreme pleasure of seeing it with Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson and Michelle Pawk. talk about an unbelievable cast. It was fantastic.

[CJR]

Posted: 6/3/03 at 3:45pm

Woo Yeah for Michi! Looove michele -- she's SO talented! :) :) I wish I had seen her in Cabaret.

I will, however, be seeing her in BOUNCE this summer!

[ChristineDaae]

Posted: 6/3/03 at 4:11pm

HAVE fun at Cabaret Brdwythtr!
Its a great show!


Michael O'Donnel was awsome! When I saw him sunday it was his first performance!

~Andrea

[Deannaizme]

Posted: 6/3/03 at 4:24pm

Orion, lucky you! Since I fell in love with this show when it was on tour the first time, I didn't get the opportunity to see that cast. I would have loved to have been able (oy, what a phrase) to see what earned all those Tonys.

~D

[orion59]

Posted: 6/4/03 at 8:50am

I do consider myself lucky to have seen the original revival cast. However, it is such a great show that almost any cast you see is worth it. Cabaret has had some very talented people take over the roles since it opened on Bway. It just seems like such a can't miss show.

Since we're on the topic of Cabaret, I'm going to try something here. I would love to hear about the various performers who have played the Emcee and Sally (or any of the characters in the show) and how they interpreted the roles. I asked this on "the other message board" once and got responses like "Jane Leeves was wicked awesome"

Ok, that's nice but, i would love to hear from anyone who has comments with a liitle more substance. Who have you all seen in these two roles? How did they interpret the character? What specifically did they bring to the role that made them good in it?

[actorgaedu]

Posted: 6/4/03 at 10:11am

I think the best Sally I have seen thus far is Susan Egan. She was AMAZING! She had the acting, dancing, and most of all singing down pat! If there were ever a need for a replacement Tony Award, she should get it!

[BrdwyThtr]

Posted: 6/4/03 at 11:20am

We're sitting at the banquette couches in the orchestra on the aisle. I hope they're good seats.

[Deannaizme]

Posted: 6/4/03 at 12:36pm

I think you'll be happy with those seats. I hope you have a good time!

[redmustang]

Posted: 6/5/03 at 12:07am

Cabaret is in my top 5 all-time favorite musicals. Tremendous production currently in New York. Saw it with A. Cumming and JJ Leigh. Devastating final scene. And I loved the way Jennifer sang the role. Not a great voice, nothing special. Just the way Sally would have sounded. Not to take a thing away from Minnelli (I'm a huge Liza fan), but the one flaw in the film was Sally's great voice. She would surely have been discovered while singing in Berlin. But what was Fosse to do? Tell Liza: "Don't give it quite your best?"

[orion59]

Posted: 6/5/03 at 9:05am

Liza was too good a singer for the role. However, in every other way, she was a great Sally. Natasha Richardson, the only other Sally I've seen, had a completely different take on the character. She played Sally as being oblivious to everything that happened around her until her final realization and break down.
Liza's prtrayal seemed to be more of a woman who used her air headed nature as a manipulative device. Liza's Sally never gave up. In the final scene of the movie she walks away with that determined air and you know that somehow she is going to survive. Both performances are great. I would love to know how Jane Leeves and Jennifer Jason Leigh portrayed the role. I imagine JJL being a much harder, dertermined to survive kind of Sally.

Also, did anyone see John Stamos or Michael C Hall as Emcee? I'd be interested in heraing how their portrayals differed from Alan Cumming or Joel Grey.

[actorgaedu]

Posted: 6/5/03 at 9:21am

I saw Jane Leeves and John Stamos last summer. John was wonderful, he was different from Alan Cumming in that Alan was over the top. John was more perverted I think and he was almost to cute for the role. Alan had the role down pat, but John did a great job with it. he also has a great voice. Now, Jane Leeves, no, no, no. I did not enjoy her at all. She just didn't have the role down and her singing was horrible. I know lots of people enjoyed her, I was not one of them.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 6/6/03 at 12:27pm

SUpossedly RIKKI LAKE is negotiating to play Sally!!!

[CJR]

Posted: 6/6/03 at 12:28pm

Oh jesus....

[Deannaizme]

Posted: 6/6/03 at 12:38pm

Rikki Lake? You have GOT to be kidding. But then, if Jon Secada is going to be the next Emcee, why not?

I had my doubts about Deborah Gibson, but she really did well. Rikki Lake as Sally scares the hell out of me.

~D