'Cabaret' returns to London's Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse Theatre.
Which isn’t to say approachingas a revival does not have its issues. Historically, the show rarely struggles to sell tickets . Yet a remount of this tale of a German nightclub, set as the 1920s becomes the 1930s, amid a thick brew of socialism, communism, Nazism and gin—adapted, via an earlier play version, from Christopher Isherwood’s semi-autobiographical novel *Goodbye to Berlin—*has its own baggage.
Director Rebecca Frecknall and her gifted team—designer Tom Scutt, choreographer Julia Cheng—have certainly tilted the rudder. Their Kit Kat club, and its performers, bring a neat timelessness to proceedings, with shades of rebellion of every decade since the 1930s at play .
It’s all incredibly fun and looks sensational, rendered in the color scheme of a late ‘90s Urban Decay makeup palette. The choreography is intentionally loose, if sometimes inscrutable, swapping crisp clicks for a freer mood. Perhaps there was space here to say a little more about sex work and its environs that previous decades’ revivals weren’t placed to.
No matter, the big beats are all here and the depth of talent in the cast is seriously impressive. As Fräulein Schneider, Liza Sadovy is as good as I’ve ever seen it done, while Omari Douglas is positively glorious at Cliff, the audience’s eyes and anchor. Redmayne’s evolution as the emcee is bewitching, while—after a series of show-stopping moments—it is perhaps in the title number where Buckley secures her spot in the pantheon of Sallies. She is pure electricity.
It all works and it is certainly unsettling to reencounter that old sensation—laughing, clapping, filled with delight at the big numbers, then——catching yourself. Remembering that politics is always personal, that choices matter, and fun has its limits.
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