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Adam Lambert as Emcee in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (August Wilson Theatre, Broadway) - MINI-REVIEW
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Mickey Joe
Ville Commen Bienvenue. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back. My name is Mickey Joe and I'm obsessed with all things theater. Hello to you. If you're watching this on my theatre themed YouTube channel, please subscribe. Hello to you if you are listening via podcast platform. I'm wearing a little MC style party hat. Ow. Every single time. And that is because today we are going to be discussing the Broadway revival of Cabaret, currently playing at the KitKat Club, aka the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway in New York City. This is a revival directed by Rebecca Frecknell, which originated in London's west at the Playhouse Theatre, also renamed the KitKat Club. It is still ongoing there multiple years later where it has been very successful in part due to several successful replacement cast members, including high profile names like Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem, Jake Shears, Cara Delevingne, Maud Apatow, Luke Treadaway, the current cast members Adam Gillan and Katherine Langford, and some exciting upcoming yet to be announced replacement star casting, one of whom was sat next to me when I saw the show in New York earlier this month. I'm not going to tell you who it is, but it's newsworthy. Now I say all of this because the Broadway production, which did not get off to as strong a start as the West End production with fewer Tony Award wins than the West End one, picked up Olivier's and less of a strong critical response, has just welcomed its first replacement star cast members with Adam Lambert joining as the mc. Auli Crevalho has also joined in the role of Sally Bowles. Unfortunately, I did not see her when I saw the show in New York. So today we are just going to be talking about Adam taking over as the MC and the way that this has come of affected the show and the way the show may have been a little bit tweaked in response to its New York reception. We're also going to spend a little time considering the question, are we going to see another set of stars taking over in New York or is the production going to come to an end after this period? Now, as always, I am very intrigued to hear what you have to say. If you have seen Adam Lambert in Cabaret as the mc, please share all of your many detailed thoughts in the comments down below, especially if you saw both him and his predecessor in the role who originated this revival on both sides of the Atlantic. Eddie Redmayne finally, if you enjoy today's review, make sure to subscribe or follow me wherever you are seeing or hearing this video. I promise there will be many More reviews and more theater themed videos coming very soon. For now though, what did I think of Adam Lambert in Cabaret? So I don't wish to make this too long a review video, so I'm going to issue a little brief bit of context here. To begin with, I have seen this production now, I think a total of 10 times on either side of the Atlantic and I have seen it with many different cast members. I've also seen three completely different productions of Cabaret in my lifetime. So I'd like to think this is a show I know quite, quite well. And the role of the MC is such an interesting one both in this production and beyond this production because it's very malleable. From his first entrance he is in direct communication with the audience. He is the one who introduces them to the world of the KitKat club, which in this production is the world through which we see the show and the narrative of the story of Pre World War II Germany Berlin taking place. And this allows any performer in this role to bring a lot of their own charisma and character to it within the confines of what this role has to do, particularly going into the second act. This also makes it a uniquely challenging role and situates the MC to set the temperature of the two act musical that is going to follow. Hence the change of an MC from one cast to the next can really change how audiences feel about this show, which anecdotally is something I have heard since Adam took over from Eddie Redmayne. Now I enjoyed Eddie Redmayne's performance very much. I thought it was a very well crafted acting performance. He played this fascinating sort of insidious creature who was nefarious and playful and maniacal. I thought his physicality, particularly towards the end where we see him shifting from the very conservative, straight laced German character who he has become back into the mc. This contorted shape as we first met him is one of those haunting theatrical moments I don't think I will ever forget. If you want to know my fuller thoughts about this production and various cast members, I have reviewed this multiple times here on YouTube. I did make a full video review for the Broadway production which is probably the most relevant to this because it is slightly different from the West End just in terms of how it feels. It's a slightly larger space, everything is played a little more broadly and I think the New York theatre going community also connects to it in a slightly different way than a London audience. The other thing we should discuss before I start talking about Adam Lambert is the way that Eddie Redmayne's MC was received both in the West End and on Broadway. It was a very celebrated performance over in London, where he won the Laurence Olivier Award for for Best Leading Actor in a musical as part of a sweep of that year's Olivier Awards for Cabaret, where they won all four acting awards. Needless to say, it was not the same experience on Broadway where Eddie not only did not win the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a musical, but walked away from that ceremony with something entirely unexpected, which is a little bit of mainstream backlash. This because his performance of Vilkomin as broadcast on the Tony Awards as originally conceived for a large theatrical space and considered a little off puttingly gruesome for television, sparked online discourse, which, of course, I also made a video about here on my channel. You can go watch that as well. And like I said, I enjoyed his performance. I am a staunch defender of this revival and of the choices he made for this character. I do think it started to metamorphosize a little beyond the best version of itself when it went to Broadway. Choices became a bit bigger. It was almost as though he was beginning subtly to do a take on his take on the character from a couple years previous. But to date, despite having seen multiple fantastic MCs since in the same production, like Mesa Alexander park, who I thought was terrific, Fra Fee, who I thought was terrific, it still enduringly is Eddie's performance that fits the most neatly into this revival, which was built and shaped around his casting. So that makes a lot of sense. And no one has really approached the level of depth that he attained in his acting, performance and characterization. That being said, Adam Lambert in the role was a fascinating revelation, let me tell you why. So Adam, if you don't know, is best known as a vocalist. He was a contestant on American Idol. He has subsequently had a fantastic career as a recording artist, recently has been touring as the front man of Queen, taking over from the late, irreplaceable Freddie Mercury. And that alone is a testament to his vocal prowess. Truly one of the great voices does Adam Lambert possess. And a very compelling showman as well, and frontman, all of which make him more than qualified to play the MC in Cabaret. Not for nothing, he also has something of a theatrical history. He played Fiero, I believe, in a touring production of Wicked, or he might even have understudied. But one of those performers kind of not unlike a Lady Gaga, where there is a theatricality that runs through just about everything he does on stage. And for this to be, I guess it is his Broadway debut. There is nothing but confidence in his emergence onto that stage. There is utter conviction in the choices that he makes. Beyond that, he's able to have fun with it. He looks like he is having a delightful time on this stage, utterly at home there. And it's the nature of the MC's role that allows him to do that, because he has this conference with the audience, because he addresses them immediately. As soon as he arrives, he's greeted by a huge, substantial entrance. Applause. And then he gets everyone more and more lively as he is saying, common Sava V. Gates, do you feel good? Do you feel good? And demanding this rousing response which he attains already. The energy in the room is feeling a little less like the cabaret than it was and a little more high octane. Sort of just by being there, he injects this buzz into the proceedings, which he maintains with his characterization. Because the way he plays these early scenes and much of the first act, he is lively, he is animated. The MC in this production of the show is a vibrant, cartoonish character when we first meet him, who then sort of sheds that facade to reveal different layers throughout the piece. I also don't think he's really much of a human representation. A lot has been said about the queerness of the MC as a character and the MC's own identity as a human as part of Weimar Germany. And that is not nearly as much of a factor in this production as it was in the most recent, very prolific, Sam Mendes directed Broadway revival, which initially starred Alan Cumming, also starred Rile Esparza and Neil Patrick Harris, and then came back again starring Alan Cumming. In that one, A bold choice was made towards the end of the show to reveal the MC as a prisoner in a concentration camp, something that would have deadly consequences, presumably for him. And emblazoned on his uniform, there were indicators of his queerness and of his Jewish cultural heritage. Again, not ostensibly a factor in this production. The MC has always been, to a certain extent, queer, coded, but I don't is not an overtly queer character in this version of the show. And Jewishness certainly doesn't come into the conversation. No. What this MC represents instead seems to be the spirit of, if not the country, then at least the city of Berlin. As Cliff, our American protagonist, and the British Sally Bowles begin to perceive changes happening to the community and to the country and to Berlin around them progressively throughout the show. The mc, in line with that, progressively evolves both his aesthetic and his characterization. We see the attitude shift to something more Stern and intense, which Adam Lambert does with a real fury and a directness and an aggression. Of course, there is still charm among that, but it feels like a very loaded charm. Right towards the end of the show, when he is playing a train conductor as Cliff is fleeing what he considers to be a doomed Germany, he asks him, did you not find our country beautiful? And it feels like a very loaded exchange between the two of them. It's at this moment that we kind of most hammer home the idea of the MC representing the country. And we see him kind of shift back into the MC as we first met him, the moment that I spoke about earlier. But it's worth noting as well. This character throughout the show also underscores and represents many of the most politically turbulent themes and moments. Initially, in a way that's very playful, as he's singing songs about financial strain and about unconventional relationships. Later about anti Semitic prejudice and the rise of fascism. We end the first act a little later in this version of the show than in some others, with a party sequence where the guests all begin singing this patriotic song, Tomorrow Belongs to Me. All about the prominence of fascism at the time and the Germany that they are moving towards. And as a handful of our characters watch this in horror on an interior circle spinning around, encircled by the rise of fascism in the country, metaphorically and literally, the MC rise rises through the center of all of this, conducting it. If he is a metaphor for the soul of the country, his very soul, his very demeanor and character has become poisoned by this fascist notion. And while I don't think Adam's earliest scenes as the mc, which is where his character is really established, because for the most part, where he comes back, he's then just singing songs. We need to really meet him at the beginning. And he delivers so much vivid characterization that we really get that sense of him at the start, which is great. While I don't think it's quite as detailed and nuanced and layered as Eddie's was, it doesn't feel quite as authentically, off the time, quite as authentically German. What it is is so deceptively charming that it sets us up for that gut punch where he becomes this creature of darkness, where he becomes this symbol of terror. It sets us up all the more profoundly. And we feel that so heavily. And he's great at doing that sinister smile and gleefully delivering the increasingly malevolent material when he's performing. If they Could See Her. And it's this very uncomfortable realization of what it is he's actually talking about, but he's doing it as if it's all just a comic pastiche. It's so insidious. Now, for those of you who have not yet heard me discuss this production, Tom Scutt's award winning costume designs also deserve a lot of credit for helping to bring this character to life. And they do offer this inherent theatricality that it feels like Adam's MC really thrives on. He's very much the sparkly clown at the heart of this eerie political circus. There's a moment at the beginning of the song Two Ladies where he is revealed. He enters the stage, popping up, appearing through Sally Bowles suitcase amidst a conversation between her and Cliff about the possibility of her living with him because she has nowhere else to go. And in earlier versions of this, as they were working through different replacement cast members, they were trying out different costumes for the mc. I don't know if they still each have their own costume for this because there have been so many different versions of this moment, or if they've settled into what they now have, which is the MC sort of imitating Sally Bowles outfit. But in a cheaper drag version. Needless to say, Adam plays it campier than Eddie. He plays it a little more obvious than Eddie. He also adds a lot of dialogue interjections. I have never really heard an MC doing that many ad libs in this production of the show. Specifically, Adam does several, like several ad lib moments, and they're all very winning and all very funny. But it really surprised me because I think he exercises the most freedom in this production, more so than any of the other MCs that I've seen. And that's a good choice, if only to separate him from what Eddie Redbane was doing. And it plays more into the crowd. He brings this crowd pleasing quality where he really helps foster delight in the room. So for people who don't know Cabaret, they have this false helium that is then going to be popped out of them when the balloon bursts. And for those who have, he still manages to seduce them into thinking they're going to have a lovely time before it becomes terrifying. He has a lovely rapport with the other company members on stage, particularly with the other KitKat club dancers. He feels both among them as a sort of a found family, but also at all points, masterful and in control with that little hint of brutality to it as well. He has a moment with Sally Bowles while he is singing the song I Don't Care Much which we're Going to Get to, which is one of the few moments they get to really have conference on stage and there is this strained tenderness to the aggression that he performs in that moment, which I think is very layered. I don't mean to say that he's not giving you a three dimensional acting performance. He is here and I'd be very interested to see him in something subsequently where he gets the opportunity to engage more with the other performers on stage. For the most part, he is. He's having scenes with us as the audience and we don't get to see him alongside the other characters as much. The other thing that we have to talk about is the vocals. The vocal performance that this man gives in the show is remarkable, which should be of surprise to no one. Like I said, one of the foremost vocalists that we currently have in the music industry. And Eddie Redmayne's vocal choices for this. He is undoubtedly an actor first, but this also proved divisive. Some people said he sounded a little like Kermit the Frog. That's kind of something I only heard more when he did it on Broadway. I always thought it was giving old timey radio voice. But Adam Lambert is giving you a character vocal, but a sensational character vocal. And he gets to show off the most in the song. I don't care much, but it's still very grounded in truth because he does this option up in the song and it feels like it's coming from a place of hurt and despair and agony. It's this wounded sort of a wailing out as the melody line, under his complete vocal control soars higher in a futile way with nowhere to go, with nothing to cling to. And this pairs very well to Rebecca Freckles direction of this moment in the show. Because this is always the part where the MCs get to articulate the most angst and grief for the country, for their version of the country that is dying before them. And if that character is a real person with their own feelings, then everything they love about the country, everything they celebrate, all of its playfulness and its charm and its color is all at risk. This being the whole idea represented by the end of the show, where we see all of the characters eventually changing into these bland, identical oversized suits and taking off their wigs. The MC changes into a very blonde, traditional conservative hairstyle. It's an idea both representing the death of artistic freedom and individual identity and maybe even queerness within Nazi Germany, but also, perhaps more importantly, the sense of conformity. I think I got that idea more so seeing it this time than I have on nine previous visits. I think that ending crystallizes more and more for me each time as to what Rebecca Frecknell is trying to convey there. There's been a little bit of criticism and commentary about not directly invoking the Holocaust, which is of course a hugely meaningful and devastating reality of the play and sort of its true epilogue. But also I would argue that the most potent thing this production can be talking about as a cabaret revival in 2024 is the idea of conformity and how this descent and slide into fascism can happen all too easily among well meaning regular people, among friends, among neighbors, among colleagues. This is how the Nazis were allowed to come to power via democratic vote. This is how Germany shifted into that unthinking thing. And the complacency around like that could never happen in a reasonable country is false. And I think the reason why this hit me the most this time is because it was days after the US election, and I don't think I need to labor the point on that. But Cabaret is a show to be paid attention to, attention must be paid. And Adam Lambert is doing a great job as the caretaker of that message and that important idea with his incredibly charismatic and heartbreaking performance. So that really is everything I have to say about him. I would say he is up there certainly in my top five MCs of all time, probably top three from this production, alongside the brilliant work done by Eddie Redmayne, done by Mason, Alexander park, and vocally the best MC to have taken on this role, which is of little surprise, I feel, but making his Broadway debut as a popular recording artist, I give him immeasurable credit for the extent to which he has thrown himself into this role. He really is disappearing into this character. He's recognizable in it and he's funny and lively and playful and like I said, he talks to the audience. But it really is a wholly committed performance and that I celebrate hugely. In terms of how that has affected the show at large, I think it does position us slightly differently from the beginning so that we then experience the jolt into the second act in a different way. I think you have to be charmed by the mc. I think if you're indifferent to him from the beginning, the people who didn't necessarily warm to Eddie Redmayne, then you might just not really invest at the start and it will probably affect the outcome of what the piece is trying to achieve. It doesn't take you on that journey. I will say it did feel as though various things have been done to fine tune the production for a Broadway audience since I first saw it. I enjoyed Ayla Shakone Burton's performance as Sally Bowles, more so than Gail Rankin, who opened the Broadway production. But I still felt as though she had the same idea of entering with this explosive manic energy that sort of maintains throughout. I also thought her dynamic with Cliff felt a little too contemporary. And there are little things, such as the moment that Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz are discovered by Fraulein Cost in the corridor after a romantic rendezvous, which has a lot of consequences, that feel as though they've been dumbed down just the littlest bit. Like when they're sneaking around, it's almost like a Scooby Doo chase style sequence as they are tiptoeing across the stage, then leap in for a kiss, they're like, oh no, it's Fraulein Cost. What are we going to do? Like, that is certainly played with considerably more subtlety in London. And the difference, enduringly, I think, between the two productions is that everything just feels a little broader on Broadway, pardon the pun. And it's the breadth of that and dialing everything up a little bit that loses some of the nuance and some of the subtlety that I think makes this production in London enduringly work. It's the difference between a crackling fire and glowing embers. But I also think inevitably, Adam Lambert is probably a better MC for Broadway than Eddie Redmayne. I think he makes more sense for the version of the show that can be successful on Broadway. I would love for them to continue to run at the August Wilson Theatre. They're not. Not selling well, they're making decent money. But it's an incredibly expensive show to run. Their weekly operating costs are considerable. They have, I believe, minimized the amount of actors in the prologue company. This is something that happens before the show where in different bar areas you see different people performing, playing instruments and dancing. It's very atmospheric. It sets the scene. The KitKat club that we find ourselves in as an audience, they've also stopped offering the free shots of schnapps on arrival. Those were surprisingly expensive for what they were. I have no idea how that's expensive as it was. Maybe it's just paying the staff member to dispense shots while people are arriving. Or maybe they were just buying very expensive liquor. My advice, buy cheaper liquor. And I have heard among the midtown Manhattan theater community that a lot of people are finding more life and more enjoyment in the show since Adam and Ali join joined the company, that people are going back to it and have slightly different feelings about it. I would love for there to be the chance for more performers to go in and continue to do that, to continue to find new and invigorating interpretations. I think Cara Delevingne should do it on Broadway. I think they should offer her a bunch of money to go and do it on Broadway. Because you know what? She was surprisingly great. One of the best Sally's I have seen in this production so far, and certainly I think better than any of the Sally's I've seen thus far on Broadway, I'm sorry to say. In any case, time will tell and I think finding compelling replacements or not is the difference between this production coming to an end after these particular stars or carrying on through the rest of 2025. As and when we have that news, I will be sure to tell you about it right here on my channel. In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed this review of Adam Lambert's performance as the mc. I'm thrilled I got the chance to catch him in New York. I'm very grateful to the show for inviting me to review and I would love to hear what you thought if you've had the chance to see him as well. Make sure to comment down below with all of your thoughts about his performance and make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications somewhere below my face. Or if you're listening to this on a podcast platform, make sure to follow me for many more theatre reviews and theatre themed content coming very soon. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Joe Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey Day. Subscribe.