Blue Apron / Acast Advertiser (18:21)

Here at Blue Apron we know exactly how hectic school nights can be. That's why we created Assemble and Bake delicious one pan meals that make family dinner simple. Just assemble the pre chopped ingredients and put the pan in the oven to bake. Then you're free to help out with that last minute diorama shop. Assemble and bake@blueapron.com get 50% off your first two orders with code apron50 terms and conditions apply. Visit blueapron.com terms for more.

Mickey Jo (18:51)

Say hello to Samantha.

Blue Apron / Acast Advertiser (18:52)

Hi there.

Mickey Jo (18:53)

Samantha built a SaaS platform that helps small businesses manage their workflow, but she needed a smarter way to reach decision makers.

Blue Apron / Acast Advertiser (19:00)

That's where Acast came in. They helped me produce a professional audio ad which played to business owners and ops leads using their audience attributes targeting tools. Suddenly my platform was showing up in the ears of the experience. Exact people I needed to reach.

Mickey Jo (19:12)

Now that's streamlined marketing. Samantha, what's your tip for scaling smart?

Blue Apron / Acast Advertiser (19:16)

Solve a real problem and make sure the right people hear about it.

Mickey Jo (19:20)

Promote your business with podcast ads on Acast. Get started at go acast.com advertise forehand. And generally speaking, the tone and the aesthetic of this production is pretty light and pretty sleek and pretty sexy is a quality of bleakness and creeping despair in the current London recent Broadway revival which is not present in this one. So when the dark, chilling arrival of fascism begins and sort of pierces through different moments of the show, it's all the more abrupt. The throwing of a brick through Herr Schultz's window is done in a stylistic way in the London production with falling paper and a lighting cue and a sound effect here. Here a brick is literally released from the rafters above and falls amongst all of the cabaret table seating in the audience. It is abrupt, it is stark reality. Which is also where the ending takes us. If you don't want these spoilers, skip ahead to the next section. But this begins as a version of the ending that I have seen before, in which it is the MC who is styled as the train conductor, conversing with Cliff as he leaves the country of Germany, saying, you did not find our City Beautiful, etc. Etc. Before turning and singing a little reprise of Vilkomen. At which point we hear the echoed voices of different characters repeating some of their most impactful lines from throughout the show. At which time, once again, I thought we were, you know, moments away from tying a nice little ribbon on the whole thing. But the next thing that happens, and I can't remember exactly what it is that triggers this, but those characters each produce World War II era Gas masks and put them over their heads. Except for the mc, who does not have one, and begins to frantically scramble between cabaret tables in the audience, desperately and feverishly asking audience members if anyone has a gas mask that she can use, looking utterly terrified with this completely manic energy. And this goes on for an uncomfortably long amount of time. It's very difficult to watch. It becomes even more harrowing when we see her gradually come to the realization that she doesn't have one. But the consequence is not what you might, might expect, because instead of something denoting a bomb dropping, as the MC grows more sorrowful, we see her fully disrobing to a state of absolute nudity. She moves to the back of the stage where in a sort of a half lighting, she is joined by a couple of other members of the company, other KitKat club performers who have also removed their clothing. This is an ending that I've seen before in the Rufus Norris version, whereupon a smoke cue is released, released from high, high above the playing space, rapidly, this just descent of gas over those characters, but also over a decent chunk of cabaret table seating on stage as well, sort of everything within the elevated playing space upon which the entire show has been performed. There was also a lovely moment in which the MC turns and the band is suddenly missing. And you know, there is is no music, there is no distraction, there is no charm. It is just the harsh cold light of day. But yeah, to end it in this way and for that to be the final beat with the release of gas and the implication of the gas chambers, unmistakably, is so dark and so blisteringly painful and a bold choice that I really celebrate. Because, you know, why are we staging new productions of Cabaret right now in this current global political climate if we are not talking frankly and honestly about the disturbing impact of fascism and reminding people of the horrors and the atrocities of that time and what the consequences would have been for these characters? And that's not a criticism of the Frecknel directed production in London, which does not as directly or explicitly invoke that finale for the MC and the KitKat club. I think that's telling a different sort of more intellectually conceived story about assimilation and everyone being on a road ultimately to the same fate. But there are other productions previously that have made it a little bit more explicit, and this is by far the most explicit and the most hard hitting version of that, to the point that I think it's almost detrimental to the show overall as a piece of evening entertainment because the audience aren't sure how to applaud after that moment. Which I guess is a tricky thing to try and court. But at the end of the day, I think I would always prefer a devastatingly honest performance that leaves us feeling a little bit uncomfortable than one that, you know, seeks to placate us when it's dealing with such increasingly important things.

Blue Apron / Acast Advertiser (24:36)

Pick up a pack to Today angelsoft.

Mickey Jo (24:39)

Soft and strong, simple.

Acast Podcast Pulse Promoter (24:42)

With endless scroll algorithms and AI flooding feeds, podcasting stands out. They're sought, not served. Audiences actively choose to hear trusted voices on topics they care about. In fact, 72% of listeners say podcasts shape cultural conversations. For marketers, that means podcasts shift brand perception like no other channel, aka Cast's Podcast Pulse 2025 report has the proof. Get all the insights@podcastpulse2025.com.

Mickey Jo (25:21)

So the MC in this production is played by Abril Zamora. She is credited, I believe, as like the principal mc. And there is perhaps an alternate mc. What's interesting is they have different gender presentations and she is a female mc, is obviously done far less frequently than a male presenting mc. What's even more interesting though, is how quickly I stopped noticing or how little it became a necessary aspect of her character because, and we've talked about the MC so many times from Eddie Redmayne to Adam Lambert to Mason Alexander park to Alan Cumming. Like, there's been so many discussions about different ways you can portray and interpret the role of the MC and the extent to which they are an individual with an identity or perhaps representative of something bigger. The spirit of Berlin, the idea of countercultural rebellion, the very essence of a shifting Germany. But because they have so few sort of genuine personal connections with other characters, because they don't really portray anything beyond sort of feeling pseudo Parental to the KitKat club characters and being sort of playful and suggestive with the audience and satirizing what going on and unfolding politically, gender doesn't really come into the MC's character, and there is really no reason why it can't be portrayed by a woman. And it changes staggeringly little. What I think has a little more consequence is to be a trans performer in the role and to infuse a little more meaning into the dialogue. Towards the end of the song, if they could see her when the MC is asking the audience, why is it that people can't Leben und Leben Larson. Live and let live. That actually got a small round of applause at this performance, amidst a performance, I might add, of if they could see her staged very differently to any I have ever seen before. Usually it starts as a bit of a comedy number with a performer in a gorilla suit dancing around with the mc, the joke being like, this is the gorilla. I am in love with the gorilla. Why don't people take our relationship seriously with the uncomfortable revelation at the end of the thing? This being the entire concept of. Of cabaret, we lead with charm and guile and playfulness before sort of ripping the mask off of it, essentially. That revelation being the punchline of the song. If they could see her through my eyes, she wouldn't look Jewish at all. Only this one is a little more tender and very different because instead of having a performer in a gorilla costume, the MC is puppeteering a small monkey held like a child. So it feels a little more vulnerable and by the end, I think all the more sort of sad as well. Well, there is a mechanism by which the MC is able to turn the head of the monkey to look out into the audience alongside the delivery of that final line. That's very impactful. Abril Zamora, I believe, is something of a Spanish celebrity not necessarily known for musical theater. I thought she was a masterfully commanding mc. I thought the essence of the character was brilliantly understood. And one of the most important things to be able to convey in that role role is this commanding, controlling quality over the KitKat club space and over this family of performers. You need utter confidence and charisma in that role, which I think she delivered brilliantly, transcending even language barriers. And as a quick note about the language, you may be wondering how I got on with this and how you might get on with this if you don't speak Spanish. And I have seen Cabaret enough times and I know the show well enough to be able to have innately understood the roadmap of where it was that we were going.

Blue Apron / Acast Advertiser (29:01)

Even.

Mickey Jo (29:01)

Even if certain scenes seemed a little different sometimes I was following line for line and thinking, this is slightly reworked and we've gone a little off piste here. Or this is an earlier version of the book than the one I am more familiar with. What is very charming is the fact that the show is set in Germany and features German characters in conversation with British and American characters who speak about language. When Cliff and Sally first speak over one of the telephones in the KitKat club, she asks him to continue speaking English because she's been so starved of the sound of it. And so it's charming to hear them having that conversation, but in Spanish. Spanish is sort of not at all connected to the various different languages that are happening within Cabaret. And there's always a lot of German in the show. There was, I think, a moment where we heard a more extended passage of German between two characters, but I couldn't quite be sure what at this point I'd be very interested to see is a truly language accurate production. Maybe in Germany where the German characters speak to each other in German. Fraulein Schneider and Hirsch Schulz, Herr Ludwig and Fraulein Cost, but the English characters speak in English to each other, or characters speak in English to Cliff, etc. Because I don't think I've ever seen a version of the show where I'm actually hearing the authentic language the entire time. And I only just realized that. Anyway, carrying on, Amanda De Gone played Sally Bolt. Apologies, by the way, if I am butchering the pronunciation of all of these names, but what a star turn. This was already sensational in Sally's cabaret number numbers for her first entrance for Don't Tell Mama when she comes down in the sort of red latex interpretation of a schoolgirl outfit, she descends on a giant red swing from above among audience members. And at one point, as she's swinging backwards and forwards, she has to stand up onto it in such a precise way so that she doesn't shift the momentum of the thing, because it very easily could swing back and hit somebody in the face. You've heard of immersive theater, but you did not expect, expect to get struck in the face by flying Sally Bowles. And honestly, we should all be so lucky. But later in the show, the performances that she gave of Cabaret, which in the middle gets entirely stopped and interrupted by this utter breakdown as she moves away from the microphone stand and everything collapses into silence. And she has to find the strength to continue the number, to continue to embark on this song and this story and this life. It was very, very powerful. I've seen a lot of performers have to utterly give themselves over to this number, and this was no exception. It was raw, it was vulnerable, but it also wasn't whatsoever contrived. There was no sense of sort of ambiguous contemporary movement. It was just honest and exposing and implicitly understood and also sensationally sung. I mean, she looked a star. This was one of Sally Bowles, very close to Liza, actually, in the movie, where she could be a star. And she was wildly talented and there was this magical, charismatic, special quality about her, but she also became this heartbreakingly tragic figure as well. Pepe Noufrio was playing Clifford Bradshaw the entire time. I'm thinking, I have seen this performer on stage before and I have. He was in the UK tour and the Regents park production of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was a fantastic Cliff. Brilliant chemistry between him and Sally, but also a really interesting choice that arrived in the second act in this production because in spite of Cliff growing more openly disdainful of the Nazi party, he has this moment where he encounters a fascist in uniform who asks him if he can light a cigarette. And there is this sort of instant of recognition between the two of them that devolve evolves into an indication from the, we realize, gay Nazi that he's inviting Cliff to go off with him, to have a little tryst. And this brilliant moment where Cliff is wordlessly wrestling with the guilt of this decision and whether or not he is going to do it, his sexuality being something he has already struggled to admit over the course of the show. But add in this layer of massive political guilt as well, and it becomes even more loaded. He eventually does decide to go off with him, and when they return, it's the fact that they have been spotted by two other fascist colleagues that causes the closeted gay Nazi to strike Cliff and be like, ugh, get away from me. At which point they beat him up, triggering, you know, the final few scenes of the show. But for that to come out of a gay Nazi hookup with Cliff. What a choice. What an absolute choice. The entire company, I thought, were fantastic in their roles, particularly the Kit Kat Club ensemble. Playful and sexy, brilliantly executing Gillian Bruce's choreography. Carmen Connoisseur and Tony river did a lovely job of playing the scenes between Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz at a slightly faster pace than I have seen previously. Generally, the whole show felt, you know, by a couple verses and a couple of lines, slightly more streamlined than longer productions, but with all of the familiar warmth and charm of this couple finding each other later in life. The revelation to my mind, though, was Peppa Lucas as Frulein Kost. And Kost always has some really great material, material, if you want to find it, as a performer and as a director, because the sort of neighbourly tension that she has as one of the renters of Fraulein Schneider's rooms and a fairly indiscreet prostitute begins as comedy. But it's also the first indication of unrest between individuals living in the same place of division between different Germans. We find out later on about her political affiliations between. But before that, there's a moment where she delightedly has discovered Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schulz enjoying the aftermath of an evening of passion together. This amidst Fraulein Schneider's complaints that Fraulein Cost ought not to be bringing sailors around as her customers. This, she believes, is going to get her entirely off the hook and allow her to, like, hold this above Schneider's head for the rest of the their lives. When Schulz, you know, comes to Fraulein Schneider's aid and defends her by saying, that's not what's happening here. He lies and says, she's actually agreed to become my wife. And in doing this, they have bested Frulein Cost and she usually heads back to her room with her tail between her legs. Only in this production, she is utterly devastated. And at this point, we do sort of dwell on a moment here, and there's a lot of space made for this as she slowly, slowly, miserably crosses the stage while the two of them celebrate and decide whether this is something that they could actually do, they begin to sing the song Married or Marriage, I can't remember. This is. This is one of the songs I pay the least attention to. I'll be completely honest, every time I see Cabaret, it's the skip track we all know it is. It makes the Pineapple song seem like Don't Cry for Me, Argentina. Anyway, since I believe the Sam Mendes production in the 1990s. Frulein Cost has sung the second verse of this song, SONG IN German that still happens in the current West End revival. Only historically, in productions that I've seen, she sort of does it for the vibes, whereas in this she has impetus, she has a little bit of business to conduct. As she is singing the song back in her room, reflecting on the idea of marriage for herself, and from that arises a new idea and a personal connection for her to the material, she is not just thinking, thinking generally about the concept of marriage. She is not even thinking about Frulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. Instead, we see her wrapping something around her arm, readying to assuage her sorrows with drugs, because it seems as though she is reflecting on some prior marriage of her own, or perhaps the lost opportunity thereof. This moment for her in the song is newly infused with this really palpable, painful sorrow. And it means when she then comes back in the party scene, subsequently, this engagement party celebration, her destructive actions are all the more understood. And there are other little moments and little choices like this that I could tell you about that just sort of shifted different facets of the show. But I think you get the idea of why this was exciting and surprising to me. And also the thrill of reviving something where you're going to really dig into the material, where you're going to go as far as resurrecting cut songs from the past to take this real overview look at Cabaret and be like. Like, what if this song, which has always been placed there, instead happens in a completely different place? What if we take those songs from the film and reappropriate them for different purposes? What if we achieve different outcomes? What if we reflect different ideas? I love this so much more than, you know, a cheap, generic remounting of a previous production or something that might be in line with expectations based on a film, based on a particularly iconic staging. I love that directors and creatives are continuing, continuing to reinterpret things through their own unique vision. As you can probably tell, I was delighted by this production. I was thrilled to be so surprised by it, to have had that experience. And truly, I think it is doing the immersive KitKat Club cabaret table seating aspect better than any production of Cabaret that I've seen before. I truly celebrate the artistry and the energy that has gone into designing and building and performing this production in Madrid, where it is due to play a little longer in 2026, before, I believe, heading off on a tour around other parts of Spain. I think it's going to Valencia. It may be the ambition of the production to return at some point to the venue where it is currently playing. I think that's as of yet unconfirmed. Maybe I'm just personally manifesting it. I would love to see this happen. I think for that very stylish setting of this theater inside of a hotel with the circle level opening out onto a gorgeous piano bar. There can't be that many shows that would work there as brilliantly as Cabaret does. For now though, that is everything that I have to say about this revival. Like I said, if you have had the opportunity to see it for yourself, or if you have any questions about the show, let me know in the comments section down below. And stay tuned for my reviews of the other three musicals which I saw in Spanish. I'll be sharing a roundup of all of those very soon here on YouTube or on podcast platforms. Make sure you are subscribed or follow me. Do whatever you have to do to make sure you don't miss my upcoming content. Thank you so much for listening to my thoughts. I have been Mickey Jo and as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day.

Verizon Advertiser (39:47)

Subscribe.

LifeLock Advertiser (39:50)

The new year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is an end. Endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New year's goals with LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com Specialoffer terms apply.

Mickey Jo (40:22)

Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we ran recommend.

Danny Pellegrino (40:30)

The Real Housewives is a guilty pleasure for most, but if you're looking to not feel guilty about that pleasure, tune in to Everything Iconic with me, Danny Pellegrino, where I break down all the messy moments and behind the scenes antics of Bravo's popular franchise. On Everything Iconic, I also interview celebrity guests like Kelly Ripa, Keke Palmer, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and more about their guilty pleasures, their past work, and so much more. So if you're pop culture obsessed and find yourself watching way too much reality TV like me, tune into Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino. Wherever you listen to podcasts.

Mickey Jo (41:04)

ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.

LifeLock Advertiser (41:10)

Acast.com.