A real treat tonight: the Donmar Warehouse revival of Cabaret.
The second Broadway revival was based on the 1993 Mendes-Donmar Warehouse production. For the Broadway transfer, Rob Marshall was brought on board as co-director and choreographer. The production opened after 37 previews on March 19, 1998 at the Kit Kat Klub, housed in what previously had been known as Henry Miller's Theatre. Later that year it transferred to Studio 54, where it remained for the rest of its 2,377-performance run, becoming the third longest-running revival in Broadway musical history, third only to Oh! Calcutta! and Chicago. For the Broadway production, Cumming reprised his role as the Emcee, opposite newcomers Natasha Richardson as Sally, John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff, Ron Rifkin as Herr Schultz, Michele Pawk as Fräulein Kost, and Mary Louise Wilson as Fräulein Schneider, along with Joyce Chittick, Leenya Rideout, Erin Hill, Christina Pawl, Kristen Olness, Michael O'Donnell, Bill Szobody and Fred Rose. The Broadway production was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning four for Cumming, Richardson and Rifkin, as well as the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The show starts here:
http://www.youtube.com/...
Watch it. Really: even (especially) if you think you know Cabaret b/c you saw the movie, you need to see this production.
This revival made headlines in NYC, at least among the theaterati, for being dark and yet brilliantly done. _And I have found the whole thing on YouTube, with brilliant production values (i.e. not from someone's camera in the nosebleed seats) but unfortunately: embedding disabled. You will have to follow the link. On the happy side: they have set it up so that one segment segues seamlessly into the next.
You owe it to yourself to watch this. It IS dark, but this is the cusp of Germany sinking into Nazism: it should be dark.
And the opening number with Alan Cummings singing "Wilkomen" is not to be believed.
They really dumbed it down in the movie version.
I am watching it now. And I am gob-smacked. It is THAT good. You owe it to yourself. I am sorry I couldn't embed anything.