'A compassionate warning': Eddie Redmayne on 'Cabaret's timely message

That is a look at the latest revival of the classic musical Cabaret, now in its fifth run on Broadway. Since it opened in 1966. Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club has earned 9 Tony nominations this time around, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Performances by Both an Actor and Actress in a Leading Role. And lucky for us, they’re here with us now joining us, the Tony nominated Co stars of Cabaret Academy award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne who plays the MC and GAIL Rankin who plays Sally Bowles. Good morning to you both. It’s great to see you. Morning. I love watching you, Eddie, watch that clip and making sure you sort of nailed your lines and your choreography. It’s so funny seeing that first thing in the morning. It’s it’s definitely as an evening piece Cabaret. So but that was that’s a wake up reminder of what I’m doing. See. Yes, you’ll be right back at it, won’t you? Congratulations on the 9 nominations. This is a beloved musical, of course, but you’ve brought something else to it. When you heard this was floating out there again was pitched to you. What were your initial thoughts about playing Sally? I mean, it’s kind of the the female hamlet of of musical theatre. So I completely just jumped at the chance. And I’d always wanted to work with Eddie and Rebecca Frecknell was just a visionary art director and I’d seen her production of A St. Car Named Desire in London. And yeah, it’s it’s it’s a cabaret for our types. And I and I, I I really felt like I was ready to play our Sally, our 2024 Sally. Yeah. And Eddie This for people may not have seen Cabaret in any of its incarnations. Can you sort of set the scene about where we are and what this Cabaret is as we find the MC running the show? Yeah, well, Cabaret is such a loved piece and has been done so beautifully before. We felt that, you know, if we were going to do it again, we needed to bring something new. And one of the things that we were keen to do was to create an entire event of an evening. So that from the second you kind of step off 52nd St. into our theatre, you go down these kind of cavernous alleys into these bars, past dancers and musicians. And and you get a bit discombobulated really. So that by the time you come into the theatre proper, hopefully you’ve left all of your troubles, all of your memories of the day outside. And you were, you were charged and prepped into the world of Weimar Germany to be kind of seduced and entertained and to think that’s what we were aspiring to anyway. And you’ve redesigned the August Wilson, this well known theatre to sort of fit this immersive experience. Yeah. Tom Scott, our amazing scenic designer and and costume designer, he’s been as amazing nods in in the award season. He’s he’s an extraordinary artist and it’s it’s really deeply immersive and so fun for us. I mean it helps us, I think really create what what we’re trying to do as artists with that immersion in the interaction with the audience. Right there. We’re talking at the break. There does seem to be a thirst from audiences post Pandemic to to be there, to be in a crowd, to react as a community. Are you feeling that in there? We’re feeling it so hugely and and one of the the joys for me is that this character, the MC, the other character in his scenes are the audience. And so within this space which is in the round, I get to kind of slither in and amongst the audience interact with them and it’s been joyful. You feel there is a a sort of profound verse for human interaction now and and it it means for me also each night it changes depending on who the audience is, depending on what the reaction is And that for actors that’s why we do theatre is to go and have a different experience each night to try and keep aspiring for something. So we were talking, GAIL, a minute ago you all were watching backstage the interview about SUFS, another show that’s that’s been so strong and so wonderful in this season and its connection to the present. And you can’t help but see some of it in your show as well. Yeah, absolutely. I mean it was really inspiring. I got to to listen to Senator Clinton and and and and Shana talk about women’s rights being under attack and and to be playing a woman who who has a really personal and and and serious decision to make inside of this this play is is a is a big responsibility and and I take it really seriously and I think I feel really glad I get to do that with my with my work to kind of interact with politics and and and the women of today and and the past and be in conversation with all of that. Yeah. And you’ve said this show is a bit of a warning about all the joy we see inside the Kit Kat club and how quickly it can be taken away. Yeah, I mean, I think I see the piece and candor and Ed Masteros pieces. You know, there’s a reason it, it always seems relevant and that’s that. There’s there’s sadness in that, that we haven’t learned from our mistakes. But I see the pieces as that exactly that. A compassionate warning, you know, hate of sort of winning over humanity and and that, that, that, that conversation. But what’s amazing about what they’ve done is they’ve created a a, a piece of work that is so joyful and playful and then yet moves to a place that is moving and and questions and interrogates. And for me that’s what an evening at the theatre hopefully should be. It should challenge you in all those ways whilst also entertaining. Well, it is a unique experience too and it’s beautifully done. Congratulations, relations to you both. Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club is playing now at the August Wilson Theatre here on Broadway.