It's Official! Michelle Williams to Star Opposite Alan Cumming in CABARET, Opening April 24 at Studio 54

By: Sep. 04, 2013
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Roundabout Theatre Company has officially announced that three-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams will star for the first time on Broadway as 'Sally Bowles' in its upcoming revival of Cabaret by Joe Masteroff, John Kander and Fred Ebb. She will take the stage at Studio 54 alongside Alan Cumming, reprising his Tony Award-winning role as the Emcee.

Academy Award-winner Sam Mendes (director) and Academy Award nominee Rob Marshall (co-director/choreographer) will return to recreate their Tony-nominated direction and choreography from the 1998 Tony Award-winning production.

Click HERE to read what Cumming and the creative team have to say about the revival!

CABARET features a book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. It is based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood.

CABARET will play a 24-week limited engagement beginning previews on March 21, 2014 and open officially on April 24, 2014 at the newly transformed Kit Kat Klub at Studio 54 on Broadway (254 West 54th Street).

For this production, Mr. Mendes and Mr. Marshall will convert Studio 54 into the grittty Kit Kat Klub with Cabaret-type seating as well as traditional theatre seating, to recreate the decadent environment of the notorious pre-war Berlin Nightclub.

The original design team will also return for the 2014 production featuring set and club design by Robert Brill, costume design by William Ivey Long, lighting design by Peggy Eisenhauer and Mike Baldassari and sound design by Brian Ronan. Patrick Vaccariello is the Musical Director.

The full cast will be announced shortly. Rehearsals for Cabaret are scheduled to begin in January 2014.

CABARET features some of the best-known songs in musical theatre, including "Willkommen," "Maybe This Time" and "Cabaret." John Kander and Fred Ebb are two of the most successful and prolific collaborators in the American Theatre and are currently represented on Broadway with the award-winning revival of Chicago.

Roundabout's production of Cabaret opened on Broadway on March 19, 1998 starring Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson and won four Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical. Alan Cumming received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall received Tony nominations for direction and Rob Marshall received a Tony nomination for choreography. The production went on to play for six years and 2, 378 performances before finishing its run on January 4, 2004.

CABARET premiered on Broadway in 1966 and won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in addition to the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Outer Critics' Cricle Award, the Variety Poll of New York Critics, and London's Evening Standard Award. The original Broadway production played 1166 performances.

ABOUT THE CAST/CREATIVE TEAM:

ALAN CUMMING (Emcee). Alan Cumming made his professional acting debut as Malcolm in Michael Boyd's production of Macbeth at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow in 1985. 28 Years later he played nearly all the parts in the National Theatre of Scotland's sensational re-imagining of the Scottish play on Broadway, earning him the Broadway.com and Broadwayworld.com Best Actor Awards and a Drama League Performance of Distinction Nomination. After working extensively in the Scottish theatre, he made his West End debut in Conquest of the South Pole earned him his first Olivier award nomination. He appeared with the RSC, played Romeo for the RNT Studio and earned further Olivier nominations for La Bete and Cabaret. His career-defining Hamlet for the English Touring Theatre earned him huge critical acclaim, a TMA Best Actor award and Shakespeare Globe nomination. He won an Olivier for Accidental Death of an Anarchist at the Royal National Theatre. In 1998 he made his sensational Broadway debut when Cabaret transferred to NYC, winning him the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theatre World, NY Press, FANY and Public Advocate awards. He went on to appear on Broadway in Design for Living and as Mack the Knife in The Three penny Opera. Off-Broadway he appeared as the Pope in Jean Genet's Elle (which he also adapted) and as Trigorin in The Seagull opposite Dianne Wiest. In 2006, he returned to the West End in Martin Sherman's Bent, and in 2007 appeared in the National Theatre of Scotland's The Bacchae, directed by John Tiffany (Herald ArcAngel Award). On TV he currently appears as Eli Gold in The Good Wife for which he has been nominated for Emmy, SAG, Satellite and Critics Circle awards. He also appears opposite Lisa Kudrow in Showtime's Web Therapy and is the host of Masterpiece Mystery on PBS. His eclectic film career has seen him work consecutively with Stanley Kubrick and the Spice Girls, and make appearances in the X Men, Spy Kids, Flintstones and Smurfs franchises as well as roles in many independent films such as Sweet Land (Independent Spirit Award), Julie Taymor's Titus and The Tempest and most recently Travis Fine's Any Day Now for which he received several Best Actor awards on the film festival circuit. With Jennifer Jason Leigh he wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Anniversary Party (National Board of Review award, two Independent Spirit nominations). He has also published a novel, Tommy's Tale, released an album of songs, I Bought A Blue Car Today, and last year had his first exhibition of photographs, Alan Cumming Snaps! He regularly performs in concert, most recently with Liza Minnelli at New York's Town Hall and over the past few years has sung in seasons at the Sydney Opera House, the Geffen Playhouse, LA and London's Vaudeville Theatre. For his humanitarian work, particularly in the field of LGBT rights and equality, he has been honored by many organizations including HRC, GLAAD, The Trevor Project and The Matthew Shepard Foundation to name but a few. From his homeland he was honored with both the Great Scot and Icon of Scotland awards, and was made an OBE in the 2009 Queen's Honors List. Time magazine named him one of the three most fun people in show business. www.alancumming.com. Twitter: @alancumming

MICHELLE WILLIAMS (Sally Bowles). Michelle Williams' performances have established her as one of Hollywood's most sought-after and respected actors, earning her a Golden Globe Award and three Academy Award nominations. Williams was most recently seen in Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful, opposite James Franco, in which she starred as Glinda the Good Witch. She last played opposite Seth Rogen in Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz which made its world premiere at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival. In late 2011, she took on the iconic Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn opposite Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench, a role that garnered her third Academy Award nomination, as well as nods from BAFTA and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award wins. Previously, Williams was seen in Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine opposite Ryan Gosling. Williams' captivating performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress as well as Golden Globe, Broadcast Film Critics Association nominations and Independent Spirit Award nominations. Williams' performance in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, released in 2005, earned her nominations from Independent Spirit Award, SAG, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Broadcast Film Critics Association as well as an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress." Williams was also nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for "Best Actress" for her performance in Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty. In her first collaboration with Kelly Reichardt in the critically acclaimed independent film Wendy and Lucy, Williams' moving and evocative performance as "Wendy" garnered a Toronto Film Critics Award for "Best Actress" in 2009 and her third Independent Spirit Award Nomination. 2010 marked Williams second collaboration with director Kelly Reichardt in the period drama Meek's Cutoff, which won the Producers Award at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards as well as the SIGNIS Award at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. Williams' other film credits include Martin Scorcese's Shutter Island, Sharon Maguire's Incendiary, Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State, Thomas McCarthy's The Station Agent, Sandra Goldbacher's Me Without You, and Andrew Fleming's Dick. In 2005, Williams was honored by the Motion Picture Club as "Female Star of Tomorrow." On television, Williams starred opposite Chloë Sevigny in Martha Coolidge's HBO movie 'If These Walls Could Talk 2.' She also had a six-year run as "Jen Lindley" on the WB's hit television series 'Dawson's Creek.' The series premiered in 1998 and remained one of the WB's top-rated shows throughout its run. On stage, Williams received glowing reviews for her portrayal of Varya in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She also achieved critical acclaim for her run in Mike Leigh's Smelling a Rat at the Samuel Beckett Theatre and her off-Broadway debut in Killer Joe.

JOHN KANDER (Music) & FRED EBB (Lyrics). The John Kander and Fred Ebb collaboration of four decades has created what many would consider Broadway standards and contemporary classics. One of their first collaborations became a hit song for Barbra Streisand "My Coloring Book" earning John and Fred a Grammy nomination. In 1965 the pair worked on their first Broadway show Flora the Red Menace, produced by Hal Prince and directed by George Abbott. Flora also introduced a rising new star Liza Minnelli. Followed by: Cabaret (Tony Award music and lyrics), The Happy Time, Zorba, 70 Girls 70, Chicago, The Act, Woman of the Year (Tony Award music and lyrics), The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award music and lyrics) and Steel Pier. Their collaboration also transferred itself to movies and television as they wrote original material for the Academy Awards, "Liza with a Z" and HBO's Liza Minnelli's "Steppin Out" (both Emmy winners), "Baryshnikov on Broadway", "Goldie and Liza Together", "Funny Lady", "Lucky Lady", "New York, New York", "Steppin Out", and "Chicago", the movie. In 1985 the song "New York, New York" became the official anthem of New York City. At the time of the unfortunate death of Mr. Ebb in 2004, Kander and Ebb had several projects in different stages of completion waiting in the wings, including: Tony nominated Curtains which played at the Al Hirschfeld Theater on Broadway in 2007, twelve-time Tony nominated The Scottsboro Boys which opened on Broadway in 2010, All About Us (an adaptation of Thornton Wilders "The Skin of our Teeth") and The Visit which had a successful run at the Goodman Theater in Chicago and The Signature Theatre in Fairfax, VA starring Chita Rivera. Mr. Kander is currently collaborating with author/playwright Greg Pierce on two new projects, The Landing and Kid Victory.

Joe Masteroff (Book). Born in 1919 in Philadelphia, he had only one dream from infancy: to write for the theatre. After the essential lonely childhood and four year stint in the air force, he came to New York to face his future: book-writer or book seller? Luckily, luck intervened. Before long he had three shows on Broadway bearing his name: The Warm Peninsula starring Julie Harris, and two musicals She Loves Me and Cabaret, for which he was the book-writer. Thanks to indulgent parents, the New Dramatists, Hal Prince, and many others, he is now retired and living in subdued luxury.

SAM MENDES (Director). Sam Mendes's work directing theatre and film spans 25 years. At 24 years old he became the first Artistic Director of the Minerva Theatre in Chichester. At 27 he founded the Donmar Warehouse in London, which he ran for ten years, and where he directed many productions including Assassins, Cabaret, Translations, Glengarry Glen Ross, Company, The Glass Menagerie, Habeas Corpus, The Blue Room, To The Green Fields Beyond, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night. It has become one of the world's leading playhouses. Other theatre includes: For the Royal Shakespeare Company: Troilus and Cressida, Richard III, The Tempest and The Alchemist. For the National Theatre: The Sea, The Birthday Party, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Othello and the forthcoming King Lear. In the West End: The Cherry Orchard, London Assurance, Kean, Oliver! and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is currently running in London at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. On Broadway: Cabaret, The Blue Room, Gypsy and The Vertical Hour. In 2009 he founded the Bridge Project, a transatlantic classical theatre company, for which he directed The Winter's Tale, The Cherry Orchard, The Tempest, As You Like It and Richard III. His many theatre awards include: four Olivier Awards, two Tony Awards, four Evening Standard Awards, several Critics' Choice Awards and the Hamburg Shakespeare Prize. In 1998 he directed his first film American Beauty, winning the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture, as well as the Golden Globe and Directors' Guild Awards. He has since directed the Academy Award-winning Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, and the BAFTA and Academy Award-winning Skyfall, the most successful film of all time in the UK and one of the most successful of all time worldwide. In 2003 he founded Neal Street Productions with Pippa Harris and Caro Newling. Neal Street has produced the BAFTA award-winning television series "Call the Midwife" and "The Hollow Crown"; several movies including Things We Lost in the Fire, Stuart A Life Backwards and Starter for 10; and in the theatre the long-running Shrek The Musical. He was awarded a CBE in 2000 and a Directors' Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

ROB MARSHALL (Co-Director & Choreographer) Marshall's films have been honored with a total of 23 Academy Award nominations - winning 9, including Best Picture. His most recent film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, has grossed over one billion dollars at the worldwide box office, making it one of the highest grossing films in history. He is currently in production for the film version of Stephen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods for Disney. Marshall's film Nine was nominated for four Academy Awards, five Golden Globes and 10 Critics Choice Awards. His previous directorial efforts include the Academy Award-winning films Chicago and Memoirs of a Geisha. For his work on Chicago, winner of six Oscars including Best Picture, Marshall received the Directors Guild Award, an Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe Award nomination, a BAFTA nomination, The National Board of Review Award and the New York Film Critics Online Award, both for best directorial debut, as well as the American Choreography Award. His epic film Memoirs of a Geisha was the winner of three Oscars, three BAFTA Awards and a Golden Globe. Marshall executive produced, directed and choreographed the NBC television event "Tony Bennett: An American Classic." He won his second Directors Guild Award for this production as well as three Emmy Awards himself for Direction, Choreography and Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special. He directed and choreographed Disney/ABC's critically acclaimed movie musical Annie, which received 12 Emmy nominations and won the prestigious Peabody Award. For his work he received an Emmy for Choreography and an American Choreography Award. A six-time Tony Award nominee and George Abbott Award winner, Marshall's stage work includes co-directing and choreographing Roundabout Theatre Company's worldwide award-winning Broadway production of Cabaret and directing and choreographing the Broadway revival of Little Me, starring Martin Short. He made his Broadway choreographic debut with Kiss of the Spider Woman, directed by Harold Prince, which also played London's West End and Vienna. He followed that with productions of She Loves Me on Broadway and London; Damn Yankees on Broadway, National Tour and London; Blake Edwards' Victor/Victoria on Broadway; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum on Broadway; Company on Broadway; The Petrified Forest at the New York Public Theatre, and Promises, Promises for City Center Encores! Additional choreography credits include the Disney/ABC movie musical "Cinderella" (Emmy nomination), the CBS movie musical "Mrs. Santa Claus" (Emmy nomination), and The Kennedy Center Honors (Kander & Ebb and Chita Rivera tributes). Marshall holds a BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Tickets are currently available to Roundabout subscribers and donors, and will be available to the public in the coming weeks. For more information on subscriptions and becoming a donor, or to sign up to be notified when tickets go on-sale to the public, visit roundabouttheatre.org or call 212-719-1300.



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