Cabaret coming back to Broadway?- Page 3

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 1:34pm

"Alan Cumming can play the MC any day he wants."

Are you kidding me? He's going to be the Ted Neeley of EmCees. He's going to be doing it in his wheelchair.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 2:58pm

The female Emcee thing (which has been done more often than people think) leave the director with the question of whether to have the Emcee BE a woman, or to have the actor play him as a woman playing a man. The latter is what they did in Boston, but because of the way she was costumed, etc., it had this interesting impact of being like the way your eyes see two different things, and then your brain combines them into one complete whole. I remember the moment at which I became completely sold on her; she walked by me and I saw, exactly at once, this beautiful woman and a gorgeous man. It worked so well not only because Amanda was absolutely born to play that part, but because the entire production had variations of that same theme sprinkled throughout -- there was so much gender bending that there kept being moments that made you think, "wait a second -- what am I actually seeing here?" and that was the beauty of it. That's kind of the beauty of Cabaret.

As much as I would relish the chance to finally see Alan do this, there's a part of me that would also like to see something new.

Updated On: 3/12/13 at 02:58 PM

[Johnnycantdecide]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 3:03pm

If she could abandon the whisper singing thing, Helena Bonham Carter could be so interesting as Sally.

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 3:15pm

Is Toni Collette too old for Sally?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 3:19pm

By the book (literally) Emcee and Sally are both fairly young.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:05pm

Toni Collette is ageless in my book I'd seriously love to see her play the role even if it's in a staged concert, though really I wanna see her go through the entire canon of musical theatre: Rose, Sally (Bowles and Plummer), Mame, Effie White, Miss Saigon...so yeah, I'm not objective when it comes to her.

Well, if not Cumming (or Palmer), who would people want to see play the MC? Will Swenson is my second choice after Cumming.

[Johnnycantdecide]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:11pm

I think Joseph Gordon Levit would be brilliant as the MC

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:28pm

^ Well, the singing isn't particularly rangy, so he might actually be able to pull it off.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:31pm

I'd see him in a second.

Moot point, really. If this rumor is true, it's going to be Cumming.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:31pm

Helena Bonham Carter is too damned old to play Sally Bowles!!! Sally Bowles is supposed to a girl in her early to mid 20's not some dowdy old matron!!!

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:39pm

HBC may not be an ingenue, but I don't see how she can be described as a "dowdy old matron" unless you're being completely hyperbolic.

Wrong for the role, anyway - which reminds me - some one suggested Chita Rivera as Schnieder? I adore Chita, but playing English in Drood was a huge but forgivable stretch. A German?

No. Just no.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:42pm

Effie White Is supposed to be in her 20's too, but that ain't stopping Miss Jennifer Holliday from playing it in her wheelchair at every theatre that will have her. Hell, if Holliday can still play Effie, let's dust Liza off and put her back in Cabaret again. It would be a train wreck, but a sold out train wreck.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:42pm

I don’t know. I just think bringing Alan Cumming back as the Emcee is a little too easy, especially if they are reviving the Mendes production. Reviving the original production with the original star didn’t work out so well in the 80s.

For some reason, I just keep imagining Euan Morton as the Emcee.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:42pm

I was being hyperbolic.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:52pm

Sorry, Carlos. I figured - but it gave me an excuse to bring up the Chita thing.

MisterMatt, I totally agree. Hey, Alan and Liza are doing a show at Town Hall soon. Maybe it's a try-out to for the revival.

Can't you just see it? Alan as EmCee, Liza as Sally. Throw in Chita, Angela or Stritch as FS. It would sell out for sure.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:55pm

^ Tongue-in-cheek self-deprecating humor: it would explain a gay guy's attraction to Sally for sure.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 5:57pm

I'd see Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Effie White Is supposed to be in her 20's too...

etc. etc. etc. - still. Doesn't mean it's right. :) But, people love it and they keep seeing it and I get the nostalgia impulse. But, age is an important part of casting, too.

Every time this rumor pops up, it always involves Alan Cumming; its persistence leads me to believe that much is always true.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 6:02pm

Does anyone think Liza could pull off Fräulein Schneider? That would be interesting, but something tells me that wearing a dowdy house dress and a grey wig is outside her comfort zone.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 6:08pm

I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Love. But I don't see him as the MC at all.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 6:40pm

I didn't see Alan in the Mendes revival, so it would be a dream come true if he was really doing this.

I think English is a more difficult accent than German, and she did pull off French in Nine, so I think she can pull it off. I really couldn't care less about the accent as long as she's back on broadway doing Kander and Ebb. I wouldn't mind even seeing her as Velma again. I'm obsessed with her and her whole generation. I sooooo would've love to have been alive during the seventies.

"MisterMatt, I totally agree. Hey, Alan and Liza are doing a show at Town Hall soon. Maybe it's a try-out to for the revival.

Can't you just see it? Alan as EmCee, Liza as Sally. Throw in Chita, Angela or Stritch as FS. It would sell out for sure."

Liza would be beyond a dream!! I'd kill to see that production.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 6:43pm

An authentic German accent is trickier than it appears. Stock German is easy. But real German is harder.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 6:48pm

Sally Bowles is supposed to a girl in her early to mid 20's not some dowdy old matron!!!

But if this is a revival of the revival, I imagine they'll skew older with their Sallys, right? I never once thought Natasha Richardson was supposed to be playing a Sally in her twentites. I thought her Sally was was pretty much whatever age Richardson was at the time (35ish, I think?).

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 6:58pm

Exactly, Phyllis, I didn't see Richardson live but from the recordings that remain I can't imagine she, Mendes, Marshall or anyone involved was pretending she was in her 20s, and that argument still holds when you look at the people who replaced her. Jennifer Jason Leigh was almost 40 when she replaced Richardson.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 6:58pm

Double post, clearly I'm overzealous about this rumor.

Updated On: 3/12/13 at 06:58 PM

[xxdrewboy85xx]

Posted: 3/12/13 at 9:55pm

What about Benjamin Walker as the Emcee?