![]() All of which, as more than one sociologist has pointed out, was precisely what made Hitler capable of inspiring passionate, near-hysterical devotion, particularly when he spoke at rallies. ![]() His staging, like Rob Marshall's choreography, is belligerently sexual: Someone is always in total control. The seedy Kit Kat Girls, who look simultaneously young and old, and seem to be just this side of an overdose, parade their still-delectable-looking goods in old underwear, torn hose and layers of makeup.īut Mendes isn't after just any kind of lewdness. He wears no shirt, though he does sport glitter pasties on his nipples. Admittedly it's a tawdry beauty, but that's why we can't look away.Ĭostume designer William Ivey Long has draped Butz in ratty pants held up by what looks like a tangle of bra straps rigged as suspenders. "In here, life is beautiful," the Emcee tells us. Life is more of a cabaret than we think, Mendes seems to be saying. Even the many scenes that happen outside are shadowed by it: The omnipresent Emcee watches, at times even walks through the action. In Mendes' version, the rise of Nazism is neither a matter of fortuitous timing nor is the story a cautionary tale against losing inhibitions. In the movie, and to great extent in Prince's staging, the Kit Kat Klub was a fantasyland where people could escape from ugly reality, and the ensuing decadence and self-indulgence allowed the Nazis to come to power. We are in the Kit Kat Klub, a dive in Weimar Germany. The production has its problems, but it offers unsettling insight into the material. Unlike his predecessors, though, director Sam Mendes is interested in what makes absolute power the ultimate aphrodisiac. CABARET EMCEE MOVIEIt's hard to imagine a more jarring contrast with Harold Prince's original Broadway staging of the piece more than 30 years ago, or with Bob Fosse's wonderful 1972 movie of it. At the final, ecstatic note of the song he flips the tail over his waist, bends over, shoves his naked backside at us, and there, tattooed on his right cheek, is a huge blood-red swastika. ![]() The music and voices swell to crescendo Butz turns his back and, stripperlike, slowly starts lifting the tail of his leather coat-the only clothes he has on. CABARET EMCEE FREEThen as now, Redmayne defended the role, suggesting that trans or cis actors should be free to play any character as long as they did it with “a sense of integrity and responsibility”.Near the end of the first act of "Cabaret," which opened last weekend at the Warner Theatre, actor Norbert Leo Butz stands on a catwalk while the rest of the cast gathers below onstage to belt out that paean to National Socialism, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me." As the singing builds with lyrical, storm-trooper momentum, Butz, in the role of the Emcee, begins stomping his combat-booted feet in rhythm. He previously shouldered criticism for playing the historic trans woman Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl in 2016. It’s not the first time Eddie Redmayne has grappled with the issue of authentic casting. Redmayne went on to praise previous productions of Cabaret as “formidable,” but said: “The only point in us doing it would be if we could do something different from those other productions, something new.” Eddie Redmayne has taken on queer roles before It feels like a metaphor for the period – a party at the end of the world.” “Shape-shifting is a word we have been using a lot,” Scutt added, “and not just about Eddie. “The way I see the character is as Mercury, as shape-shifting and a survivor.” ![]() “I hope when people see the performance, the interpretation will justify the casting,” he told the publication. “The history of that role is one of queer portrayal,” said the production’s designer Tom Scutt.Īddressing the criticism, Redmayne stood by his choice to take on the role. ![]()
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