Eddie Redmayne first played the cabaret host in school, now he plays this role on Broadway

Eddie Redmayne collects tips. As the Tony and Oscar-winning actor opened a Broadway musical this season, he also tried to figure out how best to navigate New York City during the six months he'll be in the show . His wife and two small children came to him from London. They are currently looking for ways to spend the summer in the city. Speaking of summer, Redmayne worries about whether his voice will stay in good condition in a city with more air conditioning than he's used to.

“I'm putting together a little guide to 'The Survivor's Guide to Broadway,'” laughs Redmayne. “I’m a passionate lover of New York, so if there’s a reason to come here, I’m thrilled.”

The excuse – and it’s a pretty good one – is Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, which opened April 21 at the August Wilson Theater. Redmayne reprises his role as The Emcee in the revival of the classic musical from John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff. Rebecca Fracknell is directing the production, a West End adaptation that won seven Olivier Awards in 2022, including one for Redmayne's performance. The production was a hit in London, where it is currently running.

However, Redmayne is the only member of the West End cast to move to Broadway with the production. He is joined in August Wilson by Gayle Rankin as Sally Bowles, Ato Blankson-Wood as Clifford Bradshaw, Bebe Neuwirth as Miss Schneider and Steven Skybell as Mr. Schultz. And both Rankin and Redmayne were Tony-nominated for their performances; The show received a total of nine nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical.

“It was such a unique experience because it starts new and fresh, while at the same time I've had this character in my gut and pondering for three years. And my journey, the relationship with the character, is one that dates back, oh God, almost 30 years since I first played it as a schoolboy,” says Redmayne. “There's a great joy that comes from that – every time you can explore the character anew and look at it anew in a different context and with a different inspiration.”

When Playbill spoke with Redmayne, the company was still in rehearsals for the Broadway run. As part of his ongoing exploration of the Emcee, the actor had just revisited one of his favorite museums in New York, the Neue Galerie für deutsche und Österreichische Kunst on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

“I was looking at some of the Schiele paintings there and remembered that when I first started exploring the idea of The Emcee, I had portfolios of Schiele prints everywhere. That was one of the ways in. It was a nice moment to make new contacts and find new inspiration in the museum.” The influence of the Austrian expressionist painter Egon Schiele can easily be seen in the angles of Redmayne's body as he looks over his shoulder, bends an arm or a little growls to challenge the audience to come a little closer.

The original source material for cabaret is the 1939 novel by Christopher Isherwood Goodbye Berlin. It was inspired by his own life during the Weimar Republic, when the freedom of the Jazz Age collided with the rise of Nazism and Fascism. However, the host is not a character in either the novel or the play adaptation I am a camera. He was created exclusively for this purpose cabaret and does not exist in any of the scenes outside of the Kit Kat Club. The lack of a story for The Emcee allowed Redmayne to create a character almost entirely from scratch.

“For me it exists almost in abstraction. The character almost resembles a Greek choir. He's a kind of Shakespearean fool. The court jester who then becomes king,” says Redmayne. “He can assimilate and bind people from all walks of life and communities, and he can seemingly either celebrate or exploit that. As the world becomes more homogeneous and fascism takes hold, it can change shape and emerge from it and be fine. He has the privilege to do so. Ultimately, there's a nihilism to my take on The Emcee that felt important. He is not the victim. He is the perpetrator.”

Eddie Redmayne
Heather Gershonowitz

cabaret first premiered on Broadway in 1966 and is the fourth revival of the musical. With the exception of the 1970s (when it was adapted into a film starring Liza Minnelli), it has appeared on Broadway at some point in every decade since its premiere. “This cultural relevance has always existed, and that's frightening because it's essentially a warning about our inability to learn from our mistakes,” says Redmayne. “It’s about what happens when humanity is consumed by hate. And the idea of creating the other and exploiting the other to create fear.”

The musical's appeal has probably always been both in the way it presents this message and in the relevance of the message itself. The Kit Kat Club is seedy and seductive. It feels naughty… like you're getting away with something you shouldn't. And this new production takes that element far beyond the limelight of a stage. Club, set and costume designer Tom Scutt has redesigned the August Wilson Theater and created spaces in the house and bar for the performance of a Prologue group. Audiences are encouraged to arrive early to view the music and dance cabaret performances beforehand Cabaret.

Redmayne remembers his visit to the museum again: “When I was in the Neue Galerie, there was an exhibition there [Gustav] Klimt. This idea that this group of artists back in Austria and then Germany were trying to create this world was all-consuming. It wasn't just the painting, it was the specific space in the gallery… you weren't just looking at the painting, but the entire experience around it. I think that's maybe the dream of what we're trying to achieve. As soon as you leave the sidewalk and cross the threshold [into the theatre]you are taken on a journey that encompasses everything.”

Boris Aronson's original set design for the 1966 production cabaret There was a large mirror above the stage that was tilted towards the audience so that they could see themselves reflected at both the beginning and the end of the musical. Scutt created a completely round stage at Wilson.

So while the audience is watching the action on stage, they will also be witnessing the reaction of other audience members to the story. “There is a complicity in this,” says Redmayne. “We're all there, laughing and taking part in an evening of entertainment, but also seeing ourselves in some elements – the joyful qualities of humanity and also the scarier qualities.”

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