Cabaret
Playhouse Theatre Until October 1, 2022 2hrs 45mins
Rating: 
Habeas Corpus
Menier Chocolate Factory Until February 26, 2022 2hrs 10mins
Rating:
Eddie Redmayne was offstage almost a decade ago. Now he’s back in Cabaret. This ticket is highly regarded.
In 1929, the Kit Kat Club was remodeled into a Victorian theater. You will find seats at the back of the theatre, small tables to hold the tickets that are very expensive, and even ludicrous musicians as you enter. There is also schnapps available.
But Redmayne – a performer who exudes industrial quantities of niceness – is miscast.
Eddie Redmayne (above) – a performer who exudes industrial quantities of niceness – is miscast in Cabaret
He would have been perfect as Sally Bowles’s sweet boyfriend. Instead he’s appearing as the sinister Emcee, the club’s Master of Ceremonies, a part that’s forever in the shadow of Joel Grey from the 1972 film.
Redmayne portrays the role in a long, black skirt, with a deep German accent and a sad grin. He is not ingratiating, but creepy. I became bored with him.
Jessie Buckley’s Sally Bowles is more the star of this show, as she banishes all memories of Liza Minnelli. She’s steeped in gin, mad as a box of frogs, scarily brittle.
Buckley’s rendition of the title song is a scorcher. But there’s not a lot of chemistry between her and the wannabe writer Clifford (Omari Douglas), whose snog with another chap signals the production’s sexually ambiguous, gender-fluid vibe.
Jessie Buckley, whose Sally Bowles erases all traces of Liza Minnelli’s memory, is more in charge. She’s steeped in gin, mad as a box of frogs, scarily brittle
Liza Sadovy portrays Fraulein Schneider as the landlady. Elliot Levey is Herr Schultz’s Jewish suitor. Both are wunderbar – with the most credible relationship, sadly doomed under new Nazi laws.
Rebecca Frecknall’s production is clever, jarring, and ladles on added ironic hindsight that’s already built into Kander and Ebb’s 1966 masterpiece.
This is fashionably raw, political and oblique. But it overlooks what Cabaret is also: A big Broadway musical filled with glamour and showbiz appeal.
Alan Bennett’s 1973 sex farce, Habeas CorpusThis video is all about the British spirit. This simply couldn’t be written now. It’s lascivious, randy, groping, end-of-the-pier stuff – but with a knowing twist.
This film has a great cast. Jasper Britton plays the GP who loves extramarital nookies. Caroline Langrishe is an imperious ‘white settler’; there’s a sex-starved vicar, a nubile blonde and sundry stereotypes.
Catherine Russell, as the doctor’s wife who has her frontage endlessly manhandled, is a joy.
But somehow the laughs often slip through director Patrick Marber’s fingers. What should be an antidote to today’s censoriousness seems dated rather than refreshing.