Norris Follows Festen with Cabaret Revival???
Date: 29 March 2005
Cabaret is set to be revived in the West End. According to Playbill.com, Rufus Norris is now signed up to direct a new production of Kander and Ebb’s 1966 musical produced by Bill Kenwright, who also co-produced Norris’ multi award-winning production of Festen, now at the West End’s Lyric Theatre ahead of a planned Broadway transfer. Set in the Kit Kat Klub of 1930s Berlin, the story about sultry American singer Sally Bowles is one of pre-war sexual decadence and eroticism. The musical is based on the stories of Christopher Isherwood and the play by John Van Druten, and has a book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Cabaret was famously revived by Sam Mendes at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 1993. That production later transferred to Broadway, where it ran from 1998 to 2004 and won a host of awards, including Tonys for Best Musical Revival, Best Actor in a Musical for Scotsman Alan Cumming, playing the Kit Kat Club’s Emcee, and Best Actress in a Musical for Natasha Richardson as Sally Bowles, the role immortalised by Liza Minnelli in Bob Fosse's 1972 Oscar-winning film. Amongst the names previously tipped for Bowles in the new Kenwright production is Denise Van Outen, who’s found West End musical success in Tell Me on a Sunday and Chicago, which she also performed on Broadway.
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