Eddie Redmayne wows critics in New York Cabaret debut

Eddie Redmayne wowed the critics as he led the Broadway transfer of the West End hit Cabaret.

The actor, who plays the Emcee in the dark musical tale set in 1930s Berlin as the Nazis come to power, starred alongside Gayle Rankin who played the nightclub singer Sally Bowles in the New York production.

The New York Times said his “macabre” character provided “many fine and entertaining moments” alongside Rankin.

The Los Angeles Times said the actor put “his own androgynous stamp on the character in a spellbinding display” it described as “physically precise” and “theatrically audacious”.

This production of the critically-acclaimed show was launched in London in 2021 with Redmayne and Jessie Buckley as Bowles.

It was also a critical hit - getting five stars from Evening Standard theatre critic Nick Curtis who described it as “a stunning, breathlessly exciting theatrical happening” that was “astonishingly contemporary, and properly immersive”.

The hit musical, famously made into a film starring Liza Minnelli as the cabaret singer Sally, was inspired by the novels of English writer Christopher Isherwood based on his own experiences in the German capital as the Nazis rose to power and clamped down on its liberated night life and sense of sexual freedom.

The London production continues to play to sell-out audiences with the main roles since taken on by changing line-ups of performers, including Scissor Sisters star Jake Shears and fellow singer Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem, who played the Emcee and Sally Bowles respectively.

Cara Delevingne is currently playing the part of Bowles.