Adam Lambert and Auli'i Cravalho to Join Cabaret on Broadway

Broadway's Kit Kat Club will welcome some new faces in the fall—Adam Lambert and Auli'i Cravalho are set to step into the roles of the Emcee and Sally Bowles, respectively, in Cabaret beginning September 16. Both are making their Broadway debuts in the John Kander and Fred Ebb revival for a limited engagement through March 30, 2025.

Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin will play their final performances as the Emcee and Sally September 14. As previously reported, several of the company's understudies will play the roles for various performances in July and August.

The Grammy-nominated Lambert was the runner up in season 8 of American Idol. He's released three studio albums, and his hit songs include "Whataya Want from Me" (currently being sung in the musical & Juliet).

Cravalho rose to fame as the voice of the title character in the Disney animated film Moana (which she will reprise in Moana 2, to be released November 27). She recently played Janice in the film adaptation of the Mean Girls musical.

Current on Broadway as a transfer from an Olivier-winning West End engagement, the revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's Cabaret opened April 21. Rebecca Frecknall directs. Read the reviews here. The production was nominated for nine 2024 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. It won one, for Tom Scutt's set design.

"Growing up on the musical theater stage, it was always a childhood dream to perform on Broadway," Lambert said in a statement. "With this production of Cabaret, it finally felt like the right time to accept an invitation to make my debut. The themes of this show have always resonated with me and given the current sociopolitical climate the world is in, feel eerily timely. Eddie and Gayle have been a dream pairing and I’m looking forward to working with Auli’i to create our own magic. It is thrilling to be able to sink my teeth into this important story and collaborate with the rest of the talented artists in the cast and crew."

Added Cravalho, “I’m thrilled to join the long line of talented women who have taken on the iconic ‘Sally Bowles;’ most recently, the woman I watched with notebook and pen in hand, the dynamite Gayle Rankin. To join a show with so much history—and such a stellar cast and crew—means it’s quite literally an honor to get my butt kicked each week. Mahalo palena ʻole family, I wouldn’t be making this debut without you.”

The current cast of Cabaret also features Bebe Neuwirth as Fraulein Schneider, Ato Blankson-Wood as Clifford Bradshaw, Steven Skybell as Herr Schultz, Henry Gottfried as Ernst Ludwig, and Natascia Diaz as Fraulein Kost and Fritzie.

The company also includes Marty Lauter (AKA Marcia Marcia Marcia of RuPaul's Drag Race season 15) as Victor, Gabi Campo as Frenchie, Ayla Ciccone-Burton as Helga, Colin Cunliffe as Hans, Loren Lester as Herman/Max, David Merino as Lulu, Julian Ramos as Bobby, MiMi Scardulla as Texas, and Paige Smallwood as Rosie. Swings include Hannah Florence, Pedro Garza, Christian Kidd, Chloé Nadon-Enriquez, Corinne Munsch, and Karl Skyler Urban.

“I’m so thrilled that Adam and Auli’i will be joining our Cabaret company this fall," Frecknall said in a statement. "Both actors bring such talent, tenacity, and intelligence to their work and I know they will bring new and exciting offerings to the Kit Kat Club. Having started out in the world of musical theatre, Adam has a real passion for this work and such a wealth of artistic experience to bring to the role of ‘Emcee.’ I can’t wait to see his interpretation of the role and see him host the audience at the August Wilson Theatre, it’s going to be electric! And I'm so excited to be working with Auli’i on the role of ‘Sally Bowles.’ I know her humor, musicality, vulnerability, and ferocity will combine to make an unmissable performance. It’s a real privilege to have both of these incredible artists making their Broadway debuts in our production.”

READ: Eddie Redmayne First Played the Cabaret's Emcee in School, Now He's Doing It on Broadway

As in the production's West End run, the theatre has been transformed into an in-the-round Kit Kat Club. Ticket holders receive a "club entry time" before their show date so that everyone's able to take in the pre-show, which can even include a full dinner at some ticket levels. The prologue company, a group of 12 dancers and musicians, welcome theatregoers with a pre-show performance beginning approximately 75 minutes prior to curtain time.

The Broadway prologue company comprises dancers Alaïa, Iron Bryan, Will Ervin Jr., Sun Kim, and Deja McNair. The musicians include Brian Russell Carey on piano and bass, Francesca Dawis on violin, Maeve Stier on accordion, and Michael Winograd on clarinet. Rounding out the company are dancer swings Ida Saki and Spencer James Weidie, and dedicated substitute musician Keiji Ishiguri.

Based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin and John Van Druten's dramatization of it, I Am a Camera, Cabaret is set in Weimar-era Berlin as American writer Clifford Bradshaw arrives to work on his novel and soak up the debaucherous nightlife. He meets English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and a complex relationship develops, all as the Nazis ascend to power and the spectre of World War II and all its horrors loom on the horizon.

Much of the production's creative team is reprising their work for the Broadway bow, including choreographer Julia Cheng; club, set, and costume designer Tom Scutt; lighting designer Isabella Byrd; sound designer Nick Lidster (for Autograph); and music supervisor and director Jennifer Whyte. Hair and wig design are by Sam Cox, and Guy Common is handling makeup design. Prologue composition and music direction are by Angus MacRae, with Jordan Fein serving as prologue director. Casting is by Bernard Telsey and Kristian Charbonier, and Thomas Recktenwald serves as production stage manager.

READ: In Cabaret, Set and Costume Designer Tom Scutt Wanted to Celebrate Queer Individuality

The revival is the musical's first new staging on the Main Stem since the 1998 revival, which was also a London transfer. That 1998 production was revived in 2014. Revivals of previous stagings are not uncommon for Cabaret.

The oft-produced work premiered in 1966 with Harold Prince at the helm and Joel Grey starring (and winning a Tony Award) as The Emcee. The original staging (with some revisions) was brought back to Broadway, with Grey reprising his performance, in a 1987 revival. The 1998 version of Cabaret, a more dramatic revision of the work, starred Alan Cumming as the Emcee—Cumming won the Tony for his performance and came back with the production when it was revived in 2014.

The musical was famously adapted for the big screen by director-choreographer Bob Fosse, with Liza Minnelli starring as Sally Bowles. The film version, considerably darker and seedier than Prince's staging, won eight Academy Awards and is considered by many one of the best films ever made. Revisions to the stage work since the 1972 film have largely transplanted the film's energy into the script—along with some of its new songs, including "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time."

The Broadway transfer is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Underbelly, Gavin Kalin Productions, Hunter Arnold, Smith & Brant Theatricals, and Wessex Grove.

Visit KitKat.club.