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[title]On her dinner break from tech rehearsals for Cabaret, Gayle Rankin is eating what she calls a “picnic”: grape leaves and chicken from the Westerly Natural Market in midtown. It’s a far cry from what audiences will be eating if they opt for one of the unique dining experiences in the latest Broadway revival of the John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff’s classic 1966 musical.
The 34-year-old Scottish actress stars as Sally Bowles, a singer at a decadent Berlin dive in the early 1930s, as the Nazis rise to power. This new production is staged in the round: The August Wilson Theatre has been transformed into the Kit Kat Club, and audiences can arrive early to watch a 75-minute preshow from tables and chairs set up around the stage. Some packages include champagne and a light three-course meal. “I have not seen the menu yet, but look, it’s gonna be very fancy I’m sure,” Rankin says over the phone. (The menus are available online.)
Directed by Rebecca Frecknall, the production originated in London’s West End, where it earned seven Olivier Awards in 2022—including one for Eddie Redmayne, who stars in the Broadway cast as the Kit Kat Club’s sinister Emcee. “It’s extraordinarily immersive, more so than any theater I’ve ever seen or been a part of,” Rankin says.
“There’s something about when you enter this space: You’re like, I’m gonna leave everything outside of this space behind,” adds Ato Blankson-Wood, who plays Sally’s lover, the bisexual American writer Clifford Bradshaw. “It really invites you to the party.” He’s walking home from a Sunday yoga class at Maha Rose in Brooklyn; he also takes classes at Modo. He uses yoga as “physical grounding” to “stay sane” during the rehearsal process. “When you’re making a performance, you’re building a house,” he says, citing an analogy Meryl Streep once made. “And rehearsal is the plumbing—the uncomfortable, ugly part.”
It’s extraordinarily immersive, more so than any theater I’ve ever seen or been a part of.
It was backstage during his time as Hamlet at Shakespeare in the Park’s Delacorte Theatre last summer that he heard about auditions for Cabaret from his castmates. He immediately called his agent to be seen for Cliff. “There’s a play at the center of this musical, and the marriage of those two worlds just felt really right for where I am artistically,” he says. The role also spoke to him in more personal ways. “This production has chosen to cast Cliff as a Black man and I don’t think we’re really shying away from that in any way,” he notes. “I feel like we’re good at cultural amnesia—forgetting there were Black queer people in Berlin in 1930 who were artists. My take on Cliff is centered around honoring those people.”
He and Rankin share the duet “Perfectly Marvelous” where they agree to this relationship they’re about to have. “It’s a huge heartbeat of the show—kind of figuring out what the chemistry of these two people is,” Rankin says, adding that their love is “a really complex love which is very modern and ahead of its time.” And Rankin shows off some “serious comedic chops,” according to Blankson-Wood. “Whenever Gayle does it, I get a flash of Lucille Ball,” he says. “I think people are going to discover her as an amazing comedian.”
The co-stars got to know each other with a series of “dates” around the city. (“It was really sweet and wholesome,” says Rankin.) They started in the West Village at Julius’, New York City’s oldest gay bar—“which was kind of appropriate when you think about Cabaret,” Blankson-Wood says. From there they ventured to Fort Greene’s Café Paulette, and went to the movies to see All of Us Strangers. “There’s an intimacy that we need to build with each other,” Blankson-Wood says. “That bond translates to what’s on stage. So spending time with each other is really, really important.”
Rankin has been on Broadway in Cabaret before, in the version directed by Sam Mendes at Studio 54 a decade ago. (“Gayle Rankin is vividly gaudy as Fräulein Kost, a whore with a heart of flint,” said Time Out‘s review.) In a 2014 interview, she told Playbill if given the chance to change roles with anyone in the show, she wanted to play Sally: “No question. It is such a tough role, and watching Michelle [Williams as Sally] be so brilliant—it can’t help but inspire me to want to tackle the role one day.”
This production has chosen to cast Cliff as a Black man and I don’t think we’re really shying away from that in any way.
Today, Rankin doesn’t even remember saying that. “It was so private that I almost didn’t even allow myself to let it live,” she says after listening to her answer. “I wasn’t ready to play Sally when I was 24. I have a lot of complex feelings about that—but here we are.” Rankin, who splits her time between New York and London, says was “in shock” when was asked to submit a self-taped audition.
“It’s been a really interesting needle to thread of reinviting this material into my life,” she says. “I’m a different person, and that’s been really moving—to see my growth as a person and as an artist.” And as Sally, Rankin is looking forward to making bold choices. “I’m excited to just grab a piece of charcuterie,” she says, referring back to the audience’s swanky dining options. “I’m sure Sally is starving.”
Cabaret begins previews at the August Wilson Theatre on April 1, and opens officially on April 25. You can buy tickets here.