Bebe Neuwirth, Steven Skybell Join Broadway Revival Cast of Cabaret

Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth and Obie winner Steven Skybell have joined the cast of Rebecca Frecknall’s Cabaret revival, beginning performances April 1, 2024 at the August Wilson Theatre. The production will have twin opening nights on April 20 and 21, with reviews scheduled to come out on the latter date.

Neuwirth will take on the role of Fraulein Schneider, with Skybell as Herr Schultz, starring alongside Eddie Redmayne, who reprises his Olivier and WhatsOnStage Award-winning turn as the Emcee, Gayle Rankin as Sally Bowles, and Ato Blankson-Wood as Cliff.

This is the latest Kander and Ebb venture for Neuwirth, who won a Tony for playing Velma in the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago (she has also played Roxie and Mama Morton in the production), and also appeared in the West End as Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Skybell is most recently known for his turn as Tevye in the off-Broadway mounting of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, for which he won an Obie and earned Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award nominations.

Cabaret, which completely gutted the West End’s Playhouse Theatre and rebuilt it as an in-the-round cabaret space called the Kit Kat Club, earned a record-setting seven Olivier Awards in 2022. The New York mounting will transform the Wilson into a similarly configured Kit Kat Club, where ticketed audience members are invited to arrive early to take in pre-show drinks, dining, and entertainment.

Frecknall directs the John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff masterpiece, which is based on the play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten and the Berlin Stories of Christopher Isherwood. The team includes club, scenic, and costumer designer Tom Scutt, lighting designer Isabelle Byrd, sound designer Nick Lidster, choreographer Julia Cheng, musical supervisor Jennifer Whyte, UK assistant director/prologue director Jordan Fein, prologue composer/musical director Angus MacRae, hair and wig designer Sam Cox, makeup designer Guy Common, US associate director Danny Sharron, US associate choreographer Jessica Castro, and UK associate choreographer Kayla Lomas-Kirton.

Redmayne and Rankin are scheduled to appear in the production through August 31, 2024. Beginning June 17, Redmayne will not perform on Monday nights, and beginning June 19, Rankin will not appear at Wednesday matinees.

Full casting will be announced in the coming weeks.