Cabaret Reviews: What the Critics Say

Rebecca Frecknall's Cabaret opened at the Kit Kat Club, the rebuilt Playhouse Theatre on Northumberland Avenue, in December 2021, and no star-rated review went below four stars.

The reviews were written about the opening cast: Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee, Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles, Omari Douglas as Cliff, and Liza Sadovy and Elliot Levey as Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. Every one of those roles has been recast since. Skylar Astin plays the Emcee until 12 December 2026 and Sarah Hyland plays Sally until 23 January 2027, the two of them in since 21 September 2026.

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The Critics' Verdict

The Evening Standard, the Telegraph, the Independent, the Financial Times, The Stage and WhatsOnStage all gave it five. The Guardian, the Times, the Observer, the Sunday Times, the i, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and Time Out gave four. The production went on to win seven Olivier Awards in 2022, and all four acting awards for a musical went to its cast.

What the Reviews Praised

Jessie Buckley's Sally, more than anything else. The Independent's Alexandra Pollard called her title song "perhaps the best musical-theatre performance I have ever seen live". Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times wrote that she "gives a career-defining performance as Sally Bowles: raw, desolate, defiant", and Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard said her reprise of the title song "looks almost like an exorcism". Andrzej Lukowski, giving four stars in Time Out, called her "a force of nature".

Eddie Redmayne's Emcee. Curtis called it "a brilliantly twisted creation", and Neil Norman in the Daily Express wrote that "it is Redmayne's show and he relishes every moment".

The older couple. Several critics singled out Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, the landlady and her Jewish lodger. Arifa Akbar in the Guardian wrote that "they become this production's heart", and Fiona Mountford in the i said their romance was "exquisitely delineated". The Observer's Susannah Clapp went to one small scene: "Who would have thought that so much saucy tenderness could be conveyed by the handing over of a pineapple?" Richard Maguire at The Reviews Hub was less taken, finding that their story "doesn't give us the fireworks of Sally's life".

Where Reviews Were Mixed

Cliff, and whether he and Sally work as a couple. Akbar wrote that "together, they do not spark romantic chemistry as the central couple", and Mountford found Douglas struggled to give Cliff much definition, so that the relationship "lacks conviction". Patrick Marmion in the Daily Mail saw it the other way, calling Douglas "a revelation", and Greg Stewart at Theatre Weekly said that when the two of them come together "there's some sort of magic happening on that stage". The critics who were unconvinced blamed the part as much as the actor: Akbar found Douglas "hemmed in by the role", and Hemming, who liked him, called the character sketchy.

Redmayne. The Sunday Times headline called the show amazing and Redmayne miscast, over a four-star review by Quentin Letts. Mountford wrote that he "fails to banish entirely memories of Alan Cumming's definitive take on this part". On Buckley the exception was the Times, where Clive Davis was cool on her singing.

What the club does to the story. Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage found the result "terrifying, with a darkness that reaches all the deeper because the audience has been made to feel complicit". Clapp, in the Observer, thought that reading went too far, and felt the glamour of the evening took the edge off the danger in the story. Exeunt, which does not give stars, went further still and found the whole thing too polished to land a political punch.

The dancing. With the stage a small circle in the middle of the auditorium, Maguire at The Reviews Hub and Davis in the Times both felt Julia Cheng's choreography was held back by the space.

The price, which came up in nearly every national review. Hemming's five stars came with a complaint about the cost of the top tickets, and Clapp signed off on the same subject. Those were 2021 prices.

Is Cabaret Right for You?

Book it if you want a musical that takes its story seriously. It is set in Berlin as the Nazis come to power.

Think twice if you want to come out of the theatre in a party mood. Crompton found it terrifying, and Mountford wrote that "Sex might be everywhere, but no one is enjoying it."

Think twice if you are booking for the names in these reviews. The Emcee and Sally change every few months, so check who is on for your date.

Audiences have agreed with the critics.

Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we will talk it through.

Book Cabaret Tickets

Tickets run from around £40 up to around £390, with premium seats from around £200. All-in pricing, so the price you see is what you pay.

The show usually sells out by the day of the performance, but if you book a few weeks ahead you should be able to pick up seats at sensible prices.

Who is playing the Emcee and Sally on your date, the schedule and the seats are all on our Cabaret tickets page, and the theatre itself is in our Kit Kat Club guide.

Find tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050

Sources

The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Telegraph, The Independent, Financial Times, Evening Standard, The i Paper, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Stage, WhatsOnStage, Time Out, The Arts Desk, BroadwayWorld, Musical Theatre Review, The Reviews Hub, Culture Whisper, Theatre Weekly, West End Wilma, All That Dazzles, The Arts Dispatch, Exeunt.