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CaptainBoheme

Clips of the Current London Revival on Youtube

Interesting to say the least. I especially like James Dreyfus' sort of comic-book take on the Emcee. It's like a cross between Jack Nicholson as The Joker in [i]Batman[/i] and Hitler.:

http://youtube.com/user/darkjosh
Don't Tell Mama

I've seen most of the clips on YouTube, and I'm still not sure if I like their interpretation.

"Don't Tell Mama" was quite an interesting number, and I give Ann Maxwell (I believe that's her name) credit for making Sally appear as more of a lush than normal.

James Dreyfus' performance didn't stick with me, not that he was horrible, it's just that nothing about his portrayal grabbed my attention. Actually, no, I'm wrong - his makeup and costume fascinates me. The overall look, in my opinion, is a mix of S&M, goth and a slightly updated take on "1930's decadence". You know you're supposed to be in Berlin at the cusp of Hitler's rise, yet you feel like you're in morden times. Not sure if that was the feeling they were shooting for, but that's how it sort of comes across to me.
CaptainBoheme

Don't Tell Mama wrote:
I give Ann Maxwell (I believe that's her name) credit for making Sally appear as more of a lush than normal.

Laughing

I too can't really decide if I like this production or not. I'm hoping it reads better in person because I've only seen clips of it. The impression I get from it is that the spectacles - the set pieces, vamped up costumes, and general gimmicky - are interesting in and of themselves. But the numbers just sort of come off as overstaged and disjointed. "Wilkommen" in particular lacked the cohesiveness of past stagings, and I get a very "paint-by-numbers" vibe from the choreography.

Dreyfus eschews most of the ambiguous sensuality and decadence that has defined the Emcee for most productions since Joel Grey, but he does capture some of the threatening quality of the character. I sort of like Anne Maxwell Martin's Sally, but she comes across as a bit of a lightweight to play the seedy, lascivious creature Sally was in the Isherwood stories.

But, again, I'd have to see the whole production.
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