This is a review by someone who saw Cabaret with both Eddie and Adam within a short amount of time. Posted 2 days ago.
www.reddit.com/r/Broadway/comments/1firzb1/cabaret_10_vs_20/
cabaret 1.0 vs 2.0!i'm here for a week and it just so happened to coincide with the cast change for cabaret, so i'm lucky enough to have seen them both in a very short timeframe (saturday matinee, and this evening). i think the actors are going to need a little time to take settle and grow into their roles but they're all doing as well as can be expected with big shoes to fill!! i have a couple of non-spoilery thoughts, in case it helps anyone thinking about going for the show, but they're all just my personal opinion, so no one get offended, please!
1. i think adam was a better emcee than eddie.
1a) eddie was a singular, inimitable experience, that fit in with this version of the show, but didn't really make sense or carry a through line to me. adam played it in between the more traditional emcee and what eddie's emcee did, and it just worked better.
1b) i read the interview he did with joel, but i thought adam accomplished what he was going for a little more successfully. eddie felt like he was breathing the essence of the show to life whereas adam felt like a catalyst, like he was leading the story, moving things along somewhere.
1c) eddie was an absolute delight to watch, but watching adam was a pleasure. and there were points that adam gave me chills, both with his voice and how creepy he was. (honestly, after this, i think he would make a great joker.)
2) however!! the eddie vs adam change doesn't make the biggest impact on the show. the real takeaway ended up being that gayle is incredible and auli'i, bless her heart, is nowhere near that calibre. (yet?) her choices and interpretation of sally make sense for her, but not so much for the overall show, and is the biggest change from version 1.0 to 2.0. i was happy to go along with it in act 1, but a lot of act 2 felt completely out of character the way it played out, though i could see what she was going for. it was a little like watching jojo try to play satine, part 2. both jojo and auli'i have fantastic voices, but neither have the acting chops or charisma to live up to their predecessors. (where in jojo's case i mean nicole kidman).
3) bebe and steven are the heart and soul of the production and nothing with them can ever be bad. they're so solid and wonderful and perfect, and the little (minute!) tweaks they made to match the tones and choices of the new actors was stunning.
4) unfortunately, the actors for cliff, across both productions, were arguably the weakest links, though after seeing cliff 2.0 i appreciated 1.0 a lot better. but i would not rush to see either of them in another production.
5) the overall music and vibe felt completely different. idk if that was a conscious choice or if the new leads but it was really amazing, just how different the energy in the room was. we got a lot more laughs tonight, but i think the "twists", if you can call them that, were less surprising (at least gauging from the audience reaction). i found the closing scene more impactful this time, mostly because of adam, but everything else leading up to that was iffy at best. auli'i did her best on maybe this time, but it just paled in comparison to what gayle did, and it was hard not to compare.
6) it's worth the watch, especially if you're curious to see how changed the production feels, but if you're very particular about how sally is played, this cast might not be for you!
i was mostly neutral towards adam before this, though i thought he had a very good voice, but he is stellar!!
Question:How was Adam's physicality? I was a huge fan of Eddie's marionette movements, but that seems to be a very specific Eddie thing that he trained to do. Does Adam still do a good job commanding the stage with his movements?
Reply:he definitely didn't go as marionette-like as eddie did - i think that will be an entirely eddie thing, and no one will be able to pull it off as well as he did! - but adam is very, very commanding onstage, almost arresting (which i think is at least partially helped by his physique).
