Cabaret, part 2, posts starting 9/19/24

The last time Adam Lambert performed in New York, he was belting “Fat Bottomed Girls,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Who Wants to Live Forever” to a packed crowd at Madison Square Garden in his sometime role as the frontman of Queen.

Auliʻi Cravalho, meanwhile, is best known as the voice of Moana—the island-born, sea-voyaging Disney Princess who sings the self-empowerment anthem “How Far I’ll Go.”

Earlier this month, the duo stepped into two much darker roles in a very different setting, taking over as Cabaret’s Emcee and Sally Bowles at the August Wilson Theatre/Kit Kat Club. They spoke to Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek for The Broadway Show during their final week of rehearsals.

Welcome to Broadway. How does that feel? I know you both have had dreams of this moment of making a Broadway debut for a long time.

AULI’I: It's funny. We started off in, of course, a rehearsal space and I felt so strong there. And then moving here because our stage is in a round, I'm spinning like a top. I go, "Where is upstage and downstage?"

ADAM: Same.

AULI’I: Thankfully, the music brings me back. I'm on that emotional journey rollercoaster whether I like it or not, so that's helpful. But we still have some time to get rehearsing and I'm going to need it.

Where are the emotions for you right now, Adam?


ADAM: I'm excited. It's such a full-circle feeling. I feel like I was on this trajectory in my 20s. I did a national tour of Wicked. And then I took the fork in the road to go on American Idol and that took me on the last 15 years of this other thing, which I've totally enjoyed and I'm still on it. But coming back to this is like, "Oh, yeah. This is what I wanted when I was a kid. This is what I thought I was going to be doing." So it feels like I've gone back in time in a way. I feel like I'm 30 again because I'm doing what I was doing then and it feels really good. And I love being in a cast on a stage. I missed theater people. I missed the community. Pop music is really fun, rock music is really fun, but it gets a little lonely. And working with a cast and a team like this, I really missed it.

I have to tell you I actually first met you 20 years ago this month at the Kodak Theater. You were starring in the Ten Commandments musical. We all needed a Ten Commandments musical.

ADAM: And I don't think anybody wanted it.

But you were fantastic. I specifically remember in the show, having one of those moments in the dark of looking at my Playbill and going, "Who is this? Who is this kid?" because you were so fantastic.

ADAM: Oh, thanks.

So it's taken a while, but we're thrilled you're here.

ADAM: Thank you.

So Cabaret, obviously it's a classic musical. I think you guys both know classic musicals. You did a lot of classic musicals when you were a kid.

ADAM: I'm a show pony. I'm a theater queen for days.

Is there a 13-year-old version of the Emcee that there's a video of?

ADAM: Duh, yeah. I sang a couple of the songs—in a recital format.


More..  www.broadway.com/buzz/204699/aulii-cravalho-and-adam-lambert-descend-to-new-depths-as-cabarets-sally-bowles-and-emcee/