February on the London Stage: A Shakespearean Jonathan Bailey, Billy Porter as the Emcee and Patti LuPone in Concert
February may be the shortest month but it is packed with enticing offerings on the London stage. The weeks ahead promise not one but two star-laden Sophoclean tragedies, and two comparably starry stagings of Shakespeare, alongside the latest offering from a fast-rising solo talent and a Broadway diva back for yet another London hurrah.
BEING SEEN
Rebecca Frecknall’s acclaimed revival of Cabaret has hosted many and varied stars since it opened at the Kit Kat Club late in 2021, with Eddie Redmayne as the shape-shifting Emcee and Jessie Buckley as the time-honored “toast of Mayfair,” Sally Bowles. But the current American leads—Billy Porter and Marisha Wallace—mark the first time anyone can remember that these roles have been given to performers of color. “I never thought I’d play this part,” an exultant Wallace (Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls) told Broadway.com, the two-time Olivier nominee speaking during a lunch break.
Wallace over time had met the usual pushback when she ever enquired about playing Sally Bowles. “I was told there were no Black people around at the time, and thought, that can’t be true. When I did the …
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