Country Star Orville Peck Sets Broadway Debut in Cabaret. Will He Unmask?

Tony Award-winning Broadway revival Cabaret at Club Kit Kat has a new Emcee and it looks like it’s going to be a star-revealing role playing him.

On Wednesday, Jan. 15, producers announced that queer country star Orville Peck will star in Rebecca Frecknall’s production of the landmark 1966 musical, currently playing at the August Wilson Theater in New York.

It’s a watershed moment for the South African-born, Canadian-raised singer, who is making his Broadway debut in the production. And it could be a turning point for Peck fans as well.

In his professional performing career, the deep-voiced crooner famously hid his face with a different mask every time he performed, a move he said began as a nod to the country outlaw troupe. And even though the Emcee himself wears many masks Cabaretthey are more metaphorical, inviting many to wonder if Peck will give up his anonymity when he takes the stage to show his face.

Orville Peck performs on stage during Lucktoberfest: Outlaw Masquerade at Luck Ranch on October 29, 2022 in Spicewood, Texas. Rick Kern/Getty Orville Peck ‘refused’ to quit despite people ‘laughing in my face’ for being an openly gay artist (Exclusive)

Fans will have to wait until this spring to see it for sure. The 37-year-old begins performances on Monday, March 21. His limited 16-week engagement ends on Sunday, July 20.

He will be joined in the production by Grammy-winning theater star Eva Noblezada, who is currently treading the boards in The Great Gatsby. She will play Sally Bowles, a fictional English singer who performs at the Emcee’s Kit Kat Club.

Adam Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho, who currently star in the roles, will play their final performances in the production on Saturday, March 29.

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Eva Noblezada at the Broadway premiere of ‘The Great Gatsby’ on April 25, 2024 in New York City.

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Before embarking on his highly successful musical career, Peck studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and worked in classical theater in London’s West End.

“Host has been my dream role since I was a teenager,” Peck said in a statement released Wednesday. “The nature of the character allows for complete freedom of individual expression. It can be portrayed through such a wide range of emotions, perspectives and performance styles. That kind of freedom is every actor’s dream.”

“I truly can’t believe I’m about to make my Broadway debut in one of my favorite shows and probably my favorite role in all of musical theater,” he added. “I grew up in the theater. I was an active actor and dancer for many years before I got into music. I struggled and struggled for a long time, trying to make things happen for myself. But it taught me so much about myself as a performer and a person , so it feels full circle to come back to it at this stage in my career.”

Eddie Redmayne, Gayle Rankin and the cast of ‘Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club’ perform on stage during the 77th Tony Awards on June 16, 2024 in New York City.

Theo Wargo/Getty

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Noblezada, who finishes her race as ‘Daisy Buchanan’ The Great Gatsby On January 30, she also expressed her excitement about the role.

“While I was studying musical theater at school, Cabaret he always stood out,” said the 28-year-old, two-time Tony nominee. “I was, and am, in awe of the lineage of theatrical royalty that was in the show. And I find Sally Bowles just… fascinating. She is like a fully conscious child who is also fully incompetent. Almost clownish. But really raw and in your face. And that character in the midst of that background of such an evil reality is painfully surreal.”

“I’m totally excited to start learning more,” she said. “And I’m willing to be as submissive as possible to the world of the icon that is Cabaret.”

Adam Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho strike a pose for ‘Cabaret’.

Julieta Cervantes

Cabaret at Club Kit Kat originally opened in April 2024, starring Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin.

Based on the 1951 play by John Van Druten I am the camerawhich was adapted from the 1939 novel Goodbye Berlin By Christopher Isherwood, the musical follows fictional American writer Clifford Bradshaw as he moves to Berlin amid the rise of the Nazi Party. His observations about the eccentric characters that inhabit the Kit Kat Club are the basis for both the musical and his future novel.

The musical was a long-running success on both stage and screen, first appearing on Broadway in 1966 before being made into a 1972 film of the same name starring Oscar winner Liza Minnelli as Sally. It was revived on Broadway in 1998 and 2014, both with Alan Cumming as the host.

The recording by Kander & Ebb consists of a number of songs that have become mainstays of musical theater, such as “Willkommen”, “Don’t Tell Mamma”, “Mein Herr”, “Two Ladies”, “Tomorrow Belongs to” Me”, “Money”, “Maybe this time” and, of course, “Cabaret”.

Adam Lambert as host in ‘Cabaret’.

Julieta Cervantes

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The production also stars two-time Tony Award winner and 2024 Tony Award nominee Bebe Neuwirth, Calvin Leon Smith as ‘Clifford Bradshaw,’ 2024 Tony Award nominee Steven Skybell as ‘Herr Schultz;’ Henry Gottfried as ‘Ernst Ludwig’ and Michelle Aravena as ‘Fritzie/Kost’.

Other stars in the cast include Gabi Campo as ‘Frenchie’, Ayla Ciccone-Burton as ‘Helga’, Colin Cunliffe as ‘Hans’, Kayla Jenerson as ‘Rosie’, Marty Lauter as ‘Victor’, Loren Lester as ‘Herman/Max ‘ ,’ David Merino as ‘Lulu,’ Julian Ramos as ‘Bobby,’ MiMi Scardulla as ‘Texas’ and Paige Smallwood. Maya Bowles, Hannah Florence, Pedro Garza, Christian Kidd, Corinne Munsch, Chloé Nadon-Enriquez and Karl Skyler Urban are swings.

Tickets for Cabaret at Club Kit Kat they are on sale now.

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Source: HIS Education