2024 Tony Award nominee interview with Eddie Redmayne of CABARET

Eddie welcome back to Broadway and welcome back to the Tony party thank you it's so um it's so wonderful to be here so thank you I love you know I saw you in red and that was sort of your first big moment uh want to Tony for that this is very different yeah we get to see you as MC I never I don't know if back then I would have guessed that you'd be coming back doing this yeah I'm not sure I would have either honestly but yeah it's but this is almost because you did it in uh London first few years ago it's almost become like a in my eyes like almost like a passion project to bring this to Broadway is that how it felt for you yeah it absolutely has so this is something that I've been working on for seven eight years and um I'm a huge lover of Cabaret and I've seen some extraordinary Productions and for us we felt the the only reason to tell it again this story is if you can bring something new and Rebecca frel our director has a beautiful Take On the World with these issues that that piece encompasses of women's rights lgbtq rights um how that is those things are being Stripped Away now and and that there is although the piece is very much embedded in the 1930s it it's also resonates loud and clear to where we are at the moment and um so it's been a thrilling thing to work on it's also an outrageous term so it's so fun to see you just I mean this this this take on the MC is just it's wild oh well for me the MC doesn't you know the MC exists in it was a creation of how Prince and Joel Grace and it doesn't exist in Charles isherwood's book and for me he's almost like the the Greek chorus um he's this he starts as a kid like almost like a puppeteer and shape shifts his way through the evening that just when you hopefully just when you feel like you've got a handle on him it's gone again um and then he becomes rather than being the victim he sort of is in some ways the perpetrator of the thing and um and playing all those playing the the different incarnations of him is is really joyful you've been able to sort of launch an incredible career after your Broadway your first Broadway Triumph what does it mean to be back emotionally and what does it mean to just also be a part of this Broadway Community I always like you know people like you when they start on Broadway and then they get to do these great things in Hollywood I always like remind everyone they they're ours that's a Broadway person don't don't don't forget that any red is one of ours and now you're officially back and what does it mean for you it it you're not wrong I mean the what red that production gave me I I'll never forget and I think winning the Tony Awards I was auditioning for My Week with Marilyn at the time and and I think that night the winning the Tony was something that shifted it in a producer's mind and and so the the it really it had was incredibly important me um and for me though that the the the contrast being lucky enough to be able to jump between film and theater is it's so wonderful CU those two things inform each other and and quite often people say you know but go back to theater because that's the real thing and it sort of and it enfor it sort of retrains your muscles and it absolutely does but also I think film also because the camera sees so much you can't um you can't kind of can't push too much and so often I think when I haven't done theater for a while it kind of brings something else in when I go back into into on stage what about being a part of a Broadway company that's always exciting to have that family every night you're going to the Kit Kat Club with this family and you're doing this show every night what what is that like for you um it's the best part of the job and the company on Cabaret are the most glorious beautiful group of humans um and the the whole process the rehearsal process because what the piece is about in some ways or or our take on it is rather than the Kit Kat girls being a sort of generic group it it's about the individual and it's about the power of of of expression and each cast member has brought their whole selves to the piece and and what a tree to get to meet this extraordinary team and they've been so kind as well because although I have done Broadway before I haven't done musicals um and all of the lessons and the tips and the um and the support I has been immense the camaraderie is just theader is through the roof and and and um and quite overwhelming actually um it's been and and part of the process has been everyone talking about or bringing themselves to it and being vulnerable and and and that's been a real trick to witness excited to go to the Tony's and I'm assuming we're going to get to see the MC on TV oh my God I don't know about that little performance maybe what um what the Tony Awards are unlike they are the greatest award show I've only been once and it was the just you know Broadway does a show better than anyone in the world and it is that night I will never forget and I'm so one of the great things about being nominated is getting to go to the award show that is so exciting thanks man congratulations nice to see you