Filmed live during the 1993 revival, Sam Mendes' directorial debut takes place at the Donmar Warehouse in London's West End. Jane Horrocks stars as Sally Bowles, Adam Godley as Cliff, and Alan Cumming as the eccentric Emcee. Inside the Kit Kat Club in 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally and the lewd Emcee sound the clarion call to decadence, while outside, the Nazi party grows into a brutal force.
Acting
Cumming's Emcee is a career-defining predator-puppetmaster hybrid.
Direction
Mendes strips it raw — no glam, just sweat and swastikas.
Production
Mirrors everywhere — you're implicated, darling.
Director
Sam Mendes
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Mendes' first directing credit — he was 28 and had never directed film OR stage musical before. Absolute menace.
The 1993 revival deliberately queered the Emcee, transforming him from Joel Grey's asexual gremlin into Cumming's aggressively bisexual ringmaster — a choice that permanently reshaped the character for every production since.
GB
