Eddie Redmayne & Gayle Rankin Talk 'Cabaret' Revival & Love Of New York

[Applause] how are you they're very excited I couldn't even get the beginning out they were so excited it's nice to see you both so do you enjoy being here both from the UK do you enjoy being in New York City like working yeah I actually have lived here for a long time cuz I went to school here but I have I'm from Scotland originally but I yeah it's it's fun it's fun having am here do you like me I adore this city as a kid I sort of fell in love with New York through the movies and I remember coming when I was about I think about 12 years old and just being absolutely emotionally stunned by the city and it retains that particularly up on Broadway where we're playing it's kind of it feels like a film set it feels too extraordinary to be true it really does I walk in this city every day like every day at least for an hour like I'm walking around from work or to work or whatever and it really feels like you're in a movie like everything like Central Park so beautiful like everything it's yeah it's very nice I know you kind of have to pinch yourself I think I remember when I first came I went on the the red bus tour like the uptone red bu turn and it past the school I went to juliard and they like the juliard school and I was like I should go there naive T like really naive I know but I love that and then you ended up going there that was that you were you were here though before you went there that's when you were yeah I I came from I think my 16th birthday and what a cool birthday it was a great birthday I think we went in a limo you know when limos were cool yeah so you were like Lemo to prom Lemo and new and well then you have kids and like they think it's cool so now I'm like doing like the they have this Home Alone thing like at the yeah at the hotel and you you do the whole thing like in the New York City and so we yes we got the pizza got in the limo my kids are like it's a limo I love that I can't believe you just told me that home alone is my favorite movie oh my God the day I got married like after the following day all of my friends stayed and we we watched home alone I say I can't believe there's a tour how did I not know there is a well it's like a thing they do at the plaza they do this thing where they they even bring you the whole big dessert it's from Home Alone 2 it's that H yeah yeah and then my kids were like we should do this every year as a tradition I'm like this is a very expensive tradition I was like just so you're else in New York yeah I was like this is let's have a traditional like getting ice cream somewhere um but okay so you you had to adjust though being here for the first time cuz you weren't aware there were like actual highways in the city right no no we just thought it was a grid system coming from I was like yeah I know what New York looks like so I was like uh about 18 19 and I'd gone to a party Uptown and I got a cab home and it took me on the westside Highway and I was like sir sir sir where are we I was like are we in New Jersey he was like on the westside Highway sweetheart I was like I'm being kidnapped you know what movie ruined me Bone Collector o i it take me a minute to get back in a cab yeah why would you ever I was like or I'll walk I was like it'll be like an hour but yeah I love the subway so you love the subway but your your son loves the train is no I'm I'm a massive Subway fan and particularly in the city you can never predict how long things are going to take unless you go on the subway um but I was making a film here towards the end of right just as we were coming out of covid and my son was 3 years old at the time and it was like should you be going on the subway at the time as far as spreading the sort of Co and I remember taking him one day and and he was sort of using it as a monkey playground like jump and I turned around and found literally licking up those things it's like this is a disaster the show is going to get anyway no I love the subway I find it that's my son and he's eight yeah he'll be like it's fine it feels cool and I'm like okay free probiotic okay to be fair it is quite a good gymnasium there are lots of things to love myid love the subway and I'm with you I take it as what if I'm not if I can't walk I'd rather walk but if I can't like this it's so you never know in a car it can literally be 10 minutes or 35 I agree yeah and particularly with getting to the theater you have to be need to kind of get just like I say theater theater it sounds very fancy i' feel very prestigious so your kids are eight and six right that's right okay okay so is it getting harder because my daughter is about to be 10 and she is very much going to be a lawyer at this point in her life like she is negotiation oh wow never promise anything I tell parents just don't commit to anything like cuz they will call it back on you you're absolutely right and they can have sort of their memory can be dodgy for certain things but absolutely forensic for specific things and my daughter is exactly like that we she she can negotiate hardcore when it comes to it and but you're right when you said never promise anything even if it's first thing in the morning and you've just woken up and things are being asked you just want to sort of spit words out in order that you can sleep a bit longer yeah and no never oh I literally this morning I got a little scolding with the eyes it was the look for my daughter because last night my dinner took longer than it was anticipated I than I thought and I was supposed to put them to bed and she was like I I got the eyes of like shame like well remember that time you told me you were going to put me to bed and I was like I thought I was the know I just promis nothing like she was like am I going to eat food today I don't know I don't want to be held counting yeah they're they are negotiators you can see them in cavar at the Kit Kat Club at the August Wilson theater um so tell us about your characters for people that don't know Cabaret do you want to go first go first as the MC or do you want to yeah um I play Sally Bulls the iconic Sally Bulls um who's a character originally in the Christopher isher Woods um books uh goodbye to Berlin um and uh made very famous by the inimitable Liza Manelli in the film um and so many incredible women have played her um she's a she's a singer in a nightclub in Berlin in the 1920s um and she gets fired quite early on in in the story and it's um um these and huge life story yes yeah massive she's and she goes on a huge very intense Journey as a as an artist and as a woman and yeah inside of this club yes of which the MC is kind of running the show and he was a creation when they made the musical based on the book that kind of holds the whole piece together but he's and he's he starts as this in our version as this it's almost like a kid at a party and gradually throughout the thing he shapes shifts his way through it with these designer Tom Scotts made these extraordinary costumes into kind of skeletal costumes and clown Piero costumes and um and eventually he's in some ways he kind of represents I suppose the soul of Berlin just as the fascism was sort of creeping in yeah the audience sings along as well right does that get distracting cuz sometimes people would clap um off Rhythm I'm sure that's super helpful and they're singing the wrong words they're looking at me like singing I'm like baby you don't know the words wait you're make you messing me up that totally totally sometimes there are some people that like to sing Cabaret which is really interesting because the interpretation of that the the titular song is is really specific to our production and not necessarily what people expect so there's some you know joyful rockers singing along and I kind of tried to like make make some direct ey contact with people like do you want to do you want to you want a battle man yeah I'll battle um it gets it's you love that they're into it but also you're like you're going to throw me so hard yeah it's an interesting thing where it's like something bad is g to happen yeah which would still be fun it's kind of like a fun environment like you said because it's Cav that's so cool what a wonderful show well Tony nominations oh my God there's nine right is there nine that's an incredible amount so congratulations yes how did how do you hear about it how' you find out I was like I think I I I was really trying to pretend it wasn't happening cuz I think you know for better for us all been in this position or this is the first time I've been in this position and I was like I'm going to sleep I'm going to sleep it happens early in the morning um and one of my dear friends who's a playwright um was the first person to text me he was like let's go and I was like me something good has happening yeah hoped I don't know um and it was really I mean we C and then we phoned each other then very special so cool I was doing that that terrified thing of each morning when you wake up you kind of check that your voice is still alive oh my God and so in the shower doing all those oh my God we're all choir kids oh yeah definitely and I came out of the shower and found um some text messages and it was it was pretty overwhelming because it's been such a passion project for us and and it's meant the world that so many elements of the show have been recognized but also one of the things about this city that is so special is its love of theater and also the geography of it so all the theaters on Broad where they all kind of back onto each other and so you share back alleys with other theaters or you go out between the ma in the evening to get soort of sushi and you bump into another cast and and that sense of community is is much stronger here in New York than than than it is in London and um and so the fact that with the tonies you get to go to these events and see everyone and and it really feels like everyone sort of coming together um really to sort of bolster this community is kind of wonderful and it's like a for me it's like a different level of talent like you walk in the room and you were just like oh my God it's so physical it's so wonderful like how how incredibly gifted they are in so many different yeah Blown Away by our Ensemble we have an incredible like amazing not just watching that you're incredible incredible yeah and there the energy of that being on stage with that has to be it's pretty electric and some icons we got BB newworth in our in our piece who is just extraordinary and getting to watch her she's sort of worked with cander and neb famously on Chicago and and also with Bob FY and his friends with Joel gray so she links our production right back to the The Originals and and watching her sing this song which is a show stoer every night what would you do um is just it's kind of Pinch Me moments that you you get to experience that every night as a just sort of peeking through the curtain yeah oh man it's magical it is so awesome to have both of you here congratulations on all the success thank so so talented super cool you can see C at the Kit Kat Club at the August Wilson theater here in New York City it's the most Tony nominated Revival of the season so You' got to check it [Music] out thank you guys so much