Cabaret has become the third musical in the space of a week to announce that it will close in the West End. The dark Kander and Ebb drama finishes its run at the Lyric on 21 June.
The Cabaret closing notice follows similar stories in the past seven days which saw Gone With The Wind reveal it would close on 14 June and Monty Python’s Spamalot announce an end to its London run in January 2009.
Cabaret, which currently stars Amy Nuttall as club performer Sally Bowles and Alistair McGowan as the Emcee, is set in the Weimar Berlin of 1931. The Kit Kat Klub, where Bowles and Emcee perform, is a hive of decadence and moral ambiguity, but outside the sensual surrounds of the cabaret the world is changing and preparing for war.
Conceived in 1966, Cabaret was the second collaboration between John Kander and Fred Ebb, the prolific musical partnership that also wrote Chicago and Kiss Of The Spider Woman.
This Rufus Norris-directed production, which also stars Angela Richards and Barry James, opened in October 2006. Nominated for three Laurence Olivier Awards in 2007, Cabaret left the ceremony with two statuettes; Best Theatre Choreographer for Javier De Frutos and Best Performance In A Supporting Role In A Musical for Sheila Hancock.
Cabaret had been booking until November 2008. No new production has been announced for the Lyric.
MA