I made my Broadway debut, actually, playing Fraulein Kost in the Sam Mendes revival 10 years ago with Alan and Michelle and Emma Stone. SIMON: And Gayle Rankin, you have played other roles in 'Cabaret' before Sally Bowles, haven't you? REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) If could see her through my eyes, she wouldn't look Jewish at all. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, 'IF YOU COULD SEE HER') And so this person that's hopefully pulled you in at the beginning of the evening and seduced you and made you laugh, you realize is actually conducting the entire piece. Who then, over the course of the piece, rises to the all-knowing king or the sort of from puppeteer to conductor, and he becomes rather than the victim, he's almost the perpetrator. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As characters, singing) Beedle dee, dee dee dee. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) Beedle dee, deedle dee, dee. REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) Beedle dee, deedle dee, beedle dee, deedle dee.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Beedle dee, deedle dee, dee. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, singing) Beedle dee, deedle dee, dee. REDMAYNE: (As Emcee) Come on, my little ones. He sort of starts as a puppeteer almost, the kind of the Shakespearian fool, perhaps. And so for an actor, that is joyous because there are sort of no limitations on the one hand, and it's also quite daunting. He was conjured by Hal Prince and Joel Grey as a way of connecting the Sally Bowles story, and so he almost lives in an abstract place. REDMAYNE: I think one of the reasons the Emcee is such a iconic role and one that so many actors lean into is he's so enigmatic. SIMON: What does the Emcee do for the audience? And so I always sort of credit it weirdly as being the thing that that got me into acting full and proper. It thrilled me, and it made me think, and it moved me. It was one of those moments in my life where I would say really I fell in love with theater. I was at high school when I - we did a little school production. I was about to say early in your career, but really, before you started your career. SIMON: Eddie Redmayne, you've played the Emcee before.

SIMON: And Gayle Rankin the British chanteuse who comes to Berlin. Eddie Redmayne plays the Emcee, and he joins us from New York. A new revival of 'Cabaret' has opened on Broadway after winning seven Olivier Awards in London. SIMON: At a time when sequins, high-stepping flappers and forbidden love gives way to goose-stepping and beating Jews on the street. REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret. It's drawn from Christopher Isherwood's memoir of high times and hot jazz and is set in a fictional Berlin nightspot called the Kit Kat Club. SIMON: 'Cabaret,' the 1966 Broadway musical by Joe Masteroff, John Kander and Fred Ebb. You probably recognize the music from the first notes.ĮDDIE REDMAYNE: (As Emcee, singing) Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome.

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