When enduring musical classic Cabaret was revived for the West End in November 2021, radically re-worked by award-winning director Rebecca Frecknall, it garnered sell-out crowds and a string ofOlivier Awards - including for its lead stars Eddie Redmayne, as Emcee,and Jessie Buckley, who played troubled performer Sally Bowles.
Three years on, there's a Broadway version running alongside the London show and it continues to win plaudits for its surreal, punky take on the American Kander & Ebb musical about how life in bohemian Berlin in the late 20s is brutally snuffed out by Nazi Germany.
However, those who've trod the boards as the latest incarnation of Sally Bowles, including Jessie Buckley, Cara Delevingne, singer Self Esteem and Aimee Lou Wood, have been candid about what it takes to play her.
This week, British starAimee Lou Wood revealed that she's terrified of stepping on stage again after playing the role a year ago.
Aimee Lou Wood, who starred as Sally Bowles in the latest version of Cabaret, currently in the West End and on Broadway, said taking on the famous role had left her vulnerable on stage, she told the Radio Times this week: 'I wasn’t pretending, I was actually just screaming and crying and having a breakdown.'
The 29-year-old told the Radio Times: 'I loved it, it was my dream role and it changed me as a person, but it almost killed me. Going on Sally’s journey every night was hard.'
Revealing she felt 'naked on stage', she said: 'Afterwards, people would say I was great, and I was thinking, "I wasn’t pretending, I was actually just screaming and crying and having a breakdown."'
She also revealed that since stepping away from the role, she's cautious about doing theatre again.
Wood said: 'Years ago, an actor told me: "It’s really important to keep going back to theatre, because otherwise you’ll develop a fear for it, you’ll get stage fright", but after Cabaret, I am scared.'
Jessie Buckley was the first star to take on the part of Sally Bowles in Rebecca Frecknall's new version of the 1960s musical Cabaret, which is set in Berlin in 1929 as Nazi rule begins to take hold. The actor, 34, said she 'couldn't have a life' for the six months that she played the part in 2021/2022
And the Stockport-raised star isn't alone in feeling the Cabaret curse.
Jessie Buckley, hugely experienced on stage and screen, picked up an Olivier for her interpretation of the role but, unlike her co-star Eddie Redmayne, who took his part as Emcee to Broadway, she was more than happy to hand over the reins after six months in the Kit Kat Club.
She told the Table Manners podcast in January this year that it was 'the hardest thing she's ever done'.
The star told Lennie and Jessie Ware that every night before she went on stage, she would say to herself: 'This is the worst idea ever'.
While Eddie Redmayne, cast as Emcee in Cabaret, took the role to Broadway, Buckley stepped away after her London stint was over
Speaking to the Table Manners podcast earlier this year, Buckley said she was left 'at the bottom of the well' by the role
The Wicked Little Letters star said she couldn't have a life outside of the theatre and had to stay 'completely silent' to preserve her voice during the day during her eight shows-a-week stint.
She said: 'Sally's inflammable, you get on a train with her every night and you get off and you've no idea what happened.
The final month of the six-month stint saw her at the bottom of the well', she added, saying she was 'so physically and mentally exhausted'.
Cara Delevingne who took on a short stint after Aimee Lou Wood also said the show took her to extreme emotional and physical places.
She toldGraziahow she had to wind down every night after playing Bowles, saying: 'Underneath all the adrenaline is exhaustion so I have to peel myself off the ceiling a little bit.'
Rhea Norwood, the London production's current l
Model turned actress CaraDelevingne loved playing Bowles but admitted to Grazia that it left her exhausted when she took it on earlier this year
In 2022, Billie Piper admitted she turned the chance to take the role straight after Jessie Buckley down, saying: 'I obviously love that play and the part of Sally Bowles is like a dream role for any actress but musical theatre is such hard work.
'It's exhausting and I don't like the idea of having to take care of myself that well all the f**king time, you know what I mean? You have to really manage your voice and never go out, because my voice isn't strong enough to handle that, no way.'
The musical was first performed in 1966 and was based loosely on Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin. Liza Minelli played Sally Bowles in the 1972 film, regarded by many as the best version of Cabaret.
