Bebe Neuwirth and Steven Skybell Join Cabaret on Broadway

The Kit Kat Club is bidding “Willkommen” to two new cast members. Two-time Tony Award winner and Emmy Award winner Bebe Neuwirth and Obie Award winner Steven Skybell are joining the upcoming Broadway revival of Cabaret, it was announced today.

Neuwirth will play the boarding house owner Fraulein Schneider, while Skybell will play the Jewish fruit vendor she loves, Herr Schultz. Neuwirth and Schneider join previously announced cast members Eddie Redmayne as The Emcee, Gayle Rankin as Sally Bowles and Ato Blankson-Wood as Cliff.

Previews for Cabaret at the August Wilson Theatre start April 1, 2024 ahead of twin opening nights on April 20 and April 21. The musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb is directed by Olivier Award winner Rebecca Frecknall, scenic and costume design by Tom Scutt and choreography by Julia Cheng.

Neuwirth has a long relationship with the work of Kander and Ebb. She played Velma Kelly in the 1996 Broadway revival of Chicago, winning a Tony for the performance. Later, she played Roxie Hart in (starting in 2006) and Matron “Mama” Morton (starting in 2014) in the same production. She has also played Aurora in Kander and Ebb’s Kiss of the Spider Woman in London’s West End and headlined the symphony tour, Bebe Sings Weill and Kander & Ebb.

Neuwirth said in a statement, “I’m completely thrilled to be a part of this beautiful production, and to help tell this fascinating tale through the sublime score of John Kander and Fred Ebb.”

Skybell recently starred as Tevyne in Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, receiving a Lortel Award for the performance along with Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League nominations. Other Broadway credits include Pal Joey, Wicked and The Full Monty. He is currently starring in the National Yiddish Theatre’s production of Amid Falling Walls (Tsvishn Falndike Vent).

Skybell said, “In these times of increased antisemitism, I am proud and privileged to play the Jewish role of Herr Schultz in Cabaret. It’s important to tell stories like Cabaret, which is, of course, massively entertaining, but also sheds a light on this moment in history, when fascism and intolerance nearly overcame the Jewish people and the world at large.”

Neuwirth and Skybell previously appeared together in the 2012 Classic Stage Company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, she as Titania, he as Nick Bottom.

Additional casting and other news about Cabaret on Broadway will be announced in the coming weeks.