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Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin will headline the latest Broadway revival of the classic musical Cabaret this spring, the show’s producers announced today. Redmayne will play the sinister Emcee of the Kit Kat Club, a decadent Berlin nightclub in 1930s Germany as Naziism begins its rise; Rankin will be Sally Bowles, a chanteuse at the club who is bent on stardom at any cost.

Adapted by Joe Masteroff from stories by Christopher Isherwood and a play by John Van Druten, and built around songs by the Chicago team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cabaret is one of the great Broadway musicals of all time: an exhilarating, harrowing masterpiece. This new revival, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, originated in the West End in 2021—with Redmayne as the Emceee—and went on to win seven Olivier Awards, London’s equivalent of the Tonys. (It is still playing there.) In its New York incarnation, titled Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, the production will be staged in the round at the August Wilson Theatre, which will be remodeled to allow for an immersive pre-show experience that includes dining and entertainment. 

Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall’s superb 1998 revival of Cabaret ran for six years and made a star of Alan Cumming, who reprised his role as the Emcee when the production returned in 2014. Frecknall’s version aims to stake its own claim to the material, with help from designer Tom Scutt. “The costumes are angular, vivid, somewhat grotesque; the performers’ faces are sardonic, or sinister, not submissive or lusty,” wrote Andrzej Lukowski in his Time Out review of the 2021 London production. “There is an alien harshness and a sense of confrontation and mischief, a feeling we have left the world behind: You really can picture this place as a strange nocturnal bubble removed from the increasingly grim realities of the Germany outside.”

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club will mark Redmayne’s return to Broadway for the first time since 2010’s Red, which earned him at Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Since then, of course, he has gone on to significant film success, including an Oscar-winning performance as Stephen Hawking in 2014’s The Theory of Everything. The Scottish Rankin is familiar to theater fans for her numerous excellent performances on the New York stage, including in Tribes, The Mystery of Love and Sex, Hamlet—as Ophelia to Oscar Isaac’s prince—and the last Broadway revival of Cabaret, in which she played not Sally but the chilling Fräulein Kost. Her film and TV credits include The Climb, Glow, The Kindred and the upcoming second season of House of the Dragon.

Previews for Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club will begin on April 1, 2024, with the official press opening on April 21. Redmayne and Rankin are scheduled to remain in the production through August 31. Tickets go on sale on October 25, 2023, for American Express cardholders; general sales begin on November 2. You can buy tickets here, and find out more here about “upgrade packages” that include food and drinks. 

* This article was originally published here

NYC and rats are unfortunately bound. Whether you’re walking near a pile of trash or waiting for the subway, you’ve surely seen one scurry along with its never-ending tail and evil eyes. And now, an app is letting New Yorkers keep track of rats across the NYC subway system.

What’s the rat tracking app?

Called Transit, the mobile app typically relays the latest news on transit. However, its newest feature collects user responses on rat sightings across the subway to share with riders the degree of rat traffic at their station from “so many” to “none.”

Their website explains the feature:

We enlisted thousands of rodent spotters across the five boroughs to rank the rattiest stations…The results are in. And the rats? They’re everywhere.

How does it work?

Once users are detected to have arrived at a subway station, Transit asks if they’ve seen any rats. They’re prompted to answer between “so many,” “one or two,” and “none.” The feature is known as “Rat(e)-My-Ride.”

What are the rattiest stations?

So far, there seems to be rats spotted during 40% of subway trips. The rattiest subway stations (from rattiest to least ratty) in the past 30 days include: Grant Av., Vernon Blvd-Jackson Av, and 149 St – Grand Concourse.

According to data collected, rats are the most active just after 2am. They are more commonly spotted in the outer boroughs and prefer underground subway stations to elevated ones.

How did the idea come to be?

Supposedly, the idea of tracking rats on the app came about in a team meeting. “During that presentation, somebody said, ‘Oh, we should ask about rats on the New York City subway,” Stephen Miller, Transit policy lead told Fast Company. “And we were all like, ‘That’s a hilarious idea.’ That was in the spring. And then later it became like, ‘Well, no, let’s do it.’”

This isn’t the only way to track rats in NYC. The city even has an interactive map to let you view if your neighborhood passed the most recent rat inspection.

The post This App Tells You How ‘Ratty’ Your Local Subway Station Is appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here

Tel Avivian palates of both the kosher and non-kosher variety can agree on one thing: the schnitzel at kosher eatery Malka—which oozes a delicious potato mash as soon as you cut it open—is a culinary masterpiece. And New Yorkers will soon be able to taste the dish on this side of the Atlantic as well.

Famed chef Eyal Shani is set to open an outpost of the popular Israeli eatery at 161 West 72nd Street by Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side, in the space formerly occupied by his own restaurant North Miznon, on November 7. 

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Malka, which joins the chef’s celebrated roster of local eateries, including HaSalon, Port Sa’id and Shmoné, will also be Shani’s very first kosher endeavor in the U.S. 

Like at his other restaurants, expect the menu at Malka to change seasonally, “showcasing the flavors of Israeli cuisine with the freshest ingredients sourced locally,” according to a press release.

In addition to the iconic schnitzel—which is usually served with sauerkraut, mustard and a beetroot relish—the debuting menu will feature a lamb shank, a charred beetroot carpaccio, okra in red tomatoes, grouper shawarma and eggplant sashimi, among other dishes.

The destination will be closed on Friday nights through Saturday nights in celebration of the Jewish Sabbath. During the winter, though, when the sun sets earlier, indicating the end of Shabbat, Saturday night reservations will be available.  

As a nod to the current situation in the Middle East, Malka will be donating 10% of all its proceeds through the month of November to humanitarian relief organizations in Israel.

* This article was originally published here

Spooky season allows New Yorkers to truly embrace their weird side, but Halloween in the city also brings out the scariness of everyday life. From trying to maneuver the downtown subway stations for the Village Halloween Parade to attempting a weekend trip upstate, the eeriest time of the year only confirms that we don’t need October 31 to give ourselves a good fright. What New York City moment gives you a scare without fail? 

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1. A clean, empty seat on a full subway car that everyone is still avoiding

Do you hold off on snatching your reprieve from the rush hour standstill if you notice commuters avoiding a perfect-seeming chair? Something happened there a few stops ago, and you clearly don’t need a seat that badly, right? It’s best to find a spare corner against the door and hope that another seat that isn’t under a cloud of shame becomes available soon. 

2. A week-long sunny forecast followed by a weekend of torrential downpours

The New York rule of thumb is that when a specific weekend requires you to act the most social you’ve been all year, bad weather will definitely come along to complicate the plans. In October, after a perfect week of sunny, gorgeous weather, an autumn storm will inevitably foil your Halloween bar crawl and send you scrambling for a waterproof costume. Don’t forget to account for costume mobility when you have to jump across a deep street puddle past midnight. Luckily, it looks like the weather will give us a reprieve this weekend.

3. Navigating public transit on Halloween weekend

Taking the subway or the bus is usually a tad creepy just on a normal day. But throw in an endless spectrum of costumes, alcohol-fueled shenanigans, and a goal to attend the Village Halloween Parade and half of the night’s experience revolves around trying to get home in one piece. Is it even a proper New York City Halloween if you don’t end up on a subway platform chatting with a stranger dressed as a Marvel character?

4. Braving the line at the farmers’ market produce stand

We all know those people who somehow achieve their entire weekly shop at the farmers’ market. These regulars roll up to Union Square, 79th Street, or Brooklyn Borough Hall at the crack of dawn with their wheelie carts and know exactly which stall to hit up for the perfect autumn squash. Meanwhile, you stumble up past noon in hopes of snagging the last pain au chocolat and you briefly consider buying a mini pumpkin to improve your apartment’s fall aesthetic.

5. Handling the pressure of scheduling a group trip upstate

When the calendar switches to October, the Hudson Valley’s pumpkin patches, apple orchards, and wineries come calling. Be careful when talking up leaf-peeping and fall brews, because the most enthusiastic friend on the group chat will always land the responsibility of planning a weekend excursion to a small autumnal town straight out of Gilmore Girls, that is sure to be crawling with others seeking out the same experience.

6. “Second summer” sneakily setting in 

You can finally wear a sweater again without sweltering, the air carries a crisp chill, and the leaves are slowly but surely changing. Then a heat wave comes out of nowhere, which kills the spooky season vibes. Switch to a layered look and ward off the inevitable threat of global warming with the bliss of a brief flashback to summer. After all, it’s better than a reminder that it’ll be dark before 6pm soon. 

7. Trader Joe’s on a Sunday morning

All grocery stores are universally packed on Sundays, but a New York Trader Joe’s is in a different league. Arrive five minutes too late, and you’re caught in a stampede in every other aisle. May you always find that golden morning hour when you can dig for your favorite frozen item in peace and get in line without a frantic search for where the queue actually ends. 

8. Determining if your seasonal illness is a cold, the flu, or something more

When you notice more sniffling than usual on the subway and you hear nothing at work but your colleague’s sneezes across the room, you know cold and flu season has arrived. Along with it comes the eternal question of “just how sick am I?” Stock up on Vitamin C and an emergency supply of masks just in case your congestion escalates after a weekend of masquerading as someone else. Is it even a true New York City fall if your body doesn’t crash and burn after an adventurous Hallo-weekend? 

* This article was originally published here