Emma Stone revitalizes the already excellent ‘Cabaret’

When "Cabaret" opened in April, Alan Cumming dialed it up to 11 as the provocative Emcee of the show's seedy Kit Kat Club. He was the production's darkly charismatic guide, leading us through decadent 1930 Berlin, the setting of Kander and Ebb's masterpiece.

Now Cumming's quieted down a bit. Not that he's coasting in this revival of Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall's superb 1998 production — he's simply making way for a new source of energy.

That would be Emma Stone, the "Amazing Spider-Man" star who's making a fantastically confident Broadway debut as Sally Bowles.

She follows Michelle Williams, whose performance was sensitive and introspective — which may be why Cumming exerted himself so much.

Stone's Sally, on the other hand, is a manic, coked-up go-getter whose manipulative moxie makes up for her middling talent.

Alan Cumming and the Kit Kat Girls welcome Emma Stone to "Cabaret."Photo: Joan Marcus/Press art

When leading the Kit Kat ensemble in "Don't Tell Mama" and "Mein Herr," her eyes half-close into menacing slits, her lips curl in a feral grin. This Sally is young and brash, and she won't let anyone get in her way.

That includes American novelist Cliff (Bill Heck), who's temporarily settled in Germany to cure his writer's block. The bisexual Cliff falls for Sally's antics, and it looks like she returns his feelings. She mugs for him — Stone's surefire comic instincts come in handy when Sally gulps a raw-egg prairie oyster — and seems to let down her guard.

But our showgirl's nothing if not an opportunist. Her cynical self-interest makes her a perfect fit for Berlin during the rise of Nazism, an increasingly tense time illustrated by the aborted romance between Cliff's landlady, Fräulein Schneider (Linda Emond), and a gentle Jewish grocer, Herr Schultz (Danny Burstein).

Stone is a little vocally underpowered when she tells us to "come to the cabaret," but she acts out that title song with an intensity as scary as it is controlled. Her pale skin glowing against her black slip, Stone's Sally has the seething fury of someone who's sided with the devil — and it's thrilling to watch.

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