Several celebrities have taken on the infamous character of Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
Emma Stone, for her part, took on the role on Broadway in 2014, later noting that it was “the hardest thing” she had ever done.
“I never thought it was going to be easy. But I was like, ‘It’s three hours a day, you’re just doing it at night. You’re gonna hang out all day, you go, you do the show, you go home,’” she told Variety in January 2024. “You literally have to live like a monk. Your voice is always gone, or at least mine because of my voice, it’s broken.”
Stone added that it did allow her to “fall in love with acting” in a whole new way.
“Then I did La La Land right after I did that, so I’ve looked at acting completely different. But God, going back in I’m like, I don’t know,” she shared with the outlet.
Michelle Williams made her Broadway debut as Sally the same year.
“The truth is that it’s very pleasurable because the song takes you on a journey and you just kind of have to attach yourself to the end of it and let it fly, so I loved it,” Williams shared with reporters in 2014.
Keep scrolling to see more celebrities who have taken on the role of Sally Bowles:
Katherine Langford
The 13 Reasons Why star began starring as Sally Bowles in the West End in London in October 2024. She will play opposite Adam Gillen until January 2025.
“If anything, reading and looking back in those personal journals, the greatest [reminder] for me was: You can do this. It’s scary; it’s challenging,” Langford told Backstage in October 2024. “That’s partly why I wanted to do [Cabaret to come] over to London and [open] something on the West End — having that little lesson from the past was really helpful and lovely.”
Michelle Williams
Williams had a short stint as Sally Bowles on Broadway in 2014.
Emma Stone
Stone took on the role on Broadway in 2014.
Judi Dench
Dench was in the original London production of the musical Cabaret in 1968.
“I was so frightened on the opening night: people thought I had a cold, and we had to explain to them it was just nerves,” Dench told The Guardian in 2014. “I have no idea what the reviews were like, but it was a thrilling thing to do. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
Liza Minnelli
Minnelli starred as Sally in the 1972 film version of Cabaret, which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
“It’s like no other film. [Bob Fosse] was an original,” Minnelli explained to the HuffPost in January 2013. “And because we were away, the studio would send notes like, ‘Too much smoke. It’ll break up in drive-ins.’ In front of us, Fosse would tear up the telegram and just throw it over his shoulder and we went on. I had asked Fosse if he had seen a movie called The Damned, which is also about that era, and he saw it and I think it gave him good ideas because it was very dark.”
Natasha Richardson
Richardson appeared in the 1998 Broadway revival and took home the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.
“I had to get rid of the memory of this extraordinary performance by Liza Minnelli and the movie that I lived with as a tiny kid,” Richardson shared in a 1998 interview.
Joely Fisher
Fisher starred as Sally on Broadway briefly in 2000.
“There’s such power in the role,” Fisher told Theater Mania in a 2000 interview. “For all of Sally’s vulnerability, destructive behavior, emptiness and loneliness, she possesses incredible power. It’s the biggest rush you could ever have.”
Lea Thompson
Thompson played Sally on Broadway in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Her actress daughter Zoey Deutch previously shared how Thompson appearing in Cabaret made her want to pursue acting. (Thompson shares Zoey and Madelyn with husband Howard Deutch.)
“My mother did [Cabaret] on Broadway and I lived with her when she was doing it,” Zoe told People in October 2024. “I would help her do her makeup. I just basically lived in her dressing room and I wasn’t allowed to see the second act. So I’d sneak out of her dressing room and try to watch it. That was very much a formative memory for me of knowing, ‘Wow, I want to do this.’ And I loved that show, even though I was way too young.”
Brooke Shields
Shields starred in the main role on Broadway from July 2001 to October 2001.
Gina Gershon
Gershon appeared as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret and as a replacement in 2001.
“I was completely flabbergasted because I thought the production of Cabaret was so brilliant,” Gershon shared in a 2018 interview with Forbes.
Molly Ringwald
Ringwald starred in the Broadway revival of Cabaret from December 2001 to 2002 with additional dates from August 2002 to January 2003.
In April 2024, Ringwald shared that she believes her daughter Mathilda was conceived in her Cabaret dressing room in 2003. (Ringwald shares Mathilda and twins Adele and Roman with husband Panio Gianopoulos.)
“It’s so Mathilda to be conceived in such an iconic place,” Ringwald told The Times.
Debbie Gibson
Gibson starred as Sally Bowles in the Broadway revival from February 2003 to June 2003.
“The entire creative team who worked with me musically and on that stage daily with direction and choreography were just exquisite,” Gibson wrote on her blog in 2003. “This moment will forever go down in history as being one of my favorites.”
Teri Hatcher
Hatcher starred in the national tour of Cabaret, which began in 1999.
“It was an amazing experience shared with a spectacular cast that somehow feels like it was a life time ago and yesterday at the same time,” Hatcher wrote in a June 2019 Instagram post. “Today in #Berlin I stumbled across the real #nollendorfplatz where Cliff and Sally shacked up. Unexpectedly, art met reality. I’m so thankful for those memories, people and experiences even decades later. Just wow. What a life I’ve had.”
Maude Apatow
The Euphoria actress appeared as Sally in the West End revival of Cabaret from May 2023 to September 2023.
“It’s always been one of my favorite musicals so doing this now — it’s truly a dream,” she told Vogue in 2023. “I’ve even seen this production a few times before I started doing it.”
