Before Billy Porter Landed ‘Cabaret,’ the 1998 Revival Didn’t Want Him. Here’s What He Told Them in Response (Exclusive)
As the Tony Award winner returns to Broadway, he remembers what his mother once told him: ‘God’s delay is not denial.’
Originally published on Parade.com
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Published July 22, 2025
The timing is finally right for Billy Porter to say “Willkommen” as the Emcee in the celebrated Broadway revival of Cabaret. It was a long journey before the Tony Award-winning actor arrived at the Kit Kat Club on Tuesday, July 22, but it was well worth the wait.
The leading player in John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical has been a dream role of Porter’s since the late 1990s. Set in Berlin in the 1930s, Cabaret chronicles an aspiring writer’s experiences in the German city while witnessing the rise of Nazism. Originated to Tony- and Oscar-winning acclaim by Joel Grey, the Emcee — an androgynous, flamboyant, mischievous narrator and commentator — is a famously challenging and award-winning role.
Cabaret premiered in 1966 and returned to Broadway numerous times: in 1987, 1998 and 2014 before this most recent production landed at the August Wilson Theatre last year. Porter, 55, requested to audition for the 1998 revival, but he was denied the opportunity.
“I was told, ‘That’s not the story we’re telling,’” Porter exclusively tells Parade. “I found that odd, and I did some research, and I found a book called Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany. I sent it to the entire creative team, signed, ‘We were there. We were always there.’”
Cabaret marks Porter’s first return to Broadway in years. He was last seen in the 2016 production of Shuffle Along before a brief stint back at Kinky Boots to reprise his Tony-winning turn as the drag queen Lola. In between, he made history as the first openly gay Black man to be nominated for and win an Emmy Award in any lead acting category for his role as Pray Tell in Ryan Murphy’s Pose.
Also known for his activism, Porter received the 2024 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for his advocacy in organizations like The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, the Entertainment Community Fund and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS — so telling the political story that plays out in Cabaret is especially meaningful.
“I feel like this role gives me purpose,” he says. “It gives me a voice when everyone is trying to silence us. My hope is that the audiences will feel that and release the fear, release their terror and get out and fight for what we know is right.”
Starring alongside Porter is Marisha Wallace as Sally Bowles and Calvin Leon Smith as Clifford Bradshaw, marking the first time that three leads in Cabaret on Broadway are played by Black actors — a fact not lost upon Porter.
“My art is my calling, my purpose, my ministry, my activism, my resistance,” he says. “That is what my art is, and in this moment and in the times that we’re living in right now, to be able to show up in this classic show that is about the Nazi occupation, with the three leads as African Americans, [it] is everything that I do this for.”
Porter, who first played the Emcee in London’s West End, has seized the opportunity to create a significantly unique character, crafting a backstory that differs from any who preceded him in the show’s run. (Eddie Redmayne, Adam Lambert and Orville Peck have all previously starred as the production’s Master of Ceremonies.)
“My Emcee is from America. He fled the Jim Crow South to go to Europe, thinking that he would be free, only to be carted away to the concentration camps,” Porter tells Parade. “There is no safety anywhere for people like me.”
A particular moment in the show demonstrates the difference between Porter’s Emcee and one played by a white actor, when his character sees a blonde wig and, unlike the white Emcees, does not put it on. Porter interprets that moment for the white Emcees as deciding to assimilate within the culture.
“I can’t assimilate,” Porter explains. “I can’t hide behind the blonde wig. My skin is Black, so in my version, I put the wig back in the box, and my decision is, ‘OK, come and get me.’ I can’t assimilate, so there’s nothing else to do but surrender — not without fighting, but I certainly can’t hide.”
Performing in Cabaret has shown Porter the importance of remaining present in each moment of each show. The significance of him playing the Emcee now, rather than in the 1990s, is present with him as well.
“My mom was very religious, and she would say, ‘God’s delay is not denial.’ When this came back around all these years later, all I could do was think about that phrase,” he says. “I just thought, ‘Wow, it wasn’t my turn. That doesn’t mean that I don’t get to do it, but it wasn’t my turn.’”
Now, it finally is.