Musician Orville Peck is set to join the cast of the NYV production of Cabaret replacing Adam Lambert when his stint in the show concludes at the end of March.
The big question is will he be removing his trademark mask to take on the role of the Emcee?
To date Peck has released three acclaimed albums Pony, Bronco, and Stampede, the most recent featured a host of collaborators including Kylie Minogue and Willie Nelson.
“I truly cannot believe I’m getting to make my Broadway debut in one of my favorite shows and in probably my favorite role in all of musical theater,” Peck said.
“I grew up in the theatre. I was a working actor and a dancer for many years before I started making music. I did the hustle, and the struggle, for a long time, trying to make things happen for myself. But it taught me so much of who I am as a performer and a person, so it feels very full circle to be making a return to it at this point in my career.”
At the beginning of his career nobody was sure of who Peck was, but fans eventually worked out his identity as South African born Daniel Pitout. He trained at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and appeared in the West End production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong. He was also a member of the Canadian punk group Nü Sensae.
At the beginning of his career as Orville Peck he wore a long fringed mask, but over time his mask has become smaller and smaller.
The current revival of the show began in London 2021 with the action presented ‘in the round’ placing the patrons in the Kit Kat Club where most of the story is set. In 2024 the Broadway production opened.
Eddie Redmayne received wide-spread acclaim for his performance in the central role of the Emcee in London, he returned to the role for the Broadway production.
The UK version has featured everyone from Callum Scott Howells to Layton Williams, John McCrea and Jake Shears. Next week Billy Porter will take on the role in London.
Is removing a mask a good career move?
If Orville Peck is thinking of ditching his mask he might want to to think about why TISM, Marshmello, DeadMau5 and Daft Punk kept theirs on. In fact only a few masked musicians have decloaked.
Rock band KISS found success with their 70s rock, outrageous outfits and face make up. Paul Stanley was the Starchild, Gene Simmons was the Demon, Ace Frehley was Space Ace, and Peter Criss was the Catman. When Criss left the band he was replaced the The Fox, Eric Carr.
In 1983 for their eleventh album Lick It Up they decided to forgo the makeup and probably gained hours of extra spare time before each show. The band members changed over the years, but in the mid-90s they returned to their original line up and put the make up back on.
In the early 1980s The Village People’s career came crashing down. The band had found success on the 1970’s disco wave with the characters of The Policeman, Cowboy, Construction Worker, Leatherman, Soldier and Native American, but as a new decade dawned their trajectory changed.
The 1980 film Can’t Stop the Music failed at the box office, and disco sounds were less popular. In 1981 they brought out their Renaissance album and ditched the characters.
Instead they returned with music and an image that tried to fit in with the New Romantic movement of Visage, Adam and the Ants and Duran Duran. While it went to number 12 in Australia, it only got to 138 in the US charts.
The following year thy returned to the costumes and characters when they released Fox on the Box, and would only have one more album after that, 1985’s Sex Over the Phone. The band moved on to being a novelty act constantly touring the world.
