Billy Porter Exits Broadway’s Cabaret Due to ‘Serious Case’ of Sepsis

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club is saying “Auf wiedersehen” to Broadway.

The Tony Award-winning revival of the classic John Kander and Fred Ebb musical will make its final bow at the August Wilson Theatre in New York City on Sunday, Sept. 21 — wrapping up a run that began in April 2024 and continued for 18 preview performances and 592 regular performances.

Producers announced the news on Sunday, Sept. 7, calling it a “painful decision” made with “a heavy heart.”

They explained that Tony winner Billy Porter, who is currently starring as the Emcee and was scheduled to remain in the role through Oct. 19, has withdrawn from the production after he was diagnosed with “a serious case” of sepsis.

“His doctors are confident that he will make a full recovery but have advised him to maintain a restful schedule these next couple of weeks,” the release read.

“Billy was an extraordinary Emcee, bringing his signature passion and remarkable talent,” wrote producer Adam Speers, for ATG Productions. “We wish Billy a speedy recovery and I look forward to working with him again in the very near future.”

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For the final performances, the Emcee will be played in rotation by Marty Lauter and David Merino, the production’s longtime alternates. The exact performance schedule for Lauter and Merino will be announced on the show’s social media pages.

Marisha Wallace, who joined Cabaret alongside Porter in July after playing the duo played the parts in the London production, will remain with the show through closing.

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club is based on John Van Druten’s 1951 play I Am a Camera, which in turn was adapted from the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. The musical, with a book by Joe Masteroff, follows fictional American writer Clifford Bradshaw as he moves to Berlin amid the rise of the Nazi party. His observations about the eccentric characters that populate the Kit Kat Club, like the mysterious Emcee and the British singer Sally Bowles, provide the groundwork for both the musical and his future novel.

All is set to a score by Kander & Ebb, featuring songs that have become musical theater mainstays like “Willkommen,” “Don’t Tell Mamma,” “Mein Herr,” “Two Ladies,” “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” “Money,” “Maybe This Time” and, of course, “Cabaret.”

The musical has long been a success both on the stage and screen, first hitting Broadway in 1966 before being turned into the 1972 film of the same name starring Oscar-winner Liza Minnelli as Sally. It was revived on Broadway in 1998 and in 2014, both with Alan Cumming as the Emcee.

This revival, which began in London and is still running there, opened on Broadway with Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin in the title roles. Both actors received Tony nominations for their work.

After exiting the production in September 2024, Redmayne and Rankin were replaced by a trio of star teams including Adam Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho, Orville Peck and Eva Noblezada.

“We’re so honored to have been able to bring this version of John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff’s important masterpiece, Cabaret, to New York and to have opened the doors to our own Kit Kat Club for the year and a half we have been here,” producers said.

Back in July, Porter opened up to PEOPLE about his role in Cabaret, saying “I feel really great to be doing this.”

“This show in particular, at this time in American history, it’s really important for me,” said Porter, while promoting his new brand, Black Mona Lisa Beauty. “Art has the power to heal, art has the power to transform. My art is my calling, my purpose, my ministry, my resistance, my activism, my hope, my joy, my love. It’s everything to me. And so to be able to express myself this way is such a gift and such a blessing.”

He went on to explain that he had tried to audition for the 1998 revival, because he was turned down.

“It is not lost on me that in the 60-year history of this piece, we are the first all-black leads, the three leads in a commercial production,” Porter continued. “My mom used to always say, ‘God’s delay is not denial.’ I made a commitment decades ago that my art would be my ministry, and I feel right in the center of that by doing this show. So, I’m really grateful. And I want to focus on the change. The world has actually changed. 30 years ago, this wasn’t possible. I’m in the part now. So I just want to make sure that we’re saying that part, that we’re talking about the good. It’s very easy to lean into the negative, but I want to lean into the positive.”

Tickets for Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club are now on sale.