'Strictly' finalist Layton Williams on becoming the Emcee in 'Cabaret'

This summer, Layton Williams became the latest star to play the Emcee in Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Cabaret. He talks about making the role his own.

Layton Williams has barely stopped to draw breath since he cha-cha’ed onto the Strictly Come Dancing floor last September. He scored the first perfect 40 of the series and waltzed all the way to the final, before embarking on the live tour and, this summer, a pair of shows with his professional dance partner Nikita Kuzmin in Manchester and London. Where does he find the energy? “It’s called working nine to five, and then jumping in the car and going to do your evening job,” he jokes, invoking Dolly Parton.

That evening job he refers to is no small feat, but one of the leading roles in Rebecca Frecknall’s bold revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Cabaret, which has been running at the Kit Kat Club at London’s Playhouse Theatre since 2021. The production’s star casting of cabaret singer Sally Bowles (currently played by Heartstopper actor Rhea Norwood) and the Emcee is now in its eighth incarnation, with Williams playing the sinister master of ceremonies at the infamous Berlin nightclub, which is set against a backdrop of the Nazis’ rise to power during the early 1930s. The Emcee is his first musical theatre role since Everybody’s Talking About Jamie in 2022.

“It’s such a phat part. I can’t believe it’s not been on my radar before,” says Williams. “I went to the first gala night in 2021 and there’s a picture of me, my make-up artist, and Eddie [Redmayne, who originated the role in Frecknall’s production] outside the theatre. Little did he know I was coming for his role!”

Not one to turn down an opportunity, Williams auditioned for Cabaret during the second week of his Strictly journey, but thought “if I can go out there every Saturday night and do what I'm doing, an audition for anything right now is going to be a breeze. I said, ‘I’m just going to turn up, give them the drama,’ and I did.”

Williams’s personality expands to fill any room he’s in and today is no different, as he cracks jokes with his make-up artist Jackie Saundercock, who he also works with on Cabaret. Adapting the make-up for his Emcee has been a key part of making the role his own. “The creative team said ‘Layton is Layton, let’s really hone in on that.’ Everybody’s make-up changes depending on what kind of Emcee they’re giving. They really glammed up my Emcee, which I absolutely love,” he says.

“I’d seen how willing the creative team was to let each actor go in and rebirth the character. Let’s be honest, why would you recast something every four months if you wanted the same thing? It’s very clear to me that they wanted new interpretations. I would like to think my Emcee is more queer, but I’m still singing the same numbers, I’m still giving it to the ladies,” he says cheekily.

He recognises, too, the added layer of complexity that being a mixed-race actor brings to his role. Williams explains that performing the song “If You Could See Her,” in which a gorilla becomes symbolic of the dehumanising Nazi view of Jewish people, was particularly uncomfortable. “It's so layered for me, because how can I, as a person of colour, be looking down on another minority group like this? I think it adds more texture to the performance. I have been taking that into consideration with my Emcee, and not hiding away from the fact that I'm clearly not a white person.”

Williams didn’t initially picture himself in the role and it wasn’t until he saw the Emcee of his friend John McCrea, who originated the part of Jamie New in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, that his perspective shifted. “There’s always a moment when you see a show, and you see a role, and you think: ‘I could do that.’”

Having both played the part of Jamie, the question Williams really wanted to ask McCrea was: “If I could do Jamie, can I do the Emcee?” He continues, “That was probably the scariest thing, like, ‘Okay, can I sing this to the level that it needs to be?’ I got my lessons in and got my chops together, because it’s been a minute since I've used this gift.”

While Williams started his career as Billy Elliot on the West End stage at just 12 years old, and has since starred in shows such as Rent and Hairspray, as well as Jack Whitehall’s long-running BBC Three comedy series Bad Education, most of his fans will now know him for Strictly. He recalls a moment from this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament when he realised how much his fanbase has changed, as a mother approached him with her daughter and asked for a photo. “The daughter was not bothered, but the mum was gassed,” he laughs. The audience at his recent Manchester show with Kuzmin was “a sea of mums and nans,” which he loves. “I guess now that I've grown up, everyone’s growing up with me,” he reflects.

Strictly will always hold a special place in his heart: “We’ve got 13 banked performances that are on YouTube for the rest of our lives. One day I can show my grandkids and say, ‘Look, that’s Grandad Layton, throwing himself into the splits.’”

Williams brings a touch of unexpected flair to everything he does, with his Rizzo look from Grease for Movie Week creating a stir in the media. “If we’re doing Grease, I’m not going to be one of the ‘Go Greased Lightnin’’ [boys], it’s giving Rizzo. I was adamant about showing all the colours in the crayon box because I live in a world where I’m surrounded by all types of beautiful people. I wanted to show a little bit of Layton’s world on a primetime TV show every weekend and show how it’s not actually that scary. It’s just a cheeky little dress, a cheeky little [eyeliner] wing, and a cheeky little bit of BB cream,” he says.

Williams’s journey throughout the competition was not plain sailing, however. He received backlash on social media for entering a reality dance competition when he was already a skilled musical theatre performer. How did he cope with this? “I was laser-focused, I knew what I was there to do. I say this a lot, but even Beyoncé has haters.”

Williams is likewise punchy when we discuss the polarised reaction to Eddie Redmayne’s TV performance of "Willkommen" on the 2024 Tony Awards broadcast, spurring social media debate.

“Everyone thinks they’re a critic at the moment,” Williams says. “You don’t know what it takes to get up there and jump into a role, never mind doing it eight times a week. But then having to take the number out of situ and put it on a stage at the Tonys… A week later, I was performing ‘Willkommen’ in Trafalgar Square at West End LIVE and I was nervous because I thought, ‘I’m not [blind], I’m on social media.’”

Williams continues: “I think it’s healthy for everyone to have an opinion, but also just be mindful that as artists, we do see that and we take it in.”

If you’re really not happy with Williams’s interpretation, he quips, “Come September, boo, you can see someone else!”

But what could possibly come next for this triple-threat performer? “I want to create something new, I want to be the original. I’ve never been an Olivier nominee, and it’s not about the accolade, but I have a lot to give creatively.” After scripting a couple of episodes of Bad Education, Williams also expresses an interest in writing more and maybe even putting together his own production. “After doing mine and Nikita’s show, I think everyone needs a Layton show. Singing, dancing, a little stand-up, darling… it’s going to be fun. At heart, I’m a showman.”

Layton Williams is in Cabaret until 21 September. Book Cabaret tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: Layton Williams. (Photo by Michael Wharley, make-up by Jackie Saundercock)

This article first appeared in the August issue of London Theatre Magazine.