The Character Actress Taking Center Stage in ‘Cabaret’

Gayle Rankin has been posting photos to Instagram of her emerald-green manicures in various states of decay. Following each day of performances of Broadway’s latest revival of Cabaret, she returns to her dressing room to shed as much as she can of the Kit Kat Club’s tragedienne Sally Bowles before decamping to her West Village apartment. But the green is always there, as the Juilliard-trained actress digs her claws into a character immortalized for evading understanding. “That’s Sally’s color, but it’s also my favorite color,” Rankin says. “My birthstone is peridot. It’s like a pea-green, sharp spring color. There’s something that has to do with rebirth and newness that I love about it.”

I first met the 34-year-old actress at Café Cluny in the Village, just weeks before she submerged herself in one of the most coveted roles in musical theater. The dimly lit celebrity hot spot is unusually quiet for the weekday brunch hour until Rankin arrives at the bistro like a civilized tornado. Tech rehearsals ran late and she didn’t get home until 2 a.m. the night before, she explains, untying a silk headscarf à la Brigitte Bardot. Her platinum-blonde hair is combed back from her face, and she sports minimal makeup as she collapses into the booth, apologizing for her frenetic state. Behind her, a halo of 28 pinned butterflies from 1920s Williamsburg, Iowa, frame her bleached bob. “I don’t know if it ever gets robotic for me, but it does become more meditative,” she laughs of her attempts to wrestle eight performances a week. “Right now, it’s really very present and very alive. But Mommy’s tired. Mommy needs a holiday.”

The TikTok ban could be coming this week, but don’t expect the app to disappear from your phone right away if it does. Cher, Dave Matthews Band, and more 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have been announced. What science is just starting to understand about periods. The PEN America Literary Awards have been canceled after over a third of this year’s nominees withdrew in protest. And for Earth Day, a photo appreciation of birds courtesy of The Atlantic.

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