Cabaret is sending its Prologue performers out of the Playhouse Theatre and into a Covent Garden brasserie. From 21 September, the day Sarah Hyland and Skylar Astin take over the leads, Balthazar becomes the Kit Kat Club on Friday nights, with cameo performances landing between courses.
It runs for six weeks only, to 1 November, which works out at six Fridays. The rest of the week gets a pre-theatre menu built around the show’s curtain-up rather than a takeover, so if you want the performance element, Friday is the night.
The date is not a coincidence, either. 21 September is also the day Skylar Astin and Sarah Hyland take over as the Emcee and Sally Bowles, both making their West End debuts, he off the back of Pitch Perfect and she after eleven years of Modern Family. The restaurant partnership lands on the same morning the production resets its own headline act.
What actually happens on a Friday
The room is dressed for it and the entertainment is choreographed specifically for the partnership rather than lifted from the stage show. Cameos come from the production’s Prologue performers, the ensemble who work the Kit Kat Club before the musical proper begins, and they turn up at points across the evening rather than in one block. Previous Cabaret cast members are on the bill too, doing full vocal numbers.
Dinner is a set three courses at £65 a head, mostly Balthazar’s own repertoire with a few dishes written for the collaboration: duck liver and cognac parfait with spiced pear chutney, gravadlax with horseradish cream and pickled fennel, confit duck leg with pomme purée and red wine sauce, steak frites with béarnaise.
Cocktails, and the pre-theatre option
There is a four-drink list built with Brugal Rum, and the names do the work: The Willkommen (Brugal 1888, peach, honey, lemon, mint, sparkling wine), So What? (Cointreau, grapefruit, lime, raspberry), Perfectly Marvelous (Suze, pineapple liqueur, anise) and The Finale, which is essentially an espresso martini wearing coffee and banana liqueurs and praline.
Monday to Thursday there is a two or three-course pre-theatre menu with service timed to get you out for curtain-up, which matters more than it sounds: the Playhouse is a ten-minute walk down to Northumberland Avenue and Cabaret does not hold the curtain. Dinner and show packages combining a table here with tickets to the production are available too.
Why the room matters
Balthazar occupies the old Flower Cellars building on the corner of Russell and Wellington Street, done out as a Belle Epoque brasserie: tiled floors, tarnished mirrors, globe lights over a very long bar. It is the closest thing Covent Garden has to a room that already looks like a set, which is presumably why this partnership exists at all rather than one with a venue that would have needed dressing from scratch.
The London x London Take: theatrical dining in London usually means an actor shouting near your starter, so the bar here is low and this clears it comfortably. What you are buying is the room and the performance, and both are strong. Go on a Friday or do not bother, because the pre-theatre menu is just a pre-theatre menu and you can get one of those anywhere in WC2. Book early in the run too: six Fridays is not many, and the Kit Kat Club has spent nearly five years being one of the hardest tickets in town.
Need to know
- What: Cabaret: The Kit Kat Club at Balthazar, a six-week takeover
- Where: Balthazar, 4-6 Russell Street, Covent Garden, London WC2B 5HZ
- When: 21 September to 1 November 2026. Live performances every Friday evening; pre-theatre menus Monday to Thursday
- Price: £65 per person for the Friday night three-course experience. Dinner and show packages available separately
- Booking: via OpenTable, details at balthazarlondon.com
- Nearest station: Covent Garden
Eating in the area first? Our guide to the best restaurants in Covent Garden has the alternatives, and Covent Garden’s best bars covers where to go after the curtain.
