Sarah Hyland and Skylar Astin are heading to London’s West End this autumn, with the Hollywood stars set to make their West End debuts in the award-winning production of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club.
There is a new pair of stars heading to the Kit Kat Club.
From 21 September 2026, Modern Family star Sarah Hyland and Pitch Perfect favourite Skylar Astin will take over the iconic roles of Sally Bowles and the Emcee respectively in London’s Cabaret.
For fans of musical theatre, this is some seriously exciting casting!
Both actors will make their West End debuts when they join Rebecca Frecknall’s acclaimed production at the Kit Kat Club.
Sarah Hyland and Skylar Astin join Cabaret
Best known to television audiences as Haley Dunphy in Modern Family, Sarah Hyland has also built an impressive stage career. She previously appeared on Broadway in The Great Gatsby and Just in Time, making her arrival in London’s West End a particularly exciting prospect. She will take on one of musical theatre’s most recognisable roles as Sally Bowles, the charismatic performer at the centre of Cabaret.
Joining her as the Emcee will be Skylar Astin, best known internationally for his role as Jesse in Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. Astin also has considerable musical theatre experience, including Spring Awakening on Broadway and productions of Rent, Into the Woods and West Side Story.
So while both performers may be making their West End debuts, neither is exactly a stranger to the stage.
When will Sarah Hyland and Skylar Astin appear in Cabaret?
The new cast begins performances on:
Monday 21 September 2026
Skylar Astin will play the Emcee until 12 December 2026, while Sarah Hyland will remain as Sally Bowles until 23 January 2027. They will take over from the current stars Jamie Muscato and Joy Woods.
Muscato’s run as the Emcee continues until 19 September, while Woods plays Sally Bowles until 5 September. Marina Tavolieri will play Sally between 7 and 19 September.
That means audiences have the opportunity to catch several different interpretations of the show’s central characters during the autumn.
Who else is joining the Cabaret cast?
Hyland and Astin aren’t the only new faces arriving at the Kit Kat Club.
The new company will also include Ronan Burns as Ernst Ludwig and Lindsay Atherton as Fraulein Kost/Fritzie, alongside Lily Frances, Peter Houston, Samuel How, Bailey Johnson, Ellie Mitchell, Kirsty Anne Shaw, Natasha Wilde and Nicky Wong Rush. Meanwhile, Baker Mukasa continues as Clifford Bradshaw, with Ruthie Henshall as Fraulein Schneider and Robert Hands as Herr Schultz.
Cabaret celebrates five years in the West End
The new casting arrives during a significant year for Cabaret. The production has now passed 1,900 performances, making it the longest-running production of Cabaret in West End history.
2026 also marks 60 years since Cabaret first premiered on Broadway.
The London production originally opened in 2021 and went on to win a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards, cementing its place as one of the West End’s most celebrated recent productions.
The anniversary will be marked at the Kit Kat Club on 20 November 2026, with a limited allocation of special-priced tickets also being offered.
What is Cabaret about?
Set in Berlin in 1930, Cabaret takes audiences inside the infamous Kit Kat Club as the city embraces music, nightlife and decadence while a much darker political reality begins to emerge outside its doors. At the centre of the story is Sally Bowles, a performer at the club, and American writer Clifford Bradshaw, who arrives in Berlin and becomes drawn into Sally’s world. But as the political climate changes, the seemingly carefree world of the Kit Kat Club begins to fracture.
With music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Joe Masteroff, the musical includes songs such as Willkommen, Mein Herr, Maybe This Time, Money and Cabaret.
The Kit Kat Club experience
This isn’t your conventional West End theatre experience. The production transforms the Playhouse Theatre into the Kit Kat Club, with audiences entering the world of the show before the performance itself begins. The immersive staging allows audiences to explore the club, with food, drinks and pre-show entertainment available before taking their seats.
It is one of the reasons Cabaret has become such a distinctive theatrical experience in London.
With two major television and film stars now preparing to step through the doors, the Kit Kat Club is about to welcome a whole new audience.
Sarah Hyland and Skylar Astin: worth a trip to the Kit Kat Club?
For Modern Family and Pitch Perfect fans, this is an obvious draw. But the more interesting question is what these two performers will bring to roles that have already been interpreted by some of the biggest names in theatre. Sally Bowles and the Emcee are not easy roles to inherit. Both characters sit at the heart of the production, and both require performers who can balance glamour, comedy and entertainment with the increasingly unsettling world surrounding them.
That’s exactly what makes this casting so intriguing.
Sarah Hyland and Skylar Astin aren’t simply joining Cabaret. They’re stepping into one of the West End’s most talked-about productions at a particularly important moment in its history.
And we’ll be watching closely.
Book Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club is currently booking at London’s Playhouse Theatre through 18 September 2027.
Book Cabaret and find out more at the official Kit Kat Club website
Sarah Hyland and Skylar Astin join Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club from 21 September 2026.
Welcome to the Kit Kat Club.
