All Topics  
Cabaret

 
Cabaret

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Cabaret
 
 
  Topics Cabaret Topic Home

Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
, song
Song

A song is a musical musical composition which contains vocal parts that are performed, 'sung,' and feature words , commonly accompanied by musical instruments ....
, dance
Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to Motion of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of Emotional expression, social social interaction or presented in a spirituality or performance setting....
, and theatre
Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant
Restaurant

A restaurant prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery ....
 or nightclub
Nightclub

A nightclub is a Alcoholic beverage, Dance and entertainment Music venue which does its primary business after dark. People who frequent nightclubs are known as clubbers....
 with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance being introduced by a master of ceremonies
Master of Ceremonies

A Master or Mistress of Ceremonies or MC , sometimes called a comp?re or an MJ for "microphone jockey," is the Host of an official public or private staged event or other performance....
, or MC.

Cabaret also refers to a Mediterranean-style brothel — a bar with tables and women who mingle with and entertain the clientele.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Cabaret'
Start a new discussion about 'Cabaret'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
, song
Song

A song is a musical musical composition which contains vocal parts that are performed, 'sung,' and feature words , commonly accompanied by musical instruments ....
, dance
Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to Motion of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of Emotional expression, social social interaction or presented in a spirituality or performance setting....
, and theatre
Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant
Restaurant

A restaurant prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery ....
 or nightclub
Nightclub

A nightclub is a Alcoholic beverage, Dance and entertainment Music venue which does its primary business after dark. People who frequent nightclubs are known as clubbers....
 with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance being introduced by a master of ceremonies
Master of Ceremonies

A Master or Mistress of Ceremonies or MC , sometimes called a comp?re or an MJ for "microphone jockey," is the Host of an official public or private staged event or other performance....
, or MC.

Cabaret also refers to a Mediterranean-style brothel — a bar with tables and women who mingle with and entertain the clientele. Traditionally these establishments can also feature some form of stage entertainment: often singers & dancers.

French cabaret

The first cabaret was opened in 1881 in Montmartre
Montmartre

Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18eme arrondissement, Paris, a part of the Rive Droite....
, Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
: Rodolphe Salís' "cabaret artistique." Shortly after it was founded, it was renamed Le Chat Noir
Le Chat Noir

Le Chat Noir was a 19th-century cabaret in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris. It was opened on 18 November 1881 at 84 Boulevard Rouchechouart by the artist Rodolphe Salis, and closed in 1897 ....
 (The Black Cat). It became a locale in which up-and-coming cabaret artists could try their new acts.

The Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge is a cabaret built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia. Close to Montmartre in the Paris red-light district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18?me arrondissement, Paris, it is marked by the facsimile of a red windmill on its roof....
, built in 1889 in the red-light district of Pigalle near Montmartre, is famous for the large red imitation windmill on its roof.

The Folies-Bergère continued to attract a large number of people even though it was more expensive than other cabarets. People felt comfortable at the cabaret: They did not have to take off their hat, could talk, eat, and smoke when they wanted to, etc. They did not have to stick to the usual rules of society.

At the Folies-Bergère, as in many cafés-concerts, there were a variety of acts: singers, dancers, jugglers, and clowns.

Le Lido
Le Lido

Le Lido is a cabaret and burlesque house on the Champs-?lys?es in Paris, France, famous for its exotic shows, which rival those of Las Vegas Strip and where, as an United States GI on leave with some army friends, Elvis Presley gave an impromptu concert....
, on the Champs-Elysées has been a venue of the finest shows with the most famous names since 1946 including Edith Piaf
Édith Piaf

?dith Piaf was a France singer and cultural icon of partly algeria and Italy descent who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads....
, Laurel & Hardy, Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine

Shirley MacLaine is an United States Academy Awards-winning film and theater actress, dancer, activist, and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation....
, Elton John
Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John Order of the British Empire is an England singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has been one of the dominant forces in rock and popular music, especially during the 1970s....
, Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich ; was a German-born American actress, singer and entertainer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself....
, Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, and popular entertainer. Chevalier's signature songs included "Louise", "Mimi", and "Valentine"....
, and Noel Coward
Noël Coward

Sir No?l Peirce Coward was an English people playwright, composer, Theatre director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise"....
 among them.

American Cabaret


In the United States, cabaret diverged into several different styles of performance mostly due to the influence of Jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 Music. Chicago cabaret focused intensely on the larger band ensembles and reached its peak in the speakeasies, and steakhouse
Steakhouse

A steakhouse is a restaurant that specializes in beef steaks. These restaurants may also serve other types of meat, such as hamburgers, Game , Lamb , pork, Chicken , and barbecue, as well as seafood and pasta....
s (like The Palm
The Palm (restaurant)

The Palm is an United States fine-dining steakhouse opened in 1926. It is located in New York City at 837 Second Avenue.Since opening, management has opened additional restaurants throughout the United States, in Puerto Rico and in Mexico....
) of the Prohibition Era
Roaring Twenties

Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, that emphasizes the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism....
.

New York cabaret never developed to feature a great deal of social commentary. When New York cabarets featured jazz, they tended to focus on famous vocalists like Nina Simone
Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was a Grammy Award-nominated American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist....
, Bette Midler
Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singing, actress and comedienne, also known as The Divine Miss M. During her career, she has won four Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards....
, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt

Eartha Mae Kitt was an American actor, singer, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her 1953 Christmas song "Santa Baby". Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world." She took over the role of Catwoman for the third season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavaila...
, Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an United States jazz and traditional pop singer and songwriter and Academy Award-nominated actress. She was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota....
, and Hildegarde
Hildegarde

Hildegarde was an United States cabaret singer, best known for the song "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup."...
 rather than instrumental musicians.

Cabaret in the United States began to disappear in the sixties, due to the rising popularity of rock concert
Rock concert

The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by band playing at least one electric guitar, an electric bass guitar, and Drum kit....
 shows and television variety shows. The art form still survives in two popular entertainment formats: Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy is a style of comedy where the performer speaks directly to the audience, with the absence of the theatrical "fourth wall". A person who performs stand-up comedy is known as a stand-up comic, stand-up comedian or more informally stand up....
 and in the drag show performances.

Cabaret is currently undergoing a renaissance of sorts in the United States, particularly in New Orleans, Seattle and Portland, as new generations of performers reinterpret the old forms in both music and theatre.

Famous cabarets

  • The Butterfly Club
    The Butterfly Club

    The Butterfly Club, founded in 1999 by Matthew Grant, is a performing arts venue in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and one of the hosts of events for the Melbourne Cabaret Festival....
     in Melbourne
    Melbourne

    Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
    , Australia
    Australia

    Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
  • Le Lido
    Le Lido

    Le Lido is a cabaret and burlesque house on the Champs-?lys?es in Paris, France, famous for its exotic shows, which rival those of Las Vegas Strip and where, as an United States GI on leave with some army friends, Elvis Presley gave an impromptu concert....
    , Moulin Rouge
    Moulin Rouge

    Moulin Rouge is a cabaret built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia. Close to Montmartre in the Paris red-light district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18?me arrondissement, Paris, it is marked by the facsimile of a red windmill on its roof....
     and Lapin Agile
    Lapin Agile

    Lapin Agile is a famous Montmartre cabaret, at 22 Rue des Saules, Paris, France.It was originally called "Cabaret des Assassins". Tradition relates that the cabaret received this name because a band of assassins broke in and killed the owner's son....
     in Paris
    Paris

    Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
    , France
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
  • Cabaret Voltaire
    Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)

    Cabaret Voltaire was the name of a nightclub in Z?rich, Switzerland. It was founded by Hugo Ball, with his companion Emmy Hennings on February 5, 1916 as a cabaret for artistic and political purposes....
     in Zürich
    Zürich

    Z?rich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Z?rich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne....
  • Tropicana
    Tropicana Club

    Image:Tropicana Dancers2.jpgTropicana is a world known cabaret and club in Havana, Cuba. It was launched in 1939 on a six-acre suburban estate in Havana's Marianao neighborhood....
     in Havana
    Havana

    Havana is the capital city, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city is one of the 14 Provinces of Cuba. The city/province has 2.1 million inhabitants, and the urban area over 3.5 million, making Havana the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean....
    , Cuba
    Cuba

    The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
  • The Blue Angel in New York, New York
  • Can Can in Seattle, Washington
    Washington

    Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
  • Bistro by the Sea in Matunuck, Rhode Island
    Matunuck, Rhode Island

    Matunuck is a village in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, Rhode Island, United States near Charlestown, Rhode Island. The village is located on a point along the southern Atlantic coast of Rhode Island off of U.S....


See also

  • Café Society
    Café Society

    Caf? society was the collective description for the so-called "beautiful people" and "bright young things" who gathered in fashionable cafes and restaurants in Paris, London, Rome or New York City, beginning in the late 1800s....
  • Cabaret Paradis
    Cabaret Paradis

    Cabaret Paradis is a 2006 French comedy film. The plot revolves around Shirley and Dino , two entertainers as they purchase an old cabaret, in Paris, which they desperately try to put back on its feet....
  • Revue
    Revue

    A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre entertainment that combines music, dance and sketch comedy. The revue has its roots in nineteenth-century American popular entertainment and melodrama, but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from ca....
  • Strip tease
  • Le Scandal Cabaret