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cabaret
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What is cabaret?
Cabaret is a restaurant or nightclub that serves alcohol and provides musical entertainment. Originating in France in the 1880s, cabarets were small clubs featuring amateur acts, coarse humor, and entertainment like poetry, songs, and comic skits. The Moulin Rouge in Paris, established in 1889, was a primary exponent of French cabaret entertainment. German Kabaretts, which began around 1900, featured political satire and attracted artists and revolutionaries. In the United States, cabarets, often called nightclubs, offered a space for entertainers to connect with audiences.
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Where and when did cabaret start?
Cabaret likely began in France in the 1880s as small clubs featuring amateur acts and coarse humor aimed at bourgeois society. The first cabaret, Chat Noir, opened in 1881 in the Montmartre district of Paris and included poetry, shadow plays, songs, and comic skits. The Moulin Rouge, established in 1889, popularized the cancan and hosted variety and music hall stars. Around 1900, the cabaret was brought to Berlin, retaining the intimate, improvisational atmosphere of the French, but developed its own gallows humor and political satire.
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What kinds of performances are seen in a cabaret show?
Cabaret shows, which originated in France in the 1880s, offer a variety of musical entertainment in a restaurant or nightclub setting. These shows typically consist of a series of acts linked together by a master of ceremonies.
Performances can include poetry readings, songs, comic skits, and shadow plays. Over time, cabarets evolved to feature political and social satire, as well as risqué musical entertainment. In the United States, comedy, singing, and music are common.
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How is cabaret different from other forms of theater?
Cabaret distinguishes itself from other theatrical forms through its intimate setting and variety of musical entertainment. Originating in France in the 1880s, it quickly evolved into a platform for satire and political commentary, particularly in Germany. German cabarets became known for their gallows humor and were often centers for underground political movements, attracting artists, writers, and revolutionaries. This contrasts with more traditional theater, which often focuses on structured narratives and larger-scale productions. Cabaret fosters a close rapport between entertainers and the audience, encouraging improvisation and topical material, setting it apart from conventional performances.
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What is the role of the audience in cabaret performances?
In cabaret performances, the audience is grouped around a platform in an intimate setting, which encourages improvisation and freedom of material. The entertainment, often featuring coarse humor directed at bourgeois society, originally consisted of amateur acts linked by a master of ceremonies. Audience members tend to engage in collective behavior, and lose their powers of independent thought; unexpected reserves of passion come into play. The cabaret creates a rapport between the entertainer and audience. The audience can be active or passive, and until the late 19th century, audiences were highly responsive, demonstrating disapproval as boisterously as approval.
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How has cabaret influenced music, dance, or culture today?
Cabaret's influence resonates today through its daring blend of entertainment and social commentary. Emerging in late 19th-century France, it quickly evolved into a platform for satire and political expression, particularly in Germany. The musical Cabaret (1966) and its film adaptation (1972) vividly portray this era, exploring the decadence of Berlin during the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism. Cabaret's spirit lives on in comedy clubs and musical "torch song" lounges, where artists continue to push boundaries, challenge norms, and engage audiences in intimate settings with improvisation and freedom of material.
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cabaret, restaurant that serves liquor and offers a variety of musical entertainment.
The cabaret probably originated in France in the 1880s as a small club in which the audience was grouped around a platform. The entertainment at first consisted of a series of amateur acts linked together by a master of ceremonies; its coarse humour was usually directed against the conventions of bourgeois society. The typical program, which first flourished in the Montmartre district of Paris at the tiny Chat Noir in 1881, listed poetry readings, shadow plays, songs, and comic skits. The primary exponent of French cabaret entertainment was the Moulin Rouge, in Paris; established in 1889 as a dance hall, it featured a cabaret show in which the cancan was first performed and in which many major stars of variety and music hall later appeared. The world of the Moulin Rouge in its heyday was immortalized in the graphic art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Imported from France about 1900, the first German Kabarett was established in Berlin by Baron Ernst von Wolzogen. It retained the intimate atmosphere, entertainment platform, and improvisational character of the French cabaret but developed its own characteristic gallows humour. By the late 1920s the German cabaret gradually had come to feature mildly risqué musical entertainment for the middle-class man, as well as biting political and social satire. It was also a centre for underground political and literary movements. Patronized by artists, writers, political revolutionaries, and intellectuals, the German cabarets were usually located in old cellars. They were the centres of leftist opposition to the rise of the German Nazi Party and often experienced Nazi retaliation for their criticism of the government. The composers Paul Hindemith and Erik Satie, unknown at the time, were active in the cabarets; so also were the playwrights Bertolt Brecht and Frank Wedekind. The musical show Cabaret (1966) and a film version (1972) portrayed the 1930s German cabaret, as inspired by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories. The cabaret survived in post-World War II Germany as a forum for topical satire, but it lost most of its political significance.
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Comparable cabarets thrived in Barcelona, Kraków, Moscow, and St. Petersburg during the 20th century. Tristan Tzara’s Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich (1916–17) was the breeding ground of Dada, a platform for radical experimentation in poetry, fine art, and music. The English cabaret had its roots in the taproom concerts given in city taverns during the 18th and 19th centuries. A popular form by the end of the 19th century, it was often called a music hall, although music hall usually meant variety entertainment in England.
In the United States, where it was usually called a nightclub, the cabaret during the second half of the 20th century was one of the few remaining places where an entertainer, usually a comedian, singer, or musician, could establish rapport with an audience in an intimate atmosphere that encouraged improvisation and freedom of material. Although music for dancing was often provided during the entertainers’ intermissions, the primary attraction was the featured entertainer. In the post-World War II period a few performers were successful with sharp political and social satire, but commercial considerations were paramount, and nightclubs relied chiefly on established theatrical personalities who could attract a wide audience. By 1980 many nightclubs had disappeared, giving way to theatre restaurants and entertainment centres with larger seating capacity. This style of entertainment is carried on in comedy clubs, preeminent among which is Chicago’s Second City, and in a musical “torch song” lounge tradition that revives jazz and musical theatre repertoires in programs performed by solo vocalists. The material at comedy clubs may be political, while the performances at singing clubs generally eschew such controversy.