Cabaret
tagStarted 1881Peak 1900–1975Last big hit still active
Located in 1 route
Cabaret is intimate theatrical song performed as direct address, often with piano or small combo and an emphasis on timing, ironic shading, and personal presence. The singer does not simply sing to the room; the singer recruits the room as an accomplice.
History
Originating in Paris and evolving through Weimar Berlin and later New York club culture, cabaret became a hybrid art that could hold chanson, standards, torch songs, comedy, and theatre material in one room-sized format; in the U.S. its postwar identity was shaped by supper clubs and rooms such as the Café Carlyle and Oak Room as much as by Broadway itself.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Cabaret"
- Library of Congress, "Musicals of Stage and Screen"
- 54 Below, "About the Club." citeturn6search0turn6search5turn6search6