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Allocution by Mary Scarlata, BACA President
Information supplied by Leslie Holmes, John Amodeo and Jonathan Frank

WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED ... CABARET?

Benefit for
The Cultural Arts Association of Hopkinton
February 20, 1999

ACT 1

By now, some of you may be wondering what Cabaret is, and how it relates to the familiar image of Liza Minelli, in green eye shadow, straddling a chair and singing Come to the Cabaret. The musical and subsequent film: "Cabaret" went a long way to introduce the general public to old-style cabaret. While these images are not too far off, Cabaret in pre WWII Berlin was not nearly as hedonistic or political. German Cabaret hit its heights during the Weimar Republic years of 1918-1933, when stage censorship was abolished. The shows were largely revues, with skits, songs, and the kick line of beautiful women. Nudity was finally allowed on the stage, and Cabaret made the most of it. As a result, Cabaret in Germany split into two forms and spellings. What we here think of as Cabaret became Kabarett, with a K and two T's and the word we know as "Cabaret" was reserved for tawdry sex shows. (This differentiation still exists. Do a search on Yahoo! for "cabaret" and see how many German "gentlemen cabaret" clubs you come up with.)

Let me start by telling you what Cabaret is not; it is not a style of music, like jazz, rock, country or "easy listening." Instead, it is a type of live performance which encompasses all those styles and more. It can be a solo performer exploring the songs by a single writer or era, or it can be a review, such as Forbidden Broadway, Capitol Steps, or An Evening with Jerry Herman. And above all, it should never be confused with its cousin, "lounge," for it is not meant to be background music.

It is, instead, one of the most intimate of art forms. Its strength largely rests on the connection between the performer and the audience. Cabaret, in its best and purest form, takes place in small, intimate performing spaces, with the audience literally at arms length. The performer receives instantaneous feedback as to how he or she is doing, and can see the tears or yawns of the audience. Because the audience is close enough to see through any performing tricks, absolute honesty is required on the part of the performer. This facilitates an incredible sense of intimacy and communication between audience and performer, as well as a large degree of spontaneity. A cabaret performer has to be equal parts historian, stand-up comic, balladeer, and revival evangelist in order to put together and perform an effective evening of Cabaret.

So with Sally Bowles urging us nightly to "Come to the Cabaret," and an increasing number of Broadway performers crossing over with Cabaret shows of their own, the art form of Cabaret has been getting a great deal of notice lately. Tonight we will provide some information on this often misunderstood performance medium, and explain why we should heed Sally's advice and explore the world of Cabaret.

ACT 2

Cabaret got its start in France, with the chansons of turn-of-the-century Paris and the cafes of the 20s and 30s. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the word "cabaret" comes from the French word for "liquor store," which probably helps to explain why most Cabaret is done in night club settings.

When talking about the history of Cabaret we must go back to Paris 1881 and to the founding of the first modern-day Cabaret, Le Chat Noir. Paris at this time stood as a glittering world capital and the Third Republic enjoyed peace and economic prosperity. But the streets were full of beggars, urchins, rag pickers, prostitutes and thieves alongside the carriages of the rich. The newspapers were filled with articles about the street people ... and the writers, painters, poets, composers and performers of that time sought a place where they could communicate with each other - a place where, through satire, the middle-class spectator would realize that the life he was leading was a hypocritical existence - a thin veneer of polish eeked out at the expense of the peasants. The Cabaret was a place not just for entertainment but for the expression of ideas, of sentiments, of life as it really is.

Cabaret has always existed in some form, but with the founding of Le Chat Noir a new era had began. The public thronged to see and hear the literary greats of the time and their music was about down-to-earth subjects.

One Cabaret singer from France, Yvette Guilbert made a concert tour through Germany which inspired the opening of the Cabaret Uberbrettl in Berlin in 1901. This popular Cabaret spot started the uprise of cabaret in Berlin and by 1918 cabaret was thriving. As Cabaret evolved it became more and more anti-establishment and frequently made a real social statement. Some German Cabarets were heavily censored. Cabarets exposed the terrible things which were happening underneath the smoothness of everyday life.

Cabaret continued to grow and in the 1920's German leaders under the new Weimar Republic, offered a democratic constitution, gave women the vote and abolished censorship laws. Just as the roaring 20's in America brought society into a modern liberal philosophy, looser morality and freedom of expression gave European writers and performers free license to parody, satire, and even criticize the volatile world around them. In America, the same type of political and cultural rebirth would occur again during the socio-political movement of the 60's , when changes in American folk and rock music reflected a profound and lasting social revolution.

Cabaret shows were set on the floor of the small clubs rather than in proscenium, giving an intimate, even in-your-face immediacy to the entertainment. The diverse acts were loosely held together by the narrations and usually biting humor of the emcee, very similar to Joel Grey's emcee in Cabaret.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler declared martial law, abolished the Constitution of the Weimar Republic, and reinstated strict laws of censorship and control. The cabaret clubs were raided and closed down in a single night. Many a Jewish artist lucky enough to read the writing on the walls, fled Berlin on that night. Those who did not leave, were either put into concentration camps, or, terrified by the alternative, committed suicide.

Despite the many early efforts to censor and even abolish cabaret, the art form has survived and is experiencing a rebirth across the country and abroad. Go to Manhattan and you can stop into one of many cabaret clubs and see an act almost any night of the week. Organizations such as the Boston Association of Cabaret Artists are popping up around the country to help spread the word that cabaret is alive and well. There are even Annual Awards sponsored by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs. Why should we go to see cabaret performances? Cabaret is one of the last places you can go for a romantic evening, it is a refuge in which you can find somebody who will simply sing a song, and make it seem like he or she is singing it only to you.