Cabaret
Intimate bar-room entertainment of songs and satire, audience at small tables
Related
Cabaret is both a small venue and a form that began in Montmartre in the late nineteenth century: the audience sits at tables eating and drinking while singers, poets and comics perform close by.
Le Chat Noir was an early model; in 1920s Berlin cabaret became a weapon of political satire, and Brecht and Weill carried its singing style into the theatre. In France the form moved toward chanson, with Piaf turning the hall into personal narrative.
It is not revue, which is a large staged show, nor vaudeville, which runs on circuits and bills. Its difference from musical theatre lies in venue and scale, not in whether there are songs.
Sources
- 卡巴莱的酒馆形态、黑猫酒馆与柏林政治讽刺，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Cabaret"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.