Life Is a Cabaret

Now that the holiday season is winding down, the countless company socials highlighting smooth jazz bands and cheap wine have left me yearning for something better.

Seeking some reception-room detox, I recently went to check out the last bastion of an almost forgotten era, and perhaps entertainment at its purest -- a cabaret show.

These shows draw from a colorful history, ranging from the cancan in Paris, decedent cabaret clubs during Germany's Weimar era, saloons in the American West and mobster speakeasies during Prohibition.

Le Scandal

I didn't know what to expect from New York's longest-running variety show, Le Scandal at The Cutting Room in New York City, owned by "Sex and the City" actor Chris Noth and musician Steve Walter. The show has been called everything from vaudeville to cabaret, and is now in its seventh year.

Once inside, I thought of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's sumptuous paintings of Paris' avant garde at the Moulin Rouge, the birthplace of the cancan.

I recalled Marilyn Monroe as a corseted saloon singer in River of No Return, New Orleans, jazz singers and Coney Island sideshows. The associations are endless and continue today on fashion runways worldwide and in popular movies such as Chicago and Idlewild. ...