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“Leave your troubles outside,” commands the Master of Ceremonies in the Broadway hit “Cabaret.” “In here, life is beautiful.”
Though the word cabaret dates from the 1600s, meaning a small room or tavern, the theatrical concept originated in the late 1800s in Paris, with the famous venues of Le Chat Noir and Moulin Rouge.
Cabaret can be both a place, like a nightclub, and a style of performance, with songs, dancing, and variety acts linked by witty and sometimes racy banter. Instead of plunking into lines of theater seating, audiences are usually seated in small groups at tables, with drinks served, making for a casual, intimate setting.
The concept caught the attention of Kansas City native John Kander who, along with his writing partner Fred Ebb, created the 1966 Tony Award-winning musical “Cabaret,” set in Jazz Age Berlin. The show became a box office hit movie in 1972 starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey.
The format continues to push the boundaries between risque and sophistication, and luckily Kansas City can experience the full spectrum of the format’s offerings. Here are some of the best places to catch a cabaret show around the metro:
Quality Hill Playhouse
Quality Hill Playhouse is Kansas City’s home for “classic and classy cabaret.” Located downtown on West 10th Street, the playhouse just finished a run of “Kansas City Cabaret,” featuring music from the city’s jazz heyday of the 1920s and the music of Kander and Ebb; starring vocalists Brandon Pearson, Andrea Tribitt and LaShea Wright.
Next up, Quality Hill features acclaimed vocalist Eboni Fondren in a solo show “Jazz: the Women Who Shaped Me,” sharing songs and stories about the artists who influenced her career in becoming one of Kansas City’s most glamorous and sought-after performers.
Quixotic
Quixotic is a sensual circus, featuring mesmerizing music, acrobatics, aerialists, storytelling, state of the art stage design and more. The troupe has performed all over the world, often with site-specific performances that combine physical artistry with technical wizardry.
They started doing Cirque-style stage shows at the Grand Theater in Crown Center in 2019, following the success of their “Sensatia” show in Miami. This spring, Quixotic is presenting “Whiskey Dynamite,” billed as a “nonsensical neowestern cabaret,” where elements of the Old West meet the sirens of the modern era.
This is Kansas City’s sexiest cabaret variant, for sure.
The Marvelous Marilyn Maye
Kansas City claims one of the greatest living cabaret artists, the marvelous Marilyn Maye.
Born in Wichita, Maye started singing professionally at the age of 9, after winning a talent competition in Topeka. Regional success in Iowa, Kentucky, and Chicago eventually landed her in Kansas City, her home base for the next 70 years.
She recorded “Cabaret” in 1966, her breakout hit, and went on to become a celebrated Grammy Award-nominated recording artist. Maye made numerous radio and television appearances, with a record-setting 76 performances on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.
Maye is now in her 90s, still belting tunes from the American songbook, joking with the audience and her loyal backing band, and strutting with confidence and pizzazz in her sequined outfit, sparkly jewelry, and dynamic demeanor.
Even though her career has taken her to New York City and beyond, she comes back to Kansas City often to share her talents with the hometown fans. She recently performed at the Folly Theater, that grand old dame of the burlesque scene.
C.A.S.T.: Cabaret Arts and Social Theatre
Cabaret Arts and Social Theatre is an adult performing arts education company and community, offering various types of dance classes and events, like murder mystery dinner theater and karaoke social nights.
C.A.S.T. currently operates in two venues: the Waldo Supper Club, a historic venue in Kansas City dating back to the 1940s that hosts their popular “Supper & Suspects” murder mystery dinners, and the Metcalf Ballroom in Overland Park, where they host most of their other classes and events.
This year, the organization is also opening Cafe 333 in the Crossroads, featuring jazz musicians, cabaret singers, and comedy and variety acts.
Drag queens, burlesque dancers and chorus girls
The drag community has embraced the cabaret format, celebrating playful glam and rowdy exuberance. One of Kansas City’s most popular drag performers is Daisy Buckët, who brings together many local drag performers for Musical Mondays at Missie B’s and Drag Night with the Nightingales at Nighthawk (the nightclub at the Hotel Kansas City) the first Wednesday of each month.
Kansas City also boasts multiple burlesque companies. Burlesque dancing, or the art of the tease, involves strip tease routines and often incorporates comedy, banter and elaborate costumes. Burlesque is regularly included in the variety-act aspect of cabaret shows.
Risqué Revelry, which started in 2021, hosts a monthly burlesque and variety show at different venues around town. VAMPKC is one of Kansas City’s newer troupes, was voted Pitch’s Best Burlesque in 2024 and has performances at Nighthawk.
The Kansas City Burlesque Downtown Underground, an award-winning troupe that started in 2007, will host Speakeasy Shows at the Bird Comedy Theater in March. All these organizations also offer classes for those curious about the art form.
You’ll see many of these performers and more at the 14th annual Kansas City Burlesque Festival, happening in May at Bird Comedy Theater and the Folly Theater (which was a burlesque dance hall between 1941 and 1974).
The Kansas City Canaries are a 1920s-style chorus line troupe focusing on Jazz Era dance styles. They perform and teach traditional dances, like the Charleston, and lead workshops on various famous chorus lines. The Canaries perform at many different locations around town, like the MTH Theater at Crown Center and Shawnee Town 1929.
Cabaret for days
As a versatile and evocative theater style, cabaret has been presented at many venues throughout Kansas City in the past, so check back with these organizations to see when their next cabaret performance might be:
- Music Theater Heritage - The Ruby Room
- The Uptown Lounge
- Greenwood Social Hall
- The Arts Asylum
- Gael’s Public House
- The Black Box
