Kabarett Fête

Be prepared to be transported as nine performers from seven countries deliver the European cabaret songbook – the original cabaret songbook – in New York City’s first cabaret festival devoted to the European cabaret arts. These NY-based artists come from France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Canada, and the U.S., and are dedicated to the authentic interpretation of the Great European Songbook. Several have been members of the cabaret ensemble Kabarett Kollektif, winner of the 2006 New York Nightlife Award for “Unique Cabaret Performance.”

Two programs are making their NY debut: Swedish-born Olivia Stevens’ tribute to the controversial Swedish star Zarah Leander, a siren of the Third Reich; and Rebecca Fletcher’s exploration of the Yiddish cabaret music of Warsaw. In addition, Berlin film-maker Volker Kuehn’s documentary, Dance of Death: Cabaret in the Camps, will be screened for the first time ever in NY. This film, which combines rare footage of cabaret in the camps with interviews of some of the surviving artists, has been described as “an especially stirring document of the Holocaust… more forceful than any known commentary… a memorial for the more or less unknown hero of the concentration camps.”

Schedule of Events:

Tuesday, January 23 at 6:30pm
Micheline performs songs of her Belgian countryman Jacques Brel and the French sparrow Edith Piaf. Passionate and intense, funny and wicked.

Tuesday, January 23 at 9:00pm
Award-winning international chanteuse Karen Kohler delivers her homage to Kurt Weill and Marlene Dietrich, Three Pennies & A Touch of Venus, in German, French and English. Classics alongside lesser known songs.

Wednesday, January 24 at 6:30pm
NY DEBUT! Olivia Stevens performs Pleasure & Peril: Sarah Leander & the Third Reich, a look at the Swedish-born siren who was torn between artistry and politics and whose songs remain unforgettable to this day.

Wednesday, January 24 at 9:00pm
Jean Brassard pays tribute to French star Yves Montand in The Kid from Pairs. The show follows Montand from the Music Hall scene of the ’40s to his filmwork and active role in politics.

Thursday, January 25 at 6:30pm
NY DEBUT! Rebecca Joy Fletcher takes audiences to 1920s Warsaw in Kleynkunst: Warsaw’s Yiddish Cabarets, where Yiddishists soak up satiric music, laugh at anti-semitism, drink whiskey, and dance the Charleston.

Thursday, January 25 at 9:00pm
NY DEBUT! A special screening of Dance of Death: Cabaret in the Camps, a controversial documentary by filmmaker Volker
Kuehn that combines extraordinary footage with interviews of surviving artists. There is no cover charge for this event.

Friday, January 26 at 6:30pm
Award-winning cabaret artist Frans Bloem sings the journey of life in Passage to Aznavour, expressing himself masterfully through the songs of Charles Aznavour, Ramses Shaffy and other European songwriters.

Friday, January 26 at 9:00pm
Beware of blondes as Micaela Leon and Karen Kohler perform Noise and Smoke: Hits of Weimar Berlin, an homage to the revues of 1920s Berlin and the songs of Marlene Dietrich, Lotte Lenya, and Claire Waldoff… later banned by the Nazis.

Saturday, January 27 at 6:30pm
Deeply rooted in Jazz, Theo Bleckmann breathes new life into interpretations of Brecht, Eisler and Weill, Strauss and Kraftwerk in Songs of Love and War, Peace and Exile.

Saturday, January 27 at 9:00pm
Prepare to be transported as French chanteuse Greta sings Love Noir: Chansons Then and Now. The songs of Charles Aznavour, Charles Dumont, and Georges Becaud take you to Paris, where cabaret was born.

NOTE: Though the programs have European themes and are
presented authentically in German, French, Flemish, Dutch, Yiddish and Swedish, all shows also include English translations either in the lyrics or in the patter between the songs.

A special prix fixe festival menu is available.