Life Is a Cabaret (Again)

Sarah Mueller

The latest revival in San Francisco isn't picking up '70s shag carpets and lamps on Valencia or buying vintage mod ensembles on Haight or, worse, hosting a tacky '80s disco night (just say no!). Rather, local funksters—starved for a shred of something authentic and underproduced—are flocking to the new-school cabaret nights cropping up around town.

Long associated with geriatrics who go see Rita Moreno humping the piano at the Plush Room, cabaret, a century-old musical format, has been tweaked for a younger audience. Even pop's bad girls, Gwen Stefani and Pink, have been spotted at Trannyshack, the long-running drag and transvestite revue at the Stud.

From theme parties to vaudevillian, vampy shows with burlesque troupes, virtually every dancer, musician, and DJ in town is getting in on the act. "Shows like the Crimson Club [at the Stud] are an alternative to the meat market club scene," says Kelly Alonzo, a local artist. "They invoke a bygone era, with its intimate and nostalgic nature."

At the forefront is Spence Day, who headlines at the Lush Lounge, the Stud, and the establishment Plush Room. Day performs original tunes and standards, sometimes in a falsetto that makes Prince sound masculine. But it's costar Trixxie Carr and Day's satirizing of current events that keeps the audience coming back for more.

Sometimes the audience sings backup. At a recent show at the down-home El Pulpo Brothers Cephalopod Caberet (where patrons sit on floor pillows in a storefront Western Addition apartment), scenesters sang along with Hello Donkey, who plays pop-punk songs about the world of pro figure skating. Call it a happening or a music love-in, but it's certainly not your granddaddy's cabaret. The free show features artists and musicians performing solo sets.

Will these new "cabarettes" move beyong their inderground appeal? It's too soon to tell. But already, at least one is striking out on an unlikely national stage: In January, Day finished as a finalist on CBS's decidedly mainstream Star Search.