Thread: What songs would you like to hear at a Cabaret night?

There are certain songs that I have retired from my repertoire - and I'm not a vocalist who performs at a lot of cabaret or burlesque events on the whole.

But I become less inspired to perform them when I hear them so much, over and over at those events E.g. Do Right, Fever, Diamonds... etc etc

Some people I know look forward to hearing these numbers - they expect and anticipate them. Others just groan when the opening bars begin as if to say, 'Ohh that one again. Yawn.' And at that point you won't stand out to them I think, even if you do a fabulous rendition.

Really have a good look around - browse Amazon or Itunes and listen to clips from big compilations - there are tracks on there that are often neglected or overlooked because of the bigger, more famous/prolific numbers.

And if there's a standard or commmonly performed tune you just really love and want to do - try putting your own spin on it - do a new arrangement. Slow it down, speed it up, play with the melody, change the style and genre.

H-M x

it depends on the style of the night and your likely audience. if it's a crowd of cabaret-obsessives, they'll be bored to death of Fever, Cabaret, Mein Herr, and the like. but lots of audiences haven't grown tired of those songs yet and so you have to make a call on that.

as a cabaret singer myself, my rule of thumb has always been to pick things i can give at least a slight personal twist to. and the ones i always come back to are the ones that's i've completely reinvented, often in a quite twisted way.

if you want to know more about cabaret repertoire, look up Ute Lemper's back catalogue. she has done lots of interesting stuff, from Weill and Hollander to Sondheim to the Divine Comedy. Camille O'Sullivan is another great interpreter of a diverse range of material.

a few more thoughts (gotta love insomnia):

a lot of Jason Robert Brown songs have become standards in cabaret. they are always really strong character pieces and quite musically interesting.

the American songbook songs - Porter, Gershwin, Berlin, and so forth - are all good too, but again, they are so well known you have to be able to give them a twist. a great pleasure is finding songs of theirs which aren't so well-known.

a lot of 'pop' singers actually write songs with strong stories or some intellectual weight. i've done some Morrissey songs in cabaret and they work surprisingly well; as do people like Fiona Apple, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, the Divine Comedy, Elvis Costello, PJ Harvey; even Jarvis Cocker.

they might be out of favour at the moment but Bacharach/David songs can be fantastic in cabaret.

Marianne Faithful has recorded a lot of fine cabaret songs, by all sorts of different writers.

it really helps if you have a band, or can play your own instrument
in the past (using either piano or accordion) i've cabaret-ed up...

britney spears, leonard cohen, cyndi lauper, sonny and cher (with dusty limits. funnily enough!), nick cave, tom waits, LOADS from the disney catalogue....

frisky and mannish are a great example of how ripe pop songs are for the taking!!

Thanks for all of that Joe & Dusty -- most helpful!
I am really trying to steer clear of the cabaret classics because it's just not my thing, so your suggestions will help me find some new things to work on.
I play loads of instruments but unfortunately my main staple is guitar, which isn't *that* great for cabaret. That said I've been working on a twist of Rufus Wainwright's 'One Man Guy' that I've recorded a guitar-based backing track to... I've performed it once so far and it went down pretty well, though I think I still need to work on characterisation. The biggest problem I'm having with more obscure songs is that it's impossible to find backing tracks, and expensive to have them recorded! But worth it, I suspect.

Anyway thanks again -- off to rehearse for a show tonight. x