Burlesque vs. Cabaret – What is the difference?

“What I love about Cabaret and Burlesque is both shows allow the performers to be on same level as the audience. When I’m dancing for you its like 3d, right in your face.”

-Jennifer Kennedy

What is the difference between a Burlesque show and a Cabaret Show???

According to Wikipedia Cabaret is:

Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue—a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance being introduced by a master of ceremonies or emcee (MC).

Cabaret also refers to a Mediterranean-style brothel—a bar with tables and women who mingle with and entertain the clientele. Traditionally these establishments can also feature some form of stage entertainment, often singers and dancers.

In the United States, cabaret diverged into several different styles of performance mostly due to the influence of Jazz Music. Chicago cabaret focused intensely on the larger band ensembles and reached its peak in the speakeasies, and steakhouses (like The Palm) of the Prohibition Era.

New York cabaret never developed to feature a great deal of social commentary. When New York cabarets featured jazz, they tended to focus on famous vocalists likeNina Simone, Bette Midler, Eartha Kitt, Peggy Lee, and Hildegarde rather than instrumental musicians. Cabaret in the United States began to decline in the 1960s, due to the rising popularity of rock concert shows and television variety shows.^{[citation needed]} The art form still survives in various musical formats as well as in the Stand-up comedy format and in popular drag show performances.

Cabaret is currently undergoing a renaissance of sorts in the United States, particularly in New Orleans, Seattle, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon, as new generations of performers reinterpret the old forms in both music and theatre. Many contemporary cabaret groups in the United States and elsewhere feature a combination of original music, burlesque and political satire, as can be found in such groups as Cabaret Red Light and Leviathan: Political Cabaret. In New York City, since 1985, successful, enduring or innovative cabaret acts have been honored by the annual Bistro Awards.^[1]

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret

New Burlesque According to Wikipedia:

Burlesque is a humorous theatrical entertainment involving parody and sometimes extreme exaggeration.

New Burlesque

A new generation nostalgic for the spectacle and perceived glamour of the old times determined to bring burlesque back. This revival was pioneered independently in the early 1990s by Billie Madley’s “Cinema” and later with Ami Goodheart in “Dutch Weismann’s Follies” revues in New York, Michelle Carr’s “The Velvet Hammer” troupe in Los Angeles, and The Shim-Shamettes in New Orleans. In addition, and throughout the country, many individual performers were incorporating aspects of burlesque in their acts. These productions, inspired by the likes of Sally Rand, Tempest Storm, Gypsy Rose Lee and Lili St. Cyr, have themselves gone on to inspire a new generation of performers such as Dita Von Teese. In the case of such performers as Julie Atlas Muz and Agitprop groups like Cabaret Red Light, the revival of burlesque has also provided a new vehicle for political satire and performance art. The revival of roller derby also features elements of burlesque.^[11]

Today New Burlesque has taken many forms, but all have the common trait of honoring one or more of burlesque’s previous incarnations, with acts including striptease, expensive costumes, bawdy humor, cabaret and more. There are modern burlesque performers and shows all over the world, and annual conventions such as the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival and the Miss Exotic World Pageant are held. In 2008, The New York Times noted that burlesque had made a comeback in the city’s art performance scene.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlesque