Thoughts on Two’s a Cabaret coming to an end and the future

Two’s a Cabaret presents on Tuesday nights at El Roccos (ye olde Bar Me) is coming to a close next Tuesday night. I started this night in April as a way of getting some sort of regular cabaret night that promotes new and emerging cabaret artists. A problem I’ve had is that there is only a handful of regular cabaret nights in Sydney and up until recently, the artform was starting to die a slow, painful death. However since I originally thought this I’ve opened my eyes to the Sydney cabaret scene. Cabaret is starting to come back in Sydney. You have El Rocco’s starting to show an interest in cabaret again. Trevor Ashley is running his successful Showqueen night at the Supper Club every Sunday. There’s regular cabarets at Slide, the Vanguard is now doing cabaret and the Statement Lounge have recently reopened their doors. Ruby Revue run their weekly cabaret/burlesque night at the Arthouse Hotel and there’s a new cabaret venue in Surry Hills at Cafe 212 on Riley.

Basically, cabarets starting to show itself again. Unfortunately, what’s still lacking is a good space for new artists. All of these places, with the exception of El Rocco’s, caters to professional cabaret, musical theatre and burlesque performers. Personally, I think what might help is some kind of collective for people to join and get involved. This is what I attempted with Two’s a Cabaret. Over the past five months we have had some exceptional performers come through our doors. From multi-award winning performers Lisa Crouch and Sandie White, Edinburgh bound performers from The Princess Cabaret, newer artists like Simon Ward and Mathew Loeser (The latter of which still holds title for biggest Two’s a Cabaret night with close to 70 people jammed in to the tiny venue), and our special visit from NY based ex-aussie Kate Campbell. The talent has truly amazed me. However, as is being heard more and more recently, we’ve had to finish up due to inconsistent numbers in the audience meaning that it was costing more than we were making.

Unfortunate, but them’s business.

However, this is not the end of Two’s a Company. We’ve got some shows being planned in September and October and I’m quite excited to get these started! Not doing the weekly show will give me a little more time to focus on where the company is going and work on future shows, rather than attempting to keep the company floating each week.

So come down next Tuesday, have some drinks and enjoy the show that we’ve got playing (coincidentally it’s MY show! The advantages of organising the night… )