Theatre News

Cafe de Paris launches first in-house cabaret season since the 1950s

Cafe de Paris is more than just the much-loved venue for our annual WhatsOnStage Awards. It’s also a Grade-II listed building with a rich cabaret past – which it’s now reclaiming in style

Sizzling hot cabaret returns to Cafe de Paris
Sizzling hot cabaret returns to Cafe de Paris

London's Grade-II listed Cafe de Paris will reclaim its history from January by launching its first in-house cabaret programme since the 1950s, with performances every Friday and Saturday night.

Set in the heart of London's Piccadilly, Cafe de Paris first opened in 1924 and has a long theatrical and cabaret history, attracting guests and performers over the years including Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks, who reputedly was the first person to dance the Charleston, which she did here. It is London's oldest surviving cabaret space – even surviving a direct bomb hit during the Second World War.

(Editor's aside: Over the past ten years, it's also been the happy home of the WhatsOnStage Awards Launch Party – this year's takes place tomorrow, Friday 6 December, of course! – so we're a little biased. We love this opulent and atmospheric venue.)

From the new year, on Friday nights, guests will be treated to an initiation in the dark arts of cabaret, circus, comedy and neo-burlesque, known as the London Cabaret Society. It will explore the dark work of secret societies with an original soundtrack, death-defying fire, aerial and sideshow acts and erotic dance routines.

On Saturday nights, the creators behind Fun and Filth Cabaret (BBCR1) , and some of London’s most extravagant nights of entertainment, including Des O'Connor and Tom Gravett, will present Showtime Cabaret, a mix of cabaret, circus, comedy and burlesque in.