Cabaret

A restaurant or club which serves light refreshments and liquor and which provides musical entertainment may be termed a cabaret or nightclub. Dancing may also be provided but the chief attraction is the show. Performers may variously include singers, comedians and variety artists. The Parisian Moulin Rouge came to represent the classic form of the cabaret with its cancan show and professional artists. Originally the cabaret was a literary or artistic café where pacts, musicians or actors gave improvised performances. In its German form it also became an intellectual's café where the comedy was sharp political and social satire. In the Nazi period the cabarets were often raided.