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After establishing itself as the place to catch Broadway stars in an intimate setting, the Cabaret venue is working to add more styles of music to the schedule.
Jazz, for instance, will make a big impression when vocalist-bass player Esperanza Spalding and pianist Fred Hersch play a pair of sold-out shows on Jan. 8 at the Cabaret, 924 N. Pennsylvania St.
Spalding won the first of her five Grammy Awards in the category of best new artist in 2011, a year that featured Drake, Justin Bieber, Florence and the Machine and Mumford & Sons as Spalding’s fellow nominees.
Cabaret CEO Shannon Forsell said the Spalding-Hersch visit, which will happen two days after the duo’s “Live at the Village Vanguard” album is released, is a bold way to expand the 200-capacity venue’s artistic palette.
“To get Esperanza Spalding in a small space is going to be amazing amounts of magic, I’m sure,” Forsell said. “We’re really thrilled about it.”
The Cabaret is a not-for-profit organization that evolved from the American Cabaret Theatre, which was known for presenting musical revues with a resident cast at the Athenaeum.
Forsell, a cabaret singer before she oversaw the Cabaret, helped to salvage ACT when its faltering business model needed revamping in 2008.
The idea was to present solo artists in a context of singing whatever they’d like with occasional storytelling and dancing. The cabaret tradition began hundreds of years ago in Paris, and it’s a format suited for Broadway performers.
Leslie Odom Jr., presently seen in the cast of Netflix film “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” headlined a Cabaret show at the Columbia Club in 2013—two years before Odom gained fame in Broadway’s “Hamilton.”
The 2023 Cabaret lineup includes Chita Rivera, a two-time Tony Award winner, on June 2-3.
Claybourne Elder (who performed in a Broadway revival of “Company”), Amber Gray (a Tony nominee for her work in “Hadestown”), Jessica Vosk (“Wicked”) and Jeremy Jordan (“Bonnie & Clyde”) are four New York City standouts who are part of the 2023 Cabaret schedule.
The Cabaret concept migrated among Indianapolis venues such as the Columbia Club and Indiana Landmarks’ Cook Theater until opening a space of its own in 2018.
No longer a guest in other venues and now in complete control of its calendar, the Cabaret is able to incorporate jazz dates with ease, Forsell said.
“A jazz artist may not fill a 1,200-seat theater, but they may sell more than a 150-seat club,” she said. “So there’s this in-between space and we’re starting to realize we fit in that space.”
One more highlight of the 2023 Cabaret schedule is a Wes Montgomery celebration on May 13. Born in 1923, Montgomery emerged as a world-class jazz guitarist in the nightclubs of Indiana Avenue.
The Cabaret event, “In Our Own Sweet Way: Honoring the Artistic Legacy of Wes Montgomery,” will feature spoken-word performances by Lasana Kazembe and Manon Voice and musical contributions from saxophone player Rob Dixon and vocalist Bashiri Asad.
Kazembe, who teaches in IUPUI’s Africana Studies Program, is the Cabaret’s artist in residence.
For ticket information, visit thecabaret.org.
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