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The Beating Heart Of Cabaret

If your familiarity with cabaret is restricted to a sad Liza Minnelli in a bowler hat, you should be pleased to discover that this type of entertainment is almost certain to be a happier experience.

The cabaret is European in origin, although every country produces its own particular version. It may include song, dance, instrumental, comedy, political satire, juggling and even drama, but the venue is usually a restaurant or nightclub, the content is almost always for mature audiences, and the entertainment is led by an emcee.

In the U.S., many cabaret venues embraced a broader definition with the inclusion of drag shows, burlesque, and its less humorous cousin, the striptease.

In 1993, Cabaret Old Town opened, providing a venue for cabaret-loving Wichitans for more 20 years. It closed its doors in May of 2014, but within a few short months, it was purchased and completely renovated for its opening in November as Roxy’s Downtown.

Roxy’s expects to continue to offer the lighthearted musical/comedy entertainment that Cabaret Old Town was known for, as well as expanding into other forms of entertainment, including film screenings and workshops.

If, as lyricist Fred Ebb would have it, life is a cabaret, its beating heart just might be located at Roxy’s.

Sanda Moore Coleman received an MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University in 1991. Since then, she has been the arts and community editor for The Martha's Vineyard Times, a teaching fellow at Harvard University, and an assistant editor at Image. In 2011, she received the Maureen Egan Writers Exchange prize for fiction from Poets & Writers magazine. She has spent more than 30 years performing, reviewing, and writing for theatre.