Madame Arthur

Madame Arthur is a drag cabaret venue in the Rue des Martyrs, 18th arrondissement of Paris. It is named after the eponymous song.

Entrance of Madame Arthur in 2015

History

Madame Arthur opened in 1946 as the first female impersonator cabaret,[1] which took its name from the famous song written in 1860 by Paul de Kock and performed by Yvette Guilbert.[2]

On its boards performed renowned transgender and drag artists such as Coccinelle,[3] Baddabou, Cricri, Chantaline Erika Keller, Estelle Roederer, Angélique Lagerfeld, Chablie, Yeda Brown,[4] Dominot[5] and Bambi.[1] Joseph Ginsburg, the father of Serge Gainsbourg, was a pianist there. Gainsbourg himself sometimes replaced him, and composed some songs there for the cabaret revue, songs which were his first compositions but were not published until after his death.[6] Some of those songs (Zita la panthère, Meximambo, Tragique cinq à sept), have not been found.[7]

Having been closed for many years, it was entirely restored and reopened in November 2015 by Divan du Monde, which has the neighbouring venue.[1][8] Nowadays a troupe of artists offers the public covers of songs in French, classic or more modern, acoompanied by piano and accordion.

References
  1. "Madame Arthur: rien ne se perd, tout se transforme". Libération.fr (in French). 2018-07-05.
  2. Dicale, Bertrand (2011-06-22). Les chansons qui ont tout changé (in French). Fayard. ISBN 978-2-213-66536-8..
  3. Delafon, Louis (14 December 2016). "Paris honore Coccinelle" [Paris honours Coccinelle] (in French). Paris Match. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  4. Vegas, Valeria (2020). Libérate : la cultura LGTBQ que abrió camino en España (in Spanish). Madrid. ISBN 978-84-122617-2-1. OCLC 1255705831.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. Bolognini, Stefano (May 2002). "Dominot? C'est moi!". Archived from the original on 2006-05-06.
  6. Guillaume Auda, Jérôme Bermyn (directors) (2020). "La folle histoire des travestis". Le doc Stupéfiant (in French). France 5.
  7. Christophe Conte. "Musique: Serge Gainsbourg, une jeunesse". Vanity Fair. No. 86, February 2021. pp. 94–99.
  8. "A Pigalle, la joyeuse renaissance de Madame Arthur, le tout premier cabaret travesti parisien". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2022-06-26.

48.8826°N 2.3396°E / 48.8826; 2.3396

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