Barre Vermont's cabaret shows

There is a town in Vermont called Barre. However, I'm actually referring to a bar on Vermont Ave. in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. The bar is attached to a restaurant called Vermont. They've been doing cabaret style shows in the bar revolving around the music from one director's movies. They've done Quentin Tarantino, Coen brothers, etc. I'm a huge Baz Luhrmann fan, especially of his Red Curtain Trilogy movies, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge.

Last night I finally went to see what this show was all about. I really had no idea what to expect. I just knew if it had to do with Baz's movies, I wanted to check it out. They crammed the narrow space with as many tables and chairs as they could. There's a sound booth at one end, a small stage for a band at the other, stage lighting on the ceiling, a small platform in front of a red curtained niche and steps leading up to the bar itself. There is barely enough room for people to pass between the tables.

The show started with Romeo + Juliet. Interspersed among the songs from the movie is Shakespeare's actual words. They condensed the story into about 1/2 hour but managed to capture the essence of the tale. The performers are very talented. They have to sing while weaving in and out among the crammed tables and avoiding waiters bringing food and drink and the occasional patron coming and going. Since the performers are pretty much right next to you, they have the opportunity to interact and react to things going on in the audience. There is a feeling of being in the show unlike any other. After R+J, they did a few songs from Strictly Ballroom and managed to convey the weird humour from that movie brilliantly in a short period of time (as well as conveying the idea of ballroom dancing without actually having room to dance). The second half was all Moulin Rouge. As with the first two sets, the story is told through the songs while echoing the look and feel of the movie. For instance, in the movie there are a couple of scenes when the character of Toulouse-Lautrec is seen outside the window from where the main action is happening. At Barre, the performer playing TL climbs a tree outside the front window and sings from there (we hear it inside).

The venue is expanding into the adjoining restaurant soon, so there will be some elbow room in the future. I'm curious what they do with a director whose movies are less directly musical than Baz's. All in all, this was a fun and unique evening, one of those things that feel like you could only find in LA.