The London Cabaret Club – Review

The London Cabaret Club have been popping up in various guises all over London since 2013 and have now found a permanent home at the Bloomsbury Ballroom. This seems like a perfect fit for them – the ballroom is fairly glamorous and this show is pretty glitzy.

I go to a lot of cabaret, and most of the time it has some decidedly dark undertones. Not with the London Cabaret Club. This was a cabaret show for everyone and made my friend and I feel like we were in a bygone era when things were more wholesome.  Not that it was completely without its sexier moments, with a little flesh on show now and again to titillate.

Most of the acts were choreographed dance numbers accompanied by a live band, and live singers who are sometimes a part of what is happening on stage, sometimes roam the audience. The whole theme of the show is British Pop. So starting from the 60s and moving to present day you are treated to a classic pop song of that era (so we started with Shout and the Beatles and yes, Spice Girls made an appearance). It was a true celebration of pop so if you like that kind of music then you will love this. Each song furthered the British motif  – so for example, in one number all the men were in Beefeater uniforms.

In another, the girls had on Geri’s famous Union Jack dress. There were a couple of performances that ticked the circus box – we had someone performing feats of balance (and showing off their muscled torso) and a fire eater. But I felt the show really shone when only one or two dancers took to the stage and you could really appreciate the moves they were executing. In the interval, we were treated to a different kind of live act – the girl group Stooshe who performed songs with a Doo Wop flavour and were really rather good.

I can imagine this going down well for a special occasion with a lover, or heading for a girly night out. It’s not the cheapest of nights, though. Tickets start at £30 for just the show and the ‘cheap seats’ and go up progressively all the way up to £85 if you want the best seats and food or half a bottle of champagne (plus access to the champagne bar and backstage passes). Once you’re in cocktails are £12 and glasses of wine are £10. They’re obviously aiming for the ‘West End’ market and they’ve hit the nail on the head for that while offering something a little different to just hanging out at West End bars.

I thought the layout of the room was excellent – there were no bad tables so if you don’t have so much cash to splash, then don’t feel you won’t get a good view. The food that we had was delicious I have to say and if you do have the extra money, worth adding this into your evening. We started with a light crab salad on a tapioca tuile and perfectly crispy pea and mint arancini with a smoked paprika mayonnaise that made me want more arancini, purely to enjoy the dip. There was a main on offer as well but unfortunately, the wait staff missed us out so I can’t comment on that one. Dessert was white wine and poached pear with a fudgy dark chocolate cake. Indulgent.

And I don’t want to give away the surprise, but at the end of the night I viewed the wait staff with a different perspective!