Calypso Cabaret

Calypso Cabaret was established in 1988 and is Bangkok's earliest cabaret group. The show was directed by Hans Hoenicke, who was a guest star in the 1970s German television shows and . When it opened, shows were first held in a renovated movie theater on Sukhumvit Road. It later moved to the Asia Hotel on Phaya Thai Road. According to Dirk Weeber-Arayatumsopon of , the theater looked like a 1930s–1940s American club. The room had red walls and carpets and glittering disco balls. Calypso Cabaret in September 2012 moved from Asia Hotel to the Calypso Bangkok Theatre in Asiatique's Warehouse 3 on Charoen Krung Road. A voice-over says, "At the Club Calypso the most fundamental distinction – man/ woman, falls away". During her Born This Way Ball concert tour in 2012, Lady Gaga watched Calypso Cabaret. At her concert after watching the drag show, she said she was awed by how the Bangkok performers were able to be open about their identities. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand, there were border shutdowns and international flight discontinuations, which caused ticket sales for Calypso Cabaret to drop. The cabaret stopped doing performances on 14 October 2020, instead repurposing the location for putting on events. After shows had been paused for two years, Calypso Cabaret resumed their shows in December 2022. ==Music and choreography==

Calypso Cabaret features 16 acts. The show features songs from a diversity of genres. The show features China's, Japan's, Korea's, and Thailand's classical music and attire. Performers dance to a Chinese ballad containing heartrending scenes and a surprise ending. Another scene features the performers in traditional Korean attire, waving fans and doing Korean dances. An entertainer mimics Marilyn Monroe while wearing high-heeled shoes, a blonde wig, and a dress with silver sequin decorations. Suit-wearing men with black masks put diamond necklaces and bracelets on her. Admiring the gleaming accessories, the Monroe impersonator enthusiastically does lip-synced renditions of the songs "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "Material Girl". The scholar Reya Farber said the Monroe performance was "embodying glamorous consumption and an iteration of classic American femininity". Marjorie Pravden of the Orlando Sentinel lauded the show for having "vaudevillelike acts with ribald humor, high-kicking chorus lines". 's Dirk Weeber-Arayatumsopon said Calypso Cabaret distinguished itself from other cabarets through its "cheeky, frivolous presentation". ==Imagery==

College of William & Mary sociology professor Reya Farber said the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) was using transgender cabaret shows like Calypso Cabaret to change the image of tourist places seen as being seedy. TAT's website said that instead of pushing disreputable services, the cabarets provide funny entertainment. Farber found that Calypso Cabaret contributed to the positive perception through its promotional materials that say the performance is "is suitable to open-minded audiences of all ages and nationalities" and that the entertainers "highly valued class, style and taste" and "rigorously trained and educated". Tan cited Pui, a Calypso Cabaret performer, who said that viewers do not view the entertainers as women because the cabaret is billed as a "men dancing in women's clothes" spectacle. She criticized the marketing for overlooking their being skilled, disciplined entertainers through highlighting their gender variance. According to Pui, the marketing inaccurately portrays them to foreign viewers as "just a group of men who dress in women’s clothes and prance about the place". Pui further lamented that the foreign viewers have a preconceived notion that as not being "real" women, the kathoey performers will have blemishes. The viewers try to find performers who still have male traits. She said, "Some members of the audience are so taken back, they look as if they have seen a ghost. I don't know whether it is because they didn't expect us to look this bad or this good." Tan, the scholar, stated that kathoeys may be pioneering activism for "erotic justice" and gender equality, citing Pui who said, "every performance in Calypso is like a battle to gain respect for our third gender". ==Audience==

Of Calypso Cabaret's audience in 1992, Bangkok residents in the upper middle class and middle class made up over half and farang holidaymakers made up a substantial portion. The academic Jillana Beth Enteen found that the Thai people's having substantial representation in the audience demonstrated that kathoeys were recognized by the Thais as entertainers. The Nations Pawit Mahasarinand in 2015 called Calypso Cabaret a show for non-Thai tourists that was inapplicable to Thai viewers. Mahasarinand said audience members are incorrectly influenced into thinking the show exemplifies modern Thai theater. In the late 2000s, European customers, particularly the Dutch and the Belgians, made up a significant portion of their customer base. Asian customers including from South Korea, Japan, and Singapore, also comprised a substantial part of the audience. ==Notable performers==

The Thai fashion model Mimi Tao performed at Calypso Cabaret for several months and resigned after determining she was not interested in the role. Angele Anang, the winner of Drag Race Thailands season 2, got her start in the entertainment industry as a Calypso Cabaret dancer. ==Reception==

The Nation theater critic Pawit Mahasarinand praised the show, writing, "Most scenes have fun twists here and there that are either cheekily surprising or hilariously grotesque. There's also a nice contrast in moods and tones from one scene to the next, and that, coupled with quick scene changes and practical props, keeps the whole 75-minute show moving along at a fine pace." He said that although Calypso Bangkok caters to foreigners, Thai people are also able to feel enthralled and honored by it. Calling the show "terrific entertainment", the Orlando Sentinels Marjorie Pravden said Calypso Cabaret was "alternately funny, sensitive and outrageous" and "challenges one's own perspective on gender identification". The author Charles Agar found the show to be "more creative than the standard drag parades at cabarets in Phuket or Pattaya". ==Footnotes==