Madame Arthur: Paris’s oldest gender-twisting cabaret – in pictures

A look on stage and backstage at the cross-dressing cabaret Madame Arthur, the oldest transformist cabaret in Paris, opened in 1946. Threatened with extinction, it has undergone a renaissance since 2015, attracting younger customers by returning to its fundamentals: baroque and queer performers who play with genres and conventions

Joel Saget/Agence France Presse

Main image: French artists Maud'Amour, Grand Soir, Odile De Mainville and Diamanda Callas, members of the transformist Cabaret Madame Arthur, poses at the Cabaret in Paris, France. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

Fri 6 Oct 2023 07.00 BST Last modified on Fri 6 Oct 2023 09.27 BST

  • Open since 1946, Madame Arthur is the oldest transformist cabaret in Paris. It has dominated the French capital’s drag, cross-dressing and trans scene for more than 60 years

  • Ageing and losing money, it closed in 2010 – but in 2015 Madame Arthur bounced back with a heady cocktail of burlesque performances featuring covers of old and new hits, sung only in French

  • The French artist Odile De Mainville, a member of Madame Arthur, poses outside the cabaret

  • A receptionist ready to welcome guests. The comeback was successful thanks to ‘incredible young artists’, ‘trans or not trans, girls and boys’, said Fabrice Laffon, who bought Madame Arthur in 2015

  • (Left to right) Grand Soir, Diamanda Callas and Odile De Mainville get ready backstage

  • Every Thursday to Sunday, Madame Arthur’s 15 burlesque artists dress up in extravagant costumes for a night of fun and folly

  • Diamanda Callas (left) and Maud’Amour getting ready for the show

  • Some of the decorations that greet guests. ‘We opted to go back to the roots, a queer cabaret with a unique outlook and unique performers,’ said pianist Charly Voodoo. ‘Word of mouth did the rest’

  • The name Madame Arthur refers back to a 19th-century song, rather than a real person

  • Maud’Amour preparing for the show

  • Diamanda Callas performs on stage. The stars perform pieces from the back catalogue of francophone songs – current favourites are Stromae, Celine Dion and Barbara – and will also try their art on international acts such as Bjork or Michael Jackson, but only in translation

  • When Laffon bought the club in 2015 there was a real chance it would never reopen. ‘It was touch and go,’ he said. ‘But this place’s story just had to go on’

  • (Left to right) Grand Soir, Odile De Mainville and Maud’Amour perform on stage

  • Madame Arthur prizes tradition, but is also pleased that young audiences come for the venue’s weekly changing shows.

  • While the official show runs from 8pm to 11pm, performers and guests then proceed to dance until the small hours

  • Madame Arthur regularly takes its show on the road and its performances in Paris are live-streamed
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