Within sight of Place de la République, where Paris voices its anger and its hopes, the Apollo Théâtre hosts La Bouche, a love-filled reply to the political and social turmoil of our times. Founded in February 2022, this self-managed queer cabaret collective remains ruled by its founders, the artists: Bili Bellegarde, Grand Soir, Mascare and Soa de Muse. Queer activism endures on love: every artist who takes the stage throws the doors open, turning the room into a shelter that calms us down or fires us up before we step back out into the world. Find every upcoming date in the caption.
Four artists run La Bouche. Mascare is a sound poet and DJ whose subversive work, absurd in the best way, weaves music, memory and words. Bili Bellegarde is a wonderfully gifted singer whose songs mix tenderness and pride. Grand Soir is a pianist and songwriter whose romantic, melancholic songs draw the audience in with a knowing smile. Soa de Muse brings the widest reach: a finalist of Drag Race France, she went on to RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars. Each night they open the floor to guests, on one firm condition, two of the founders stay on stage.
La Bouche presents its first theatrical production, “With Love, Baubo”, written and directed by Mascare. A handful of performers, whose paths cross, rehearse the making of a cabaret evening from scratch. Because the cast rotates, the same frame story yields a different version each night. Mascare describes the piece as a tribute to cabaret itself, tracing how isolated performers slowly find one another.
Serious subjects, deeply serious ones, do not prevent a wedge of Laughing Cow from wiggling across the stage. Grand Soir’s elegance lifts the room into a clear blue sky, and then Bili Bellegarde takes over with a voice of raw talent, a cover of “You Make Me Feel Like a Wonderful Lesbian” delivered with a microphone in hand and a very funny sense of timing. Within little more than an hour, catharsis takes shape, a world in which the whole room seems to breathe as one, where laughter and tears arrive in the same breath and nobody feels alone with what they feel.
For the festive season, “Let’s Celebrate” welcomes everyone who spends the end of the year far from home or simply looks for a room to belong to. The comic musical builds sketches around popular songs, from Céline Dion and Mariah Carey to Dalida. Its four central figures, a loner, an eager friend, a neighbour and a building manager, turn the holidays into a shared table where the audience can gather.
“Midnight Shift” moves that spirit onto the dance floor. Once every two months, the Bal Chavaux in Montreuil hosts a night from midnight to five in the morning, inspired by the 1970s, when records were hard to hear outside the club. Performances, DJ sets and guests who join spontaneously make up the programme, and each edition donates its proceeds to a campaigning organisation.
Upcoming dates include “With Love, Baubo” at the Apollo Théâtre on 3 and 4 November, and “Let’s Celebrate” there from 23 to 27 December. “Midnight Shift” at the Bal Chavaux on 6 November. Cabaret and DJ set at the Théâtre Mansart in Dijon on 5 November. Cabaret and DJ set at the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse in Lyon on 12 and 13 November. Châteauvallon Liberté in Toulon on 28 November. Cabaret show at the MC2 in Grenoble from 17 to 19 December.
