A celebrated French drag cabaret has given its ultimate efficiency, bringing an finish to the Parisian fixture that impressed a Hollywood movie.
Chez Michou mentioned on social media that Sunday’s efficiency could be its final attributable to monetary causes.
The trailblazing cabaret within the capital’s Montmartre district introduced drag leisure to France within the mid-Nineteen Fifties.
The venue’s managers mentioned {that a} liquidator could be appointed later this month, with hopes {that a} purchaser may be discovered for the membership.
Regardless of being in a tiny venue, Chez Michou embellished with gilt framed mirrors attracted guests from throughout France and all over the world.
In its heyday, they included French President Jacques Chirac and Hollywood star Liza Minnelli.
The servers who saved the champagne flowing had been known as Michettes, and doubled as performers within the energetic membership.
Chez Michou was based by flamboyant cabaret artist Michel Catty – identified merely as Michou.
The larger-than-life character was identified for his all-blue outfits – together with chunky blue glasses.
He’s credited with inspiring the 1983 Oscar-nominated French movie La Cage aux Folles – a comedy a couple of homosexual couple working a drag nightclub in a French resort city.
An American model was made in 1996 – The Birdcage – starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
Michou ran the membership proper up till his demise in 2020, on the age of 88.
There was an outpouring of grief, with the Élysée Palace issuing a press release saying: “The sky above Montmartre might be rather less blue any more.”
His niece, Catherine Catty-Jacquart, took over operating the membership, and advised AFP information company that it had seen an absence of bookings regardless of the Olympics, and blamed its monetary woes on protests, strikes, parking and the influence of Covid.
“We’re dwelling from each day,” she mentioned on Saturday, earlier than it was introduced that the membership had closed its doorways – a minimum of for now.