Kaftan!
Swedish Housewife at ING, 1530 Bellevue Ave, 329-5388. Free. Sun at 9 pm. Ongoing.

When my editor sent out an e-mail asking if anyone wanted to review Cabaret, I jumped at the chance. Cabaret-- John Kander Fred Ebb's 1966 musical made super-famous by Bob Fosse's 1972 Liza Minnelli film--is one of my favorites.

It turns out my editor didn't mean Cabaret, he meant a cabaret. That is--an actual troupe of theatery song stylists belting out Gershwin, Bacharach, and James Bond theme songs. With its chalky red walls, lazy ceiling fans, closely arranged tables, and with its impossibly good-looking waitresses dashing around serving strong drinks to patron and performer alike, Ing is certainly well suited for an evening of cabaret.

This Sunday night, billed as Kaftan!, "an evening of 'kookoo fabulous' song stylings," was the first installment of what the group (performance art-rock chanteuse Paula, local crooner/tattoo artist Mark Mitchell, and opera-trained Kurt B. Reighley) are busting out as a weekly event. With Pho Bang!, the kinetic transvestite punk-rock-John-Waters variety show kicking off Seattle's weekends on Thursday nights at Re-bar, the folks behind the croony Kaftan! may hope hipsters will want to round out their weekends with something vaguely similar, if more adult.

Admittedly, I didn't exactly "get" Kaftan!'s theme. (And there was definitely a theme. I think.) The shtick seemed to revolve around Mitchell and Reighley's decorous and "exotic" shirts and Paula's flowing blue Middle Eastern gown. The song selections ("Love is Here to Stay," "They All Laughed," and the theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service) also hinted at some elaborate conceit from Reighley's campy cross-referenced brain. The pianist, Victor Noriega, was flawless--playing with deceptively lazy precision. The singing troupe ought to take the energy down a notch to tap the Sunday night vibe better, but Kaftan! is a nice-enough dose of free entertainment.