Tabaris, Buenos Aires

Teatro Tabarís is a classic revue theatre located at Avenida Corrientes 831, in Buenos Aires. In the same place there used to be a cabaret called Royal Pigall.

It was inaugurated on July 7, 1924, and the anecdote tells that on that cold winter night the central heating failed and the guests had to dine warmly in their coats and overcoats. The Tabarís became one of the most important cabarets and nightlife center of the high and bohemian class of that booming decade that is remembered all over the world as the crazy years, being the first public place that had air conditioning in the city. On the ground floor was the ballroom, and on the upper floor there were boxes and reserved rooms where customers could access private shows with luxury prostitutes. Among its illustrious visitors were Edward of Windsor, Orson Welles, Maurice Chevalier, Luigi Pirandello, Carlos Gardel, Federico García Lorca and even the Maharaja of Kapurthala.

The architect Fabio Grementieri portrays the Tabarís clientele as " made up of well-to-do children, bohemian tourists and celebrities, all well-to-do people capable of paying for a drink the equivalent of almost half the salary of a common employee". According to the author, the theatre's chef "earned as much as a deputy". On the other hand, music hall, tango or varieté shows were performed on the stage, which was specially raised. Among the notable artists who performed at the Tabaris were the French Lucienne Boyer, Josephine Baker and Mistinguett.

In 1937, the Teatro-Dancing Tabarís was remodeled and enlarged by the architect Rafael Sammartino, who gave it a modern aesthetic of sober lines, with columns of art deco influence in its glazed façade. From that moment on, it has a main hall with a pulman level and a 160-seat hall in the basement nicknamed petit Tabarís. Two years later, the Cine-Teatro Gran Rex, one of the most important in Buenos Aires even today, was inaugurated in the neighbouring lot.

In 1989, the Tabarís was bought by the businessman Carlos Rottemberg, who until then only took care of the artistic content by paying a fee. In 1998 he rented it to an evangelical church, a situation that lasted until 2006, when the theater reopened and joined the circuit of theaters organized by Rottemberg, along with the Multiteatro and the Liceo.