 |
 |
| Charlie Brown is on the move again, after announcing that Charlie Brown’s Cabaret is ending its 16-month stint at Underground Atlanta after a final show June 4. (Photo by Sher Pruitt) |
|
|
| | |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: ZACK HUDSON
COMMENTS |
| 
Charlie Brown took the stage at Charlie Brown’s Cabaret in Underground Atlanta on Sunday night, just as he has so many times over the past 16 months, set to read the crowd with his cutting humor, then win them over with the ladylike charm that has made him a legendary female impersonator for more than two decades.
But the line that drew the most shocked gawks was when Brown announced from the stage that the club bearing his name closes after a final show June 4.
“It’s hard to get people to come down there,” Brown said of Underground Atlanta in an interview May 23.
Charlie Brown’s Cabaret landed at Underground in January 2005, after the city of Atlanta closed Brown’s longtime home, the iconic gay nightclub Backstreet, in July 2004.
The drag cabaret was among the first crop of nightclubs to christen Underground Atlanta, part of a city-owned “special entertainment district” where alcohol can be served 90 minutes longer than anywhere else in the Atlanta city limits. Despite the more liberal liquor laws, all of the clubs at the city-owned Underground have struggled, with many closing or rotating different themes.
Charlie Brown’s Cabaret was one of the most solid draws Underground had on weekends, particularly during its popular Atlanta Drag Idol contests over the past two years. The largely gay crowds that turned out for events like Drag Idol helped the cabaret stay afloat for as long as it did, said Christopher Kind, promotions and advertising manage for the Masquerade Entertainment Group, which operates the cabaret.
“Gay support exceeded my expectations,” said Kind, who noted that the Underground incarnation of Charlie Brown’s was marketed toward tourists and straight audiences.
“Sometime you have to stop losing money,” Kind said. “We just didn’t see a way for it to work down there.”
Cabaret on the move
The closure of the cabaret puts Brown’s infamous drag shows on the road for the second time in two years. He’s already announced plans to move his weekly shows to Friday nights at WETbar, with the Drag Idol Allstars show moving to Wednesday nights at Red Chair.
For 14 years late night clubgoers packed the second floor of Backstreet to see Charlie Brown and his cabaret.
But the 24-hour dance club began encountering trouble with city officials after neighbors raised allegations about drug sales, late night noise and traffic. In 2000, Atlanta officials enacted an ordinance curtailing the “private club” licenses that allowed Backstreet and other 24-hour nightclubs to operate around-the-clock.
Backstreet engaged in a lengthy and unsuccessful legal challenge to the city’s private club ordinance, and eventually closed for good on July 17, 2004.
Although the city of Atlanta and its politicians were cast as the arch-nemesis of Backstreet — with Charlie Brown never shy about taking a swipe at the City Council or mayor — after moving to the city-owned Underground Atlanta, Brown sometimes joked that he was now working for the mayor.
The closure of Brown’s club likely spells the end of any substantial gay and lesbian presence in Underground nightlife.
Kind said that the Masquerade Group made the decision to close Charlie Brown’s Cabaret “within the last month,” after a springtime slump.
“That’s a good show, probably one of the best in the world,” Kind said of the cabaret, which in addition to Brown regularly features Shawnna Brooks, Lena “Hot Damn” Lust, Heather Daniels and Ashley Kruiz.
While setting up temporary camps at WETbar and Red Chair, Brown is also busy plotting his next project, “a Las Vegas dinner cabaret entertainment,” that he hopes to launch in October.
Brown would not disclose a location for the new club, but said it will be marketed to bus tour groups and other travelers to Atlanta.
“We have major backers,” he said. “This is a seven-figure project.”
| 
