Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 17:38:00

The longest-running transgender cabaret venue in central Bangkok, the Calypso Cabaret moved into its current purpose-built theatre at the ASIATIQUE The Riverfront complex in February 2013 after relocating from its previous twenty-five-year home at the Asia Hotel on Phayathai Road. The Calypso traces its history back to 1988 and is the principal flagship of the Thai kathoey cabaret tradition, with substantially the longest continuous performance history of any of the surviving transgender cabaret venues anywhere in Thailand. The original Calypso Cabaret was founded in 1988 by the Thai entrepreneur Nimit Wittayanopat at the Asia Hotel on Phayathai Road in central Bangkok. The original venue was a small basement theatre with a seating capacity of around three hundred, which provided the principal trans cabaret entertainment for international tour groups visiting central Bangkok through the wider growth of the international tourist trade in the 1990s and 2000s. The decision to relocate to a larger purpose-built venue was taken in 2011 in response to the wider development of the new ASIATIQUE riverside complex. The current venue at ASIATIQUE is a purpose-built three-hundred-and-fifty-seat theatre completed in 2013 to designs by the Thai theatre architect Sumet Jumsai. The auditorium follows the standard cabaret theatre arrangement of tiered seating around a deep stage, with the principal viewing positions all enjoying clear sight lines to the central performance area. The lighting and sound systems are among the most advanced of any cabaret theatre anywhere in Thailand and provide the technical capability for the elaborate musical numbers that form the principal programme. The principal performance is presented twice nightly at twenty hundred and twenty-one fifteen, with each show lasting around seventy-five minutes. The format covers around twenty individual musical numbers spread across a wide international repertoire, with the various individual numbers selected to showcase the visual and vocal capabilities of the headline performers. The musical material covers traditional Hollywood film themes, classical Broadway show numbers, contemporary international pop and the various standard Thai popular music traditions. The supplementary facilities include a substantial pre-show dining option through the various restaurants of the wider ASIATIQUE complex, a post-show photograph opportunity with the principal performers and a small souvenir shop selling photographs and merchandise. The various central Bangkok hotels and tour operators include the show in many of their standard evening packages, with the supplementary free shuttle boat service from the central Saphan Taksin pier providing easy access for visitors based in the central business district hotels.