Bringing Back the Cabaret : The form is making a comeback at newly opened Tonto & Dietz. The space is tiny, but the ideas are big.

Once upon a time, there was something called cabaret. It was an eclectic entertainment, with something for everyone, but it was smart and funny, intelligent and intriguing.

Entrepreneurs Susan Dietz and Marilyn Shapiro are bringing the form back at their new intimate coffee cabaret, Tonto & Dietz on Ventura Boulevard. Their space is tiny, but their ideas are sizable.

Dietz, who has been a mover in Los Angeles theater for some time, from Equity-waiver to the Pasadena Playhouse and Beverly Hills’ Canon Theatre, has been out of theater since 1990, with the exception of “Four Fathers,” which she produced at the Tiffany Theatre last year. The stress and strain persuaded her to limit her activities to her main business.

Then, about two years ago, her friend Shapiro called her and said, “You know what the Valley needs? The Valley needs a cabaret.” Dietz agreed. Six months later Shapiro called again. “Would you be willing to invest in this thing?” Maybe. Another six months went by. Once more the phone rang. Shapiro now asked the important question. “Would you be willing to do this with me?”

Dietz said, “At the time my business was extremely slow. I have a management company, and I was in development hell, and nothing much was going on.” She said yes. Shapiro smiled, Dietz smiled, and they set out on the search for a space that ended in the Gaslight Alley Shopping Center.

“We wanted a nice, small, intimate place where a lot of our friends and a lot of people we admire could do their work without the pressure of 600 seats to fill. And, we thought the Valley was sort of hungry for a performing venue. I’ve had theaters everywhere, and the bulk of my audience comes from the Valley, no matter where I’m producing.”

Although Tonto & Dietz will be featuring single performers, play and poetry readings, and monologuist Paul Linke will be performing his new piece there as a possible beginning of a Monday-night monologue series, the opening weekend show is something that will give modern audiences a hint of what cabaret is all about.

The evening is called “An Off-Broadway Cabaret,” made up of material from off-Broadway hit musicals down through the years. It’s directed by Lara Teeter, with musical direction by Shelly Markham. Teeter has performed, directed and choreographed in theaters from coast to coast, and has been featured in Broadway’s “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “7 Brides for 7 Brothers,” among others, and was nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway revival of “On Your Toes,” in the role created by Ray Bolger.

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Considering the intimate size of Tonto & Dietz, Teeter recalls: “In ‘The Empty Space,’ Peter Brook talks about theater being in any space. The best theater he ever saw was in a tiny behind-the-counter coffeehouse underground sort of space, where people crowded around. Twelve people watched a brilliant piece of theater. You can do anything anywhere. Like Suzie says, when you have a space where your production values are down, you have to boil it to the purest form.”

That form is the essence of cabaret. In the four-member ensemble that comprises “An Off-Broadway Cabaret,” Bonnie Franklin knows a little bit about the genre. Tony-nominated for her role in “Applause” on Broadway, and star of the long-running series “One Day at a Time,” she has just returned from a month’s engagement doing--that’s right--cabaret at New York’s Algonquin Hotel.

Franklin is grateful that the style is coming back. “There’s more and more of a cabaret thing happening in this country. The wild thing is that there really isn’t a lot of it out here in Los Angeles, and there isn’t a lot throughout the country. To find places to go before you get to New York is very difficult. There really is an untapped audience that’s hungry for it.”

Along with Franklin, Teri Ralston (Broadway’s “Company,” “A Little Night Music”) and Byron Nease (just back from playing Raoul in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera”), the show features Gary Sandy, who began his career on soaps and went on to a Broadway debut in Franco Zeffirelli’s “Saturday, Sunday, Monday” and as the Pirate King in the Broadway production of “The Pirates of Penzance.”

Sandy is pleased as punch about the--for him--new cabaret appearance. “I’m coming at everything from a totally different standpoint. I see myself just totally as a performer. That’s all I’ve ever been. So I try to push myself into different kinds of things.”

Teeter calls Sandy the group’s Method performer. “That’s a compliment,” Teeter is quick to add. “In the truest sense of the word, Gary has to understand the motivation. He asks the questions that stimulate the piece in the direction it should go.”

That’s a clue to the type of material in the show and to Dietz’s interest in this sort of venue. “I’ve always been a producer who’s been interested in the text. And this is a way of getting back to the text. It’s really about the material in its purest form. To me, that’s the most satisfying thing about the whole experience.”

Franklin agrees, saying, “You’ve got Jacques Brel, and Kurt Weill, and ‘Little Mary Sunshine’ and ‘Dames at Sea,’ and ‘Godspell’ and ‘The Fantasticks.’ You’ve got all this wonderful material that played off-Broadway, and some people have never heard it. I hadn’t heard some of the pieces before.”

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Sandy adds, “From a performer’s standpoint, it’s like if you’ve never done stand-up before, what it would be like to get up there, in a little club and say, ‘All right, here I am.’ That’s not easy. I’ve been used to playing to 10,000 people in whatever big musical it was. With this, you’d better have your act together. Anybody who’s never been to this kind of thing before, it’s just going to knock them out. There’s this intimacy about it.”

The intimacy, the sounds, the text. That’s what cabaret is all about.

Teeter refers to it as “the intimate moment with the performer. We have 500 television channels, and then we have ‘Sunset Boulevard.’ But this intimacy is something that L. A. needs so desperately, particularly right now with the earthquake.” Teeter laughs. “I sound like a politician.”

Commenting on the company of “Sunset Boulevard” at the Shubert Theatre, Teeter says the ensemble of that show, those who play the bit roles, have the bios of star-quality people.

At a sudden thought, Franklin smiles at Dietz and says, “They’ll probably all be doing their acts at Tonto & Dietz.”

Where and When What: “An Off-Broadway Cabaret.” Location: Tonto & Dietz Coffee Cabaret, Gaslight Alley Shopping Center, 12747 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. Hours: 8 and 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 6. Price: $15. Call: (818) 763-4166.