La Cigale, a concert hall on boulevard de Rochechouart since 1887

La Cigale opened in 1887 on boulevard de Rochechouart, at Pigalle: a café-concert of about a thousand seats, built on the site of the Boule Noire dance hall and given over to revues from the start.

The architect Henri Grandpierre enlarged it in 1894, with a ceiling painted by Adolphe Willette. Mistinguett, Maurice Chevalier, Yvonne Printemps, Arletty, Raimu and Max Linder all appeared here. Madame Rasimi, director of the Ba-Ta-Clan, took it over in 1915, and Jean Cocteau held his futurist evenings here after the war.

The café-concert closed in 1927 and the hall became a cinema in the 1940s. The vestibule and auditorium were listed as historic monuments in 1981. In 1987 Jacques Renault and Fabrice Coat, founders of the Bains Douches, reopened it with Les Rita Mitsouko, in a setting by Philippe Starck, and the Inrockuptibles festival was held here for over twenty years.

Between Pigalle and Anvers métro stations, La Cigale hosts concerts and comedy, from rock to rap, alongside its neighbour, La Boule Noire. Its orchestra floor tilts and rises for seated or standing audiences.