CABARET WITHOUT FEAR UTE LEMPER TAKES ART OF THE CHANTEUSE INTO STRANGE, NEW WORLDS.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Ute Lemper isn't cool.

On stage, the German-born leggy blond chanteuse may positively ooze hip sophistication, but just talk to her. Nobody this enthusiastically bubbly, this curious could be called cool. OK, on second thought Lemper is cool, but where is that bored Marlene Dietrich sigh you'd expect from the femme fatale of cabaret?

Instead, Lemper, who begins three nights at the Conga Room tonight, answers questions with thoughtful, multipart replies. When asked what drew her to become an interpreter of the songs of Kurt Weill, the answer begins with her school days in Germany when she read Bertolt Brecht, who collaborated with Weill on ``Three Penny Opera,'' to the jazz and rock bands she was in during the '70s. This is all a prelude to her saying that she was looking for something German to put in her repertoire, and it wasn't there at that time.

So she turned to the years between the world wars - the ``Weimar Republic, when art was extremely political and fun and provocative and erotic and exotic at the same time. There, I found this great writing in the cabaret and theater scene. ... I just loved performing this as a young person. It was true to my spirit - a little anarchic. Plus it was a mission for me. Because as a young German, it was interesting to sing the songs that were later banned by the Nazis. It was time to revive the material and face history.''

There is no boredom here.

Now, Lemper has a new enthusiasm - writing her own songs, some of which appear on her newly released CD, ``But One Day.''

``I'm inspired by the work on my last album, 'Punishing Kiss,' the songs of Elvis Costello, Tom Waits and Nick Cave.'' She then continues, seeming not to take a breath. ``After I had done so many albums of authentic historical interpretations of Weill and cabaret songs, I found it very tempting to be in such a contemporary world, with contemporary musical elements and the contemporary story elements of rock. I just thought it was a natural evolution for me once I was in the today to sit down at the piano and write my own stuff. Everything was in me already.''

With her own songs, she says she doesn't think too much about the interpretation ``because it's straight from my heart the way it was conceived. Rather, it's the landscape of the music, the soundscape the cinematic, dramatic aspects, the highs and lows.''

'Chicago' chops

Called ``one of the world's most glamorous and exotic singers,'' Lemper has won plaudits for her ability to dramatize a song. Some of that comes from her stage training, having appeared in numerous plays and musicals. In 1998, she played the murderess Velma Kelly in the London revival of ``Chicago,'' winning the Olivier Award for best actress in a musical. Later she performed it on Broadway and then with Chita Rivera in Las Vegas.

Her dramatic abilities, which have won her devoted fans worldwide, have translated to her solo works - recordings, cabaret act, concerts and performances with orchestras (she'll appear with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of Weill's ``The Seven Deadly Sins'').

When asked how she can put so much passion into her songs, Lemper demurs, saying, ``The story comes first, and then it's the way I live through the story. Most of the stories and songs were created in times of chaos and unpredictable futures, and they are about essential emotions like fear, solitude, political oppression and thoughts of freedom. They are stories of antiheroes, never romantic - they are always stories of the underground society, dark corners, taboo zones and different dimensions.''

If all of this sounds s-o-o-o-o-o serious, a Salon.com review of Lemper's ``Berlin Cabaret Songs'' notes that the singer also knows how to be a ``first-rate clown, if not a three-ring circus ... her comic flair never falters. Her timing is flawless in the service of both comedy and music.''

Intoxicating mix

As for her current show, a recent Chicago Sun-Times review calls it a ``grand theatrical bazaar ... to which she brought a dazzling array of musical wares.''

Not many singers today inspire such accolades.

The show features some of her own songs, of course, as well as tunes by Brecht-Weill, Astor Piazzola and Jacques Brel and other cabaret favorites. It also includes some of her latest interests.

``Right now, I'm studying Middle Eastern music, studying Arab songs, Yiddish songs, Russian songs, Hungarian gypsy songs for a special project I'm doing in Paris, and I'm so inspired by it that I bring aspects of this into my performance,'' she says. Which raises the question: Where does she get the energy? But that's before she throws in, ``and I might include a little bit of Joni Mitchell, because I did a tribute here in New York to her music. ... I always enjoy whatever is new because it's an adventure.''

Did we mention that Lemper, who lives in New York City and splits her time between Europe and America, is also raising her two children, Max and Stella.

And why did she decide to live in New York? After all, she seems to have the world to choose from. The answer, as you might expect, was not simple, but we'll try to give you the shorthand version.

``To tell you the truth, I couldn't imagine living in any other city in America,'' says Lemper, who turns 40 on July 4. ``When I lived in Paris for many years, I was somehow a German because the French are full of prejudices. ... It's the same in England. I'm the German in England. ... When I'm in Germany, I'm not German anymore because I'm a mutated German. I'm far too European and open-minded. ... But when I'm in New York, I am among all the other people coming from everywhere. Nobody is foreign. Everybody is a foreigner, but nobody is a foreigner.''

UTE LEMPER

Where: Conga Room, 5364 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 9 tonight through Friday.

Tickets: $37.50 to $85. Call [phone].

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Singer Ute Lemper has begun writing songs, some of which appear on ``But One Day.''