Precedents for Stephin Merritt/Magnetic Fields (including new cabaret/Kabaret, whatever that may be)

I want to hear other musicians working in Stephin Merritt's overall style circa 69 Love Songs, which to my mind was something like: combining or conflating diverse genres into pop, or as fodder for pop; the indie-ish kitchen sink method but with special application to treating most every genre as pop as showtunes. To me, that's fun! I'm really taken by his work but I've doubted the hype that treats him as an unprecedented wunderkind. So I'm very interested in this old comment on a great Magnetic Fields thread, which places his approach within a tradition including Weill, about whom I know a few things, and "new cabaret" (or "Kabaret"), about which I know nothing. So what is that, who and what is good in it, and who else has pulled off something like this broadly Merritt-ish type move?

My only comment would be that I wish Merritt would cover this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inIuYren8jg

You beat me to the Tiger Lillies. I guess they fit into this "new cabaret" or "dark cabaret" thing (see also: Dresden Dolls).

Oh please lets not bring the Dresden Dolls into this. That woman. Awful.