Old-Fashioned Musical for a Modern Depression

When you have an economic disaster like the one facing California and the nation, you need to laugh. If you're lucky, you'll be able to snag some cheap tickets for the world premiere production of "Minsky's" at the Ahmanson.

Based on the 1968 musical comedy movie, "The Night they Raided Minsky's," this new musical harks back to the hold musicals of yesteryear and has plenty of girls and glamour along with happy-feet tap dancing numbers.

If the movie (original book by Evan Hunter) changed the story of the real April 1925 raid, this musical's plot is a further departure. It is still about burlesque and a gorgeous girls whose dance numbers are pushing the boundaries of obscenity laws, but in Bob Martin's book has Billy Minsky (Christopher Fitzgerald) falling in love with the daughter of the politician, Randolph Sumner (George Wendt). Mary Sumner (Katharine Leonard) is straight-laced and serious while the girls at Minsky's are fun and putting Minsky's out of business would put these girls out of work.

Of course, there will be a happy ending. In a modern twist, both Mary and Billy visit therapists to resolve their blues--what they need is "Someone." With the two doctors and their offices side by side, the doctors and the two lonely people sing of that yearning for love. We know what's in store and Charles Strouse's music and Susan Birkenhead's lyrics make it a merry, though predictable journey. Who can resist a song that asks the rhetorical question: Why do girls need men when they have bananas?

The dance numbers are suggestive but squeaky clean. Casey Nicholaw's direction and choreography gives us high energy and glamour as well as an innocent romance. Think "42nd Street" type of energy and "Guys and Dolls" type of innocence. According to Roger Ebert's review of the original movie "Burlesque was essentially vaudefille plust sex, and in the early days the sex was direct, naive and almost innocent."

NIcholaw and Martin were on board for another Valentine to the old musicals, "The Drowsy Chaperone," while Strouse composed "Bye, Bye Birdie" and "Annie." Birkenhead wrote lyrics for another Centre Groupe Theater success story, "Jelly's Last Jam." Together this team has produced a crowd-pleasing winner.

If people needed ultra-optimistic musicals during the Great Depression, then this modern musical comes at the right time and if you can scrape up the cash, take some time for this tonic for a few moments of happiness. Go quickly. This production closes March 1.

"Minsky's," Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown Los Angeles. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays 2 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Additional matinee performance on Feb. 26, at 2 p.m. No evening performance on March 1.
by Jana Monj

Cardio Burlesque Preview Videos

A West Coast belly-dancer by training, Dolphina began performing burlesque at a yearlong residency at the Viper Room in Hollywood with the original Pussycat Dolls. She decided to turn her act into a workout.

You’ll be amazed how the shimmy can get your heart rate up, burn calories and shake off those pounds,” said Dolphina during a phone interview from Marina Del Rey, Calif. “Sculpting, toning and lengthening in a feminine way. Much like Pilates, you keep your curves.”

Dolphina's Cardio Burlesque is available now from amazon:

Burlesque at Cercle Rouge NY

One Saturday each month, Tribeca bistro Cercle Rouge will turn their dining room over to a collection of vintage acts, like trumpet-playing crooner Michael Arnenella, tap dancers and, of course, buxom burlesque-ers.

With anxiety at an all time high, it's the perfect chance summon a simpler time, when a bottle of French red, a cote de bouf for two, some good tunes and a selection of eye candy were enough to forget your troubles.

From 9 p.m. until midnight, diners enjoying a full meal and those cozied up to the bar can all enjoy the show at no additional charge, making this even sweeter music to our ears.

When:
February 28: 9pm - 12am
March 28: 9pm - 12am
April 18: 9pm - 12am

Event Phone Number: 212-226-6252

Cercle Rouge
Neighborhood: Tribeca
241 W. Broadway
New York, NY 10013

Dita Von Teese was only Teasing about Celibacy

Dita Von Teese hits up the “Cloak & Dagger Butterfly” book launch party on Tuesday (February 17) in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The 36-year-old burlesque beauty now admits she was only joking about her recent vow of celibacy.

“All my friends were like, What?” she told E! “I just thought it was funny to say at the time. (laughs) I’m pretty sure it’s safe for you to report that I’ve had sex by now… I’m just really enjoying being single, and having fun, global affairs… I’m enjoying being free, and enjoying different men…I’m enjoying being in the moment and enjoying everyone for what they have to offer.”

Dita Von Teese Is Looking for Mr Right

She was married to shock rocker Marilyn Manson, which is why, some say, today she is that famous to start with. However, there’s more to Dita Von Teese than just her burlesque acts that have become internationally known and appreciated, as also is more than just her marriage to Manson. As proof of that, she is now looking for a partner that is as close to normal as possible, as she herself admits.

Dita opened up about her failed relationship to Marilyn on only a few occasions, preferring to let people think what they would. This time, though, she says that divorce was one of the most painful experiences she’s been through so far.

As a matter of fact, other than changing her life altogether, divorce also meant for Dita a self-imposed ban on dating for an entire year, the star says.

“After the divorce I was going through complete heartbreak. It changes you.” Dita tells the media in one of her most recent interviews. “After a split, a lot of men put on a band-aid by getting another woman. I wanted to deal with the break-up and learn from it and I’ve done that now. I wanted to come through it and be able to love again as if my heart had never been broken.” she further explains.

Now that she has moved on, Dita shares, she is ready to start another relationship, should she meet the right guy for it. As strange as it may sound, the dancer is admittedly over the Marilyn Manson-type of men, and is now looking for normalcy, both in terms of appearance and behavior. Come to think of it, if one is to believe what Dita is saying, she’s going for the complete opposite of Marilyn, and wants boring.

“The only thing is, at the moment I’m definitely not looking at musicians. I’m attracted to normal, sweet-looking guys in sweaters. I’m finished with the leather trousers and eyeliner types. You can have a roller-coaster ride with a guy in a sweater.” Dita confesses. As of now, she has still not found that man she’s looking for, but, given her beauty, it’s likely she won’t be waiting for too long for it to happen.

Dita and Marilyn married in November 2005, after dating for four years. In December 2006, the dancer filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences,” but altogether refused to bad-mouth her more famous husband in the media for extra coverage. It is precisely this attitude of hers that got her even more fans after splitting from Marilyn, as compared to when she was still with him.

Introducing: The Carolina Heartbreakers

Miss Rachel Riot, Miss Mary Wanna, and Miss Lila Lavender and Miss Cherry Bomb have joined forces to bring you the brand newest burlesque troupe in the South: The Carolina Heartbreakers.

The Carolina Heartbreakers were conceived by Cherry, when she moved back to her home state in October, she started to research the local NC burlesque scene. New York City, being the dynamic center of urban creativity that it is, has a thriving burlesque scene. Every night of the week, there is a burlesque show or two to be found somewhere on the stages of that city. As a performer, this is fortuitous, because if you do your booking properly, you can stay fairly busy.

North Carolina, on the other hand, has a much more subdued scene. There are shows popping up here and there, but The Triangle has no burlesque "scene" to speak of. Cherry found this fact quite surprising, considering the wide range of creative, intellectual, and performer types that make their home in the RDU.

She was fortune enough, thanks to word of mouth, to stumble across 3 talented and beautiful women who are also very skilled burlesque performers:
Miss Rachel Riot, Miss Mary Wanna and Miss Lila Lavender - a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead, all different beautiful body types, all different styles of performance.

Cherry was stoked, not only because it meant they could build a scene and have spaces to indulge in tease, but also because it was something unique and thrilling that they could bring to an area already thriving with new ideas. Scandalous!

Make sure you checkout their official links below for upcoming performances, we are looking forward to seeing some videos and hearing your reviews.
The Carolina Heartbreakers on Myspace
The Carolina Heartbreakers on Facebook

Australian Tease Queen Imogen Kelly

THE Mardi Gras festival has had its fair share of queens over the years but it's never had anything quite like Imogen Kelly.

While impersonating French Queen Marie Antoinette in her one-woman tour-de-force burlesque show, The Undressing Room, Kelly doesn't stop at saying "let them eat cake".

"With peasants calling her a whore and the country turning on her, she decides to show them exactly what she thinks of them," Kelly says. "What she does with this cake is quite explicit and involves my full naked body … I do the splits in the cake and from there it goes into this big romp in cream, which is actually surprisingly difficult to do.

"It's almost like her saying: 'To show you how little I care for your insolence, I'm going to desecrate this cake right in front of you."'

It's one of many satirical, subversive and sexy portrayals of women - from Princess Diana to Zsa Zsa Gabor - that Kelly tackles in the show, part of the Mardi Gras festival.

It marks a return to her home town for the woman known as Australia's Queen of Burlesque, whose career has taken her from the nightclubs of Kings Cross to the Moulin Rouge in Paris and the internationally renowned performance troupe La Clique.

"I've been a showgirl at every different level," says Kelly, 37. "I've done it all because I'm so fascinated by it."

When she began her career nearly 20 years ago, burlesque - the art of striptease, satire and parody - was still an underground and much-derided artform in Australia.

When Kelly and a cohort of other performers organised the women's-only night Gurlesque - now a cult favourite - at the Sydney drag venue the Imperial Hotel in 2000, feminists picketed the first show.

"When I started it was an incredibly taboo artform," she says. "Thankfully that's shifted."

Burlesque has now been embraced not only in Sydney but also around the world and has gone mainstream with performers such as Dita von Teese.

For the past two years, Kelly has lived in Brisbane and toured with the successful Australian comic burlesque quartet La La Parlour, who have performed at arts festivals and on television shows such as The Sideshow.

The Undressing Room will also be a fitting return to the festival that gave her her first experience of undressing on stage, however unintentional it was.

When she was a first-year student at art school in 1990, the adventurous young Kelly accepted an offer to accompany one of her friends dancing on stage at Sleaze Ball, the gay and lesbian dance party.

"We'd done a few rehearsals to the music but on the night she handed me my costume - it was this tiny, tiny little lap-lap of fringing," Kelly says. "Nothing else."

Having had a fairly bohemian upbringing, Kelly says she was always comfortable with her body and went on stage in nothing but the skimpy costume.

"But as I was dancing the little thing fell off and the convent girl came out in me. I thought: 'Oh my God!' I had about a second of feeling ashamed but then realised everyone was going crazy, so I just went with it."

But just getting her kit off on stage has never been the name of the game for Kelly. In the true tradition of burlesque, her shows mix political satire, comedy and storytelling into the flesh and spectacle.

With The Undressing Room, Kelly says she wanted to redress some of the slights women in history have suffered because of their gender or risque sexual behaviour.

As well as the cake romp, Kelly also performs a striptease as Marie Antoinette in response to the way the young Austrian was treated by the patriarchal French court.

"One of my favourite stories about her is that when she arrived in France they removed all her clothing in front of the French court and then redressed her as a French woman," Kelly says. "The striptease I perform for her is like her owning that moment, taking that back as a moment of pride for her rather than a moment of humiliation."
Josephine Tovey

THE UNDRESSING ROOM
Tuesday to February 22 (no show Thursday), 7.30pm Mon-Sat, 6.30pm Sun, Factory Theatre, Enmore, 9550 3666, $25/$20.

Burlesque is back in Tuscan

The red curtain parts and out steps Inga Kaboom. The look on her face is no-nonsense. She beckons, but beware: She might just devour her mate. Kaboom, whose real name is Kate Miners, slowly walks to center stage, tantalizing the audience at Surly Wench Pub with the occasional shimmy or shake.

Miners is the founding member of Black Cherry Burlesque, a group that does artful striptease. It's just one of the half-dozen or more erotic performance troupes in Tucson. The various groups will perform at least five different shows over the next two months.

The number of burlesque/adult cabaret troupes has grown from two to more than six in just a few years (and we're not even counting the entertainment at the city's many strip clubs). Why are there so many risqué stage shows in Tucson?

"Maybe it's just a really slutty town?" Ivy Knipe, a member of Switchblade Parade, asks rhetorically.

Switchblade Parade evolved from a local ensemble called Drag Star, whose members performed striptease, sang and juggled fire. The troupe performed regularly at Ain't Nobody's Business, a lesbian bar that everybody calls The Biz.

"I call it the cabaret scene. I think it's fantastic," said Cirque du Sin founder Drea Colores (that's Colores in the picture). "There's room in Tucson for lots of different acts, and I think it's great that there are opportunities to be entertained and do more than just go out for a beer."
Some groups show more skin than others. You'll see plenty of flesh at a performance by Black Cherry Burlesque, for example.

Colores says her group's performances usually include fire, singing and dancing in addition to a striptease.

Cabaret Boheme often involves striptease in its act, but an upcoming Fox Tucson Theatre show, "Le Petit Carnaval," will be PG-13 rated. (Translation: Can-can? Yes. Ta-tas? No.)
"The worst we would ever do would be pasties and panties," says Cabaret Boheme founder Cindy Blue. "But I think even the burlesque we've done is still fairly covered. It's more about the art of the tease."

At the other end of the nudity spectrum is Whiskey Breath Burlesque, which often performs in private galleries and will sometimes show the full monty.

At Surly Wench, Inga Kaboom struts across the stage in a pink satin dress with black lace and a black hat with two giant feathers. Running the length of her forearms are long black satin gloves, and in her hands is a black lace parasol that she spins hypnotically. It's an ensemble fit for the heroine in a 1950s Western. But this is a long way from "Gunsmoke."

Her colorful tattoos are visible on her shoulders, and she moves to the theme from "Grindhouse," a gory 2007 double-bill from directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez that celebrates the exploitation flicks that were popular in the 1960s. Using her teeth, Kaboom slowly removes her left glove and twirls it around before tossing it aside. She does the same with the right glove, then turns her back to the audience and shakes her posterior.
Wham! She tears off the top half or her dress.
Snap! She rips off the bottom skirt.

Classic burlesque, with its strip acts and comic skits, reached its height during the Depression. But as America's fortunes improved, society soured on burlesque.

Gypsy Rose Lee, the most famous burlesque performer (whose memoir was the basis for the Broadway musical "Gypsy") performed regularly at Minskys in Times Square until 1942, when Mayor Fiorello La Guardia closed down the famous grind house, along with two other burlesque houses.

While rejected by polite society, burlesque eventually became too tame for the seedy set. Its popularity waned in favor of strip clubs where the slow tease was replaced by the lap dance.
Today's neo-burlesque movement is a rejection of the wham-bam, impersonal nature of strip clubs and seeks to put the tease back in striptease. Performers tend to be women, and they come in all shapes and sizes. There is no airbrushing, but there are bruises, blemishes and (gasp!) the occasional bit of cellulite.

It's no coincidence that many of the people who have helped spur burlesque's renaissance also embrace other retro trends, like tattoos. Dale Rio owns Black Graves Media, based in Seattle, which produces Shimmy Magazine about burlesque, and Blood and Thunder magazine about roller derby.

"There are a lot of similarities between the two, empowerment-wise," she says.
"The roller derby leagues are skater-owned and operated, so each league determines its own fate. Burlesque is like that, too, because a lot of the girls do their own costuming and act as promoters for themselves. That DIY ethic is very popular right now."

Whiskey Breath Burlesque is a stage show that relies more on improvisation and shock value. Members have been pierced in front of the audience, and performances have culminated in a giant cake fight.

Tucson isn't the only city getting in on the racy act. In New York, there are enough burlesque performers to warrant the New York Burlesque Festival, which hands out awards called the Golden Pasties in categories such as "biggest cougar" and "biggest media whore."
San Francisco has its Tease O-Rama Burlesque Convention. Maybe the largest of the conventions, the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, lasted 10 days in 2008 and culminated in a stage show where arriving guests walked a red carpet.
Miners didn't know what burlesque was until six years ago.

"A couple of times I brought a traveling troupe to the bar and saw the reaction from customers and I got really excited about it," she says.

Before long, Miners was placing an ad on MySpace looking for women to form her own group.
"The response was overwhelming," she says.

Miners says she welcomes the more progressive acts. Just don't call them burlesque.
"The word 'burlesque' being used loosely is what drives me nuts," she says. "Some of the women who performed burlesque in its heyday are still around, and I feel a responsibility to stay true to their vision."

Miners, back onstage as Inga Kaboom, has her back to the audience. She unclasps her pink bra and drapes her right arm across her bare breasts. Then she turns to face the crowd, her spinning parasol blocking her breasts from view. She struts stage left, then stage right — and then disappears behind the curtain to howling applause.
By Coley Ward

Seattle's 6th Annual Moisture Festival

The 6th Annual Moisture Festival kicks off March 11, 2009 at ACT with 10 shows in the Falls Theatre. This year, as a part of The Central Heating Lab at ACT, the festival plans to dazzle and delight even more people, of all ages, with five Grand Varietè shows (family friendly) and five Burlesque shows (18 years and over). On March 19th, the Festival continues with comedy/varietè shows at Hales Palladium through April 5, 2009.

The family friendly all ages varietè shows include captivating acts of skill and daring - be it aerial, acrobatic, clowning, rope tricks, sketch comedy, juggling, dancing, singing, magic, puppetry, and astonishing bubbles. A live show band provides the underlying pulse that propels the show to create a fantastic family entertainment experience. Performances are: March 11, 13, and 14 at 7:30 p.m.; March 14 at 2:00 p.m. and March 15 at 5:30 p.m.

For an intimate adult evening, The Moisture Festival presents its glorious Libertease Burlesque shows. Featuring a tantalizing mix of burlesque stars and ribald comedy/varietè acts, these shows seduce and delight while tickling your funny bone. Performances are: March 12, 13, 14 at 10:30 p.m.; March 12 at 7:30 p.m. and March 15 at 8:30 p.m.

Tickets to the varietè shows are $10-$20, and $15-$25 for the burlesque performances. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.acttheatre.org or call ACT's Ticket Office at (206) 292-7676.

Aerialists:
The Aerialistas - Seattle's premiere all girl aerial gang
Eric Newton - formerly with Cirque de Soleil
Tamara the Trapeze Lady - Columbia City Cabaret Mistress of Ceremonies
Richochet - Aerial duo, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Sally Pepper - Seattle star of the rope swing, Circus Contraption
The Velone Sisters - aerial duo from The Aerialistas and UMO ensemble
Quynbi
Amanda Crockett

Burlesque:
Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey - Baltimore
Indigo Blue - Star of the new film "A Wink and A Smile"
Miss Lily Verlaine
The Shanghai Pearl
Inga Ingénue

Plus:
Baby Gramps, Bellini Twins, Daniel Forlano, Dr Calamari & Acrophelia, Flaming Idiots, Foolz, Fyodor Karamazov, Godfrey Daniels, Hilary Chaplain, Hokum W. Jeebs, Jim Page, Jonathan Rose, Lelavision, Los Magnificos!, Mud Bay Jugglers, The Peculiärs, Reid Belstock, Rob Williams, Smerdyakov Karamazov. UMO Ensemble

This performance genre has its roots in the Music Halls of 19th century England. It evolved into Cabaret in Europe and Vaudeville in America. It's an intriguing assortment of entertainment featuring highly skilled performance mixed with unique talents, often humorous, with no limit to the imagination. The Moisture Festival's Varietè shows feature a rapid succession of acts showcasing comedy alongside awe-inspiring physical and mental dexterity, with poignant moments of strength and delicate beauty. Aerialists, jugglers, comedians, dancers, rope acts, bubble acts, clowns, acrobats, can can girls, tap dancers, drill teams, the weird and the wonderful- all keeping the tradition of Comedy/Varietè/Vaudeville alive. Each show is propelled by a live show band.

Love Stinks Burlesque at the Rutledge

Music City Burlesque - Love Stinks
See the luscious lasses of Nashville's bustiest, bawdiest burlesque troupe put the "rub" in cherub as they deflect Cupid's arrows with their bulletproof brassieres!

The theme is anti-Valentine, so stand back and watch as the gals unwrap their heart-shaped boxes!

STARRING: Diletta Delight, the dame with a bite! Miss Kitty Lee, the pussycat who'll claw your carpet! Packing a wallop, it's Truvy Trollop--just watch that strumpet pump it like a trumpet! And it'll take you more than three licks to get to the center of Miss Lolly Pop!

Admission is a mere 10 smackers--but looking and lusting are included free of charge. Fri., Feb. 6, 9 p.m., 2009

Dita Von Teese: Americans have forgotten Burlesque history

Dita Von Teese is looking forward to starting her two week residence at Paris' most famous nude revue - insisting the French appreciate burlesque as an art form rather than a racy routine.

The raven-haired siren will titillate audiences at the city's notorious Crazy Horse venue, with her stint running through the most romantic day of the year - St. Valentine's Day on 14 February.

And the star - whose famous routines include using larger-than-life martini glasses and carousel horses - can't wait to return to the city of love, because her fellow Americans have forgotten that her performances are entertainment and not just strip-shows.

She says, “I’m just trying to bring back the original art form.

“Unfortunately it seems that now in America they’ve lost all sense of what burlesque really is. It’s just something very racy for them.

“It’s not like in France where they still remember names like Mistinguett and Josephine Baker. In America they’ve completely forgotten this and have a hard time coming to terms with the idea that striptease could’ve been a form of classic entertainment. I like coming here to be appreciated.”

Portland Burlesque: Live Girls - Semi Nude

“This is a love letter to my favorite kind of perverts,” announces Sadie LaGuerre before dropping to all fours and slithering between the tables on the floor of the tiny Hawthorne Theatre Lounge. As Leonard Cohen intones “I’m Your Man” through the house speakers, the 6-foot-tall peroxide blonde is amassing a pile of clothes on the barely calf-high stage. Off comes the trench coat. Then the gray button-down shirt. Soon, LaGuerre’s curvy, tattooed frame is contained by only a corset and black stockings. She plays with her necktie and chews seductively on the rims of her glasses. Finally, she unhooks her bra, and there they are: a glorious pair of large, star-shaped pasties.

What? Were you expecting something else?

In a place like Portland, where the phrase “Live Nude Girls” is practically the city motto, nipples covered by tasseled adhesives might seem a tad anticlimactic. But in the world of burlesque—the performance art that underscores the “tease” in striptease—the climax matters less than the foreplay. A performer is judged not necessarily by how good they look naked, but how good they are at getting naked. And LaGuerre, 33, also known as Bella Beretta and, in her offstage hours, Nico Jeffries, is one of Stumptown’s best—and most experienced—undressers.

“That’s what I think the coolest thing about burlesque is: It doesn’t toe a party line on what ‘sexy’ is,” says Jeffries, who started performing in Seattle in 1999 and, after a successful stint in Los Angeles, returned to her native Portland in 2007. “Somebody can do something that’s not that sexual at all, but it’s how they do it, and all of a sudden you’re like, ‘My pants feel itchy! I feel crawly and funny!’ It’s that eye contact, that connection.”

Admittedly, that’s a pretty heady concept for this town. Portland’s unique love affair with strip clubs is usually blamed for keeping a true burlesque subculture from establishing itself here as it has in other cool, cosmopolitan cities like San Francisco and Seattle. We are years behind the trend. Almost overnight, however, things have started to change: In the first months of 2009, garters and pasties have become nearly as ubiquitous as areolas and Lucite heels. The Hawthorne and Dante’s are hosting weekly revues. There are monthly shows at Kelly’s Olympian and the Fez Ballroom. And, as of this writing, the first students of Oregon’s only burlesque school are learning the proper way to take it all off—at $300 for a nine-week course.

What’s going on? Has the Rose City suddenly tired of having its lap ground upon by women in thongs?

Probably not. Portlanders may have just finally figured out the ideological difference between stripping and burlesque—although both performers work for tips. And no, it’s not another 50 pounds, as the old (and wholly inaccurate) joke goes.

“When you go to a strip club, you go for TA. That’s it,” says Sahara Dunes, the founder of Burly Girl Productions and namesake of Professor Sahara’s University of Burlesque. She started producing shows in the lean days of 2004, when she got out of the Army (trained as a nurse in a combat support hospital, she is an expert in grenades, M16s, and dismantling another human being with her bare hands—hot). “Some of the strip clubs have really good performers who are really talented; they can dance and do tricks on the pole and all that kind of stuff. A burlesque show is more about the art of the tease. Honestly, you can take one glove off and that’s your show.”

Or, say, straddle a carousel pony, or ride around on roller skates, or shoot fire from your boobs. Not surprisingly, the members of Portland’s burlesque community take that open definition and run with it. Some are purists: aforementioned equestrian Charlotte Treuse also does a classy, beguiling version of the classic feather dance to “St. James Infirmary Blues.” Baby Le’Strange, on the other hand, fuses a ’70 glam-rock image with whacked-out conceptual routines involving cupcakes and superhero costumes. The all-lesbian Rose City Sirens dot their striptease with bits of absurd comedy and social commentary. And then there’s the city’s “boylesque” troupe, Burlesquire, which provokes conversations about gender identity just by existing.

As for Jeffries-LaGuerre-Beretta, who works a day job in marketing to make ends meet, she’s never had much use for what she calls the “finger-in-the-cheek girls,” who ape Bettie Page and act coy as they suffer several wardrobe malfunctions. A self-described “big, mouthy broad,” she has always been more attracted to the femmes fatales on the covers of 1930s pulp paperbacks and the mix of danger and eroticism they represented. She created her characters to bring that dichotomy to life onstage. And she does, often venturing into the crowd and confronting those too timid to applaud. It could be said she is reclaiming the modern definition of feminine sexiness, the one dictated by admen and strip-club proprietors, and balling it up and shooting it back into the face of male society.

But, really, all she wants is a reaction from her favorite perverts.

“I don’t like to be deep and lofty about this anymore,” she says. “When it comes to applause, don’t give me that, ‘Wow, you look so empowered—right on, sister!’ Fuck that, man, I’m taking my clothes off. I want you to get down to your base, monkey-howling table-clapping.”
BY MATTHEW SINGER

Burlesque Blossoms as Economy Crumbles

After months of sold out Saturday nights, London's best selling burlesque cabaret show has moved to Piccadilly's uber-glam Cafe de Paris.

It seems that the deeper the recession, the faster the tickets sell out at The Wam Bam Club. A bigger venue has been needed for some time. Now Lady Alex's fusion of burlesque, magic, music and comedy is moving to West End's Café de Paris on Feb 28th.

There'll be burlesque acrobatics from Cirque de la Rouge and fan dancing with Millie Dollar, as well as surreal musical comedy from Frisky and Mannish, stand up from Joe Bor, and magic from Christian Lee. As always, Lady Alex will perform her own brand of outrageous stand up comedy and strip tease. For those wishing for a taste in the art of tease, there are free burlesque classes before the show.

"I fell in love with Cafe de Paris instantly," says Lady Alex, "It's just the ultimate cabaret venue, much bigger, more glamorous, and I love the food. They're bending over backwards to help us settle in - I've even got a dressing room with a king sized bed!"

Although Wam Bam was scheduled to move to a larger venue in May, the sudden closure of the Soho Revue Bar at the end of January forced an early upgrade, much to the delight of Cafe de Paris.

"We have been eager to secure a new burlesque show," says Andrew Birnie, Cafe de Paris's Events Director, "We are, after all, a burlesque cabaret club by design. Until now, we just couldn't find a burlesque show that could deliver the numbers to match the venue size. Wam Bam is just right for us."

The hundred or so people who bought tickets for the Feb show in January have lucked out; they thought they'd be braving Soho, but now hold tickets for Wam Bam's relaunch in plush Piccadilly. Friday shows have been cancelled until Wam Bam settles in, with existing ticket holders offered a ticket to the Saturday show or a refund.

Tickets for Wam Bam's cabaret at Cafe de Paris on Feb 28th are £20 when booked in advance at www.wambamclub.com (or call TicketWeb on 08700 600 100) and £35 on the door. To ensure the full Wam Bam experience, customers can book a dining table in advance. Doors open at 7pm, and the show runs from 8-10pm. For large parties, email bookings@wambamclub.com.

The lively after show party runs into the early hours at the nearby On Anon. VIP entry for Wam Bam ticket holders, who go straight to the front of the queue.

The Jazz Stripper

Brooklyn is famous for many things: hipsters, a bridge or two, the Dodgers - and of course, Neil Diamond. On Monday, February 23rd, Sweet and Nasty presents THE JAZZ STRIPPER at The New Monday Night Burlesque: a night of tassel-twirling tributes to the greatest singer-songwriter ever to come out of Kings County.

"What better way to celebrate my birthday than with a show combining two of my deepest and most abiding loves - burlesque and Neil Diamond?" asks host and producer Nasty Canasta. The reigning Cheese Queen of Coney Island, Canasta confesses to a lifelong appreciation of the man known as 'The Jewish Elvis'. "After all, we were both born right here in Brooklyn - and we were both naked at the time!"

Since 2006, Sweet and Nasty has been adding its own unique mix of glam camp, historical fact, and blatant lies to the New York burlesque scene. Sweet and Nasty currently appears on the last Monday of every month at Public Assembly, as part of The New Monday Night Burlesque. Their February extravaganza, THE JAZZ STRIPPER, is the centerpiece of a jam-packed evening of burlesque entertainment: preceded by The Kickoff at 9pm, and followed by the Monday Night Blue go-go dance party at Midnight. Plus two happy hours: preshow 8-9pm, and post-show midnight until closing.

So turn on your heartlight, thank the Lord for the night time, and travel down those Brooklyn roads with Afua Richardson, Anita Cookie, Creamy Stevens, Gal Friday, RunAround Sue, Sapphire Jones and Tigger! Host Nasty Canasta will make you a believer at THE JAZZ STRIPPER, a Diamond-studded night of burlesque at Public Assembly for one night only, Monday, February 23rd at 10pm.