Most of the stage shows I attend are comparatively restrained affairs, with actors sticking to their scripts and the audience sitting attentively. But last Saturday was an altogether different theatrical experience. It was casual, noisy, cheeky, unpredictable and effervescently sexy.
It was Bon Appetit Burlesque, a new monthly fixture in the Valley’s club scene which has attracted an enthusiastic, and surprisingly mixed, clientele to The Deuce at the World War II Club in Northampton. (Last weekend had an 18-plus admission policy, but it’s usually over-21 only.)
Don’t confuse this infectiously cheerful burlesque show with those sad bump-and-grind houses and pole-dance parlors. Here the patrons responded loudly and joyously to the acts and to our host, the antithesis of the smirking emcee. He’s Hors d’Oeuvres (pronounced “whores de vors”), a drag queen who doesn’t shed his gender when he dons his costume and whose dress sense is as funky as his repartee.
Funky last weekend, anyway. Each month’s show has a different theme, and this one was Nerds. Hors (stage names only, please) filled the bill with a look that included jet-black ringlets, oversize spectacles taped at the bridge, a knitted sweater (with sparkles) and argyle knee socks. He bantered with the standing-room-only crowd, which included more women than men—thanks to a sizeable lesbian contingent—as many couples as singles, and a fairly wide age range.
Hors introduced the five featured striptease artistes, who had worked up original nerd-based routines for the show. Two themes predominated: the frumpy academic suddenly liberated from her geeky plaids, and sci-fi fan fiction. The former included Lily la Vamp’s schoolgirl in pigtails and Oxford shirt with pocket protector, who ended up in a calculator g-string, and Miss Bettysioux Tailor showering herself with Wonka Nerds. The sci-fi tributes included Bunny Hill’s Darth Vader in a bustiere and a Doctor Who sendup (with a four-foot Dalek dildo) from Baroness Blitzen von Schtupp.
The show also inserted a dash of “boylesque” featuring the cut, compact Captain Elastico and his beanpole sidekick, kung fu master Sensei Shanel (get it?). Their act recreated the epic battle between Kirk and Spock from the classic “Amok Time” Star Trek episode—with tearaway costumes for the, er, climax of the fight.
The performers ranged from local novices to practiced pros (three of the women are from an out-of-state burlesque troupe), but all the acts were playfully entertaining, even witty, as the artistes gleefully dove into the evening’s theme. The stripping was more an act of liberation than titillation, and the crowd responded just as appreciatively to the Baroness’s fleshy curves and belly-dance moves as they did to Serendipity Galore’s lissome frame and twirling pasties.
As Hors told me later, “We try to get a variety of body types. Our show is about accepting the body that you have, and loving it, and making sure everyone else can love it, too.”
The next Bon Appetit outing will be June 10th. That evening’s theme—another one rich in fantasy possibilities—is Fairy Tales. Visit www.nohoburlesque.com for info.
