Synopsis
Programme
Impressions/Performances
As artistic director for Le Theatre de Decadence, Madame Natalya Umanska has put together a naughty and nostalgic show which exploits the recent resurgence of interest of this once highly popular theatrical form. Mixing comedy with bizarre circus skills and sexy striptease, she has put together a freakishly fun show of sensually stunning entertainment. Swigging from an absinthe bottle, Natalya opens the show by telling of how she first arrived in Paris and of the decadence she found there, before inviting us to return with her to those bygone days. Telling her story in French, she relies on lordly co-host, Charlie Charleston (Earl Harlem), with whom she duels comically throughout the evening, to translate for us by unveiling a series of cue cards.
Then it is into the action, beginning with a humourously sensual strip routine from Ensky Loosecat as Minsky the clown. Charismatic Matt Pang follows performing a juggling act with a bowler hat and balled-up pair of gloves, and Natalya herself does a comical birthday routine ending with a bed of nails, paving slab and sledge hammer! Riding the Valkyrie (Nara Taylor Queen of the Night and Heavy Metal Pete) perform a comedy musical routine set in a cafe where ill-mannered waitress Nara sings (unexpectedly well) whilst Pete add a whole new dimension to fire eating, scooping it up and swallowing it down by the spoonful. As for the condom, well, I won't even go there! Headline act Veronika Valentine, rounded off the half with a balletic strip routine, elegantly dancing en pointe as she entranced us with her alluring charms.
As good as the first half had been, the seconde was even better. Matt Pang's first half juggling routine had lacked the wow-factor, but his second-half escape from a strait-jacket whilst riding a six-foot unicycle was a blast, and the repartee with the three strong men from the audience that it took to get him aboard was hilarious. Ensky Loosecat showed her versatility to entertain without divesting her attire performing a levitation act with a small table in her second incarnation as The Gypsy. First half shockers Riding the Valkyrie returned with a gory operatic comedy routine based on Carmen, and Natalya performed a very funny comedy strip routine in which the impish Charlie stole all her props. Closing the half, as she had the first, Veronika Valentine returned with her version of the fan dance in which she coated the stage in an explosion of feathers.
Overall, this is not the sexiest burlesque show I have ever seen - the striptease girls do, for example, reserve at least a little more of their modesty than is often the case, with only Natalya herself getting right down to pasties - but it is certainly one of the most rounded. Each of the variety acts were of a commendably high calibre. Riding the Valkyrie's sense of the bizarre and unusual blend of opera and darkly comic circus was grippingly entertaining. Matt Pang's opening routine still needs a little work (too many misses), but his follow-up had the audience whooping and cheering with very little encouragement. Being called onto the stage myself (as an anonymous audience member) to aid Miss Loosecat, I can say her levitation act even at close range was genuinely mystifying (though I have to admit to being distracted, pprobably at the critical moment, by a flash of thigh!). Best of the strip routines was Veronika's classy ballet display - elegant, sexy and sensual, with not a hint of sleaze. But that could be said of each of the strip acts, which appeared to entertain the women in the audience at least as much as the men. Natalya's own performances were, perhaps, the most overtly sexy, but her comic antics of with fellow compere Charlie, both in those routines and between the other acts, countered that and maintained a light edge to the evening.
Verdict
Not the sexiest burlesque show, but a very well rounded evening of sensually engrossing entertainment.
Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net