We saw Dita von Teese and ... wow.
May. 9th, 2018 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexSo much wow. So much to unpack. Normally I'd wait until I had a more coherent response to things, but I have so many reactions to this show I want to start writing them out now and trust they'll organize themselves as I go.
tl;dr - this is exactly what you expect to get. It's a modern burlesque show, headed by the stunning and gorgeous Ms von Teese. Her athleticism is on display every time she's on stage. She did basically the entire first number en pointe. I kept looking to see what heels she was wearing, but no. To say she's "fit" is really to understate things. Costumes and set pieces were also excellent, about which more later - generally A/A+ production values throughout the show.
Start by acknowledging that a burlesque show is about the titties and the tease. Historically women performers for het male audiences, modern burlesque has gone some distance in accepting more body types and embracing more sexualities. This show definitely fits within that ongoing update of tradition. One of the performers was male, von Teese's two "assistants" were male in various states of undress depending on the act, and one of the performers was a woman of size.
The MC of the show was a very out-there gay man; his opening monologue acknowledged "...the men, the ladies, and every other gender." So that was a good thing. There were many shout-outs to gay men, to lesbians, of which there was a vocal group down front near the stage, and (again quoting the MC) "Since this is 2018 we don't do erasure, and our bi friends."
I have seen burlesque shows that had a more diverse cast than this show, as well as ones where the performers specifically sought to appeal to non-conforming genders, so there's still a ways to go but I liked that this show put itself into that tradition, given how big a name and popular they are. That said, the MC was pretty blunt about what the show was for and it certainly delivered on that.
von Teese did four routines, ranging from "very nice" (a play on the old 'I'm busy tonight' way of women deflectin attraction) to "remember to breathe" (the fetish number). Each of the supporting cast got one routine:
- a former Playboy cover model who had the expected blonde hair and big tits. I thought she was OK, but following up von Teese's show opener would've been hard for anyone. This lady did much better once she got into the tub on stage with (how the hell did they do this?) running water. Because soap bubbles can be strategic covering, in case you didn't know.
- a woman from Texas who I thought was the second-best performer in the show. She had a costume piece that was, essentially, a skirt draped from a bustle. The fabric was long enough that she could wrap it in several different ways and she was probably the best dancer of the troupe. von Teese is less of a dancer and more of an athletic poser. This woman knew how to move and to make the best of the fabric.
- a woman who did a semi-traditional fan dance. I was sort of underwhelmed by this, largely because I've never been a big afficionado of the style.
- a man who did an over-the-top lame' Zorro thing. I went from "dear gods watch how you're waving that sword around" (he was using it to mock cut off his own clothing) to "OK, enough with the cape already." I felt that his routine suffered from being less creative than the others, though he did his best to try and sell it.
- a woman, older and heavy-set, whose schtick was mostly that she could do more tassel tricks than anyone else. She had a great stage presence and the audience was definitely into her presentation; unfortunately, they decided to intersperse some dialog with the emcee that felt really forced and over-rehearsed. She also did a fairly athletic number on a stage carousel horse, about which more below.
I believe I've read that von Teese does her own costume design and the designs are fantastic. Most of them are updates & realization of 1940s American and European styles. There are some obvious adaptations to burlesque, like the easy-to-unlace bustiers. Most of the performers had hair (or wigs) in the long straight style of that era, flat with a single large curl. Conspicuously absent were the cigarettes or even the props such as the long holders some women used in that era. I thought it was an interesting aesthetic+values choice to be OK with nearly-naked bodies but to exclude tobacco products.
I could not shut off my theater-tech nerd brain for large parts of this show because the set pieces were amazingly designed. I joked that I wanted to find the set designer and do the "I'm not worthy!" bow in front of them. Remember that all these pieces were taken on and off stage quickly. The emcee provided some time between acts but there were no long set-up pauses.
von Teese's opening act was a person-sized clamshell. It was just big enough she could stand on the bottom half and reach the top. Even when she half-hung from it, the piece was rock solid. It just didn't move, a theme that would be true throughout the acts. I noticed during this piece that von Teese was moving the way climbers are taught to move - three limbs stable (two hands, one foot, for example) and moving one limb at a time. I assumed this was because she needed to be careful with the set piece, but no. It's just her style.
I've already mentioned the bathtub and the associated running water. Stabilizing the tub was likely not a big deal and now that I've had a few days to think about it I can imagine ways to do the running water bit, but it's still really good design.
Then there's the carousel horse that the larger woman used. It looked something like this: http://www.prices4antiques.com/item_images/medium/47/18/76-01.jpg except bigger. That is, a pole that is not centered on the horse's body to begin with, and with enough room on the back end that a large woman can not only climb on, but do athletic moves like back bends and near splits while perched on it. AND THE WHOLE THING DOESN'T MOVE. I mean, if one was up close one likely would have seen some vibration, but no, this sonovabitch didn't rock, didn't shake. I have no idea what it was made of, never mind how it was anchored. Like, I still can't wrap my brain around the physics of this.
The final set piece was a large martini glass. Think like this - http://img1.foodservicewarehouse.com/Prd/1900SQ/ThunderGroup_PLTHMT008C.jpg - but about 9 ft tall and about 5' diameter. (Guesses based on Dita standing beside, clambering into, and then bridging on top of the actual stage piece.) In a sense, this trick is easier than the carousel horse, because the stem is centered on the piece; however, von Teese's weight was definitely not centered. And it was transparent - almost certainly some kind of lucite or plexiglass. I'm not enough of a mechanical geek to know the strength of the materials involved, nor how you'd affix them to a metal stem without visible bolts, but let's just ponder how you design this thing so once again it doesn't rock, tilt, wobble, flex, or vibrate when one very athletic individual starts doing gymnastics on it.
I am seriously not worthy.
Finally, I went to this show in a very bad mood. Nothing specific, just the particular set of brain weasels where no matter what comes to mind I can't avoid seeing it in the worst possible light. I would never have thought of this as an antidote to that particular mental state and it's too rare to be a practical cure, but damn, the weasels got nothing on Dita von Teese doing a bridge on the rim of a human-sized martini glass.
tl;dr - this is exactly what you expect to get. It's a modern burlesque show, headed by the stunning and gorgeous Ms von Teese. Her athleticism is on display every time she's on stage. She did basically the entire first number en pointe. I kept looking to see what heels she was wearing, but no. To say she's "fit" is really to understate things. Costumes and set pieces were also excellent, about which more later - generally A/A+ production values throughout the show.
Start by acknowledging that a burlesque show is about the titties and the tease. Historically women performers for het male audiences, modern burlesque has gone some distance in accepting more body types and embracing more sexualities. This show definitely fits within that ongoing update of tradition. One of the performers was male, von Teese's two "assistants" were male in various states of undress depending on the act, and one of the performers was a woman of size.
The MC of the show was a very out-there gay man; his opening monologue acknowledged "...the men, the ladies, and every other gender." So that was a good thing. There were many shout-outs to gay men, to lesbians, of which there was a vocal group down front near the stage, and (again quoting the MC) "Since this is 2018 we don't do erasure, and our bi friends."
I have seen burlesque shows that had a more diverse cast than this show, as well as ones where the performers specifically sought to appeal to non-conforming genders, so there's still a ways to go but I liked that this show put itself into that tradition, given how big a name and popular they are. That said, the MC was pretty blunt about what the show was for and it certainly delivered on that.
von Teese did four routines, ranging from "very nice" (a play on the old 'I'm busy tonight' way of women deflectin attraction) to "remember to breathe" (the fetish number). Each of the supporting cast got one routine:
- a former Playboy cover model who had the expected blonde hair and big tits. I thought she was OK, but following up von Teese's show opener would've been hard for anyone. This lady did much better once she got into the tub on stage with (how the hell did they do this?) running water. Because soap bubbles can be strategic covering, in case you didn't know.
- a woman from Texas who I thought was the second-best performer in the show. She had a costume piece that was, essentially, a skirt draped from a bustle. The fabric was long enough that she could wrap it in several different ways and she was probably the best dancer of the troupe. von Teese is less of a dancer and more of an athletic poser. This woman knew how to move and to make the best of the fabric.
- a woman who did a semi-traditional fan dance. I was sort of underwhelmed by this, largely because I've never been a big afficionado of the style.
- a man who did an over-the-top lame' Zorro thing. I went from "dear gods watch how you're waving that sword around" (he was using it to mock cut off his own clothing) to "OK, enough with the cape already." I felt that his routine suffered from being less creative than the others, though he did his best to try and sell it.
- a woman, older and heavy-set, whose schtick was mostly that she could do more tassel tricks than anyone else. She had a great stage presence and the audience was definitely into her presentation; unfortunately, they decided to intersperse some dialog with the emcee that felt really forced and over-rehearsed. She also did a fairly athletic number on a stage carousel horse, about which more below.
I believe I've read that von Teese does her own costume design and the designs are fantastic. Most of them are updates & realization of 1940s American and European styles. There are some obvious adaptations to burlesque, like the easy-to-unlace bustiers. Most of the performers had hair (or wigs) in the long straight style of that era, flat with a single large curl. Conspicuously absent were the cigarettes or even the props such as the long holders some women used in that era. I thought it was an interesting aesthetic+values choice to be OK with nearly-naked bodies but to exclude tobacco products.
I could not shut off my theater-tech nerd brain for large parts of this show because the set pieces were amazingly designed. I joked that I wanted to find the set designer and do the "I'm not worthy!" bow in front of them. Remember that all these pieces were taken on and off stage quickly. The emcee provided some time between acts but there were no long set-up pauses.
von Teese's opening act was a person-sized clamshell. It was just big enough she could stand on the bottom half and reach the top. Even when she half-hung from it, the piece was rock solid. It just didn't move, a theme that would be true throughout the acts. I noticed during this piece that von Teese was moving the way climbers are taught to move - three limbs stable (two hands, one foot, for example) and moving one limb at a time. I assumed this was because she needed to be careful with the set piece, but no. It's just her style.
I've already mentioned the bathtub and the associated running water. Stabilizing the tub was likely not a big deal and now that I've had a few days to think about it I can imagine ways to do the running water bit, but it's still really good design.
Then there's the carousel horse that the larger woman used. It looked something like this: http://www.prices4antiques.com/item_images/medium/47/18/76-01.jpg except bigger. That is, a pole that is not centered on the horse's body to begin with, and with enough room on the back end that a large woman can not only climb on, but do athletic moves like back bends and near splits while perched on it. AND THE WHOLE THING DOESN'T MOVE. I mean, if one was up close one likely would have seen some vibration, but no, this sonovabitch didn't rock, didn't shake. I have no idea what it was made of, never mind how it was anchored. Like, I still can't wrap my brain around the physics of this.
The final set piece was a large martini glass. Think like this - http://img1.foodservicewarehouse.com/Prd/1900SQ/ThunderGroup_PLTHMT008C.jpg - but about 9 ft tall and about 5' diameter. (Guesses based on Dita standing beside, clambering into, and then bridging on top of the actual stage piece.) In a sense, this trick is easier than the carousel horse, because the stem is centered on the piece; however, von Teese's weight was definitely not centered. And it was transparent - almost certainly some kind of lucite or plexiglass. I'm not enough of a mechanical geek to know the strength of the materials involved, nor how you'd affix them to a metal stem without visible bolts, but let's just ponder how you design this thing so once again it doesn't rock, tilt, wobble, flex, or vibrate when one very athletic individual starts doing gymnastics on it.
I am seriously not worthy.
Finally, I went to this show in a very bad mood. Nothing specific, just the particular set of brain weasels where no matter what comes to mind I can't avoid seeing it in the worst possible light. I would never have thought of this as an antidote to that particular mental state and it's too rare to be a practical cure, but damn, the weasels got nothing on Dita von Teese doing a bridge on the rim of a human-sized martini glass.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-10 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-10 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-18 12:34 am (UTC)Dang. Really wish I could have been there to see it for myself. Glad you had a good time. eventually.