Playwright: written by Franky Vivid, Sean Cusick & TJ Miller
At: Lakeshore Theater, 3175 Broadway
Phone: ( 773 ) 472-3492; $20-25
Runs through: open run
The Lakeshore's not The Sands, and Sinatra isn't likely to drop by, but when the Lavender Cabaret struts its stuff, you could almost imagine you're in Vegas circa 1958.
Take the dancing girls, for example. That's right, GIRLS—pink, smiling, firm-bodied, Olivia's calendar PRETTY girls, collectively known as The Sugar Babies. And the specialty acts: rope-dancers Andrew and Erica, on loan from the Midnight Circus, who twine themselves into sensual double-knots in mid-air. Exotic acrobat KC Van Der Merkt girdles herself in a flaming hula-hoop. And slight-of-hand magician Tomás Medina juggles CIGARETTES—is THAT retro, or what?
The jokes are risqué, but devoid of potty-mouth vocabulary ( 'Why did you decide to specialize in gynecology, Doctor?' 'There were a lot of openings' ) . The songs are suggestive, but never crude—Vivian May purrs 'Santa Baby', flanked by a quartet of chorines garbed in peekaboo gift-wrap and ballet toe-shoes. And the star of the show, Michelle 'Toots' L'Amour, recently crowned 'Miss Exotic World', replicates classic turns like Sally Rand's Fan Dance, along with an original Snow White strip-number that lends new meaning to 'How do you like them apples?'
It's hard for some to believe nowadays that this kind of entertainment was once commonplace in our society. Clips from early television variety shows will reveal only slightly bowdlerized versions of the same wink-and-tickle. Hallmark even made striptease greeting cards. But half a century of ( entirely justifiable ) feminist protest against its sexist objectification, along with a youth culture who demanded confrontation over coyness, has produced, in 2005, a legion of slavering, slack-jawed skeletons usurping the title of 'sex goddesses' and an 'adult' comedy grounded in words no longer shocking to anybody under the age of sixty.
If the mostly-female crowds who whooped and whistled on a cold Saturday night are any indication, however, bump-and-grind is once again safe to ogle. Order a martini at the bar, tell your friends you just came to admire the video spoofs of Cable TV, and enjoy some good, clean, old-fashioned, hello-honey fun Like They Used To.