Curtain Up
While a few shows will be running during the rest of this month (Tennessee Williams Theatre Company’s A Streetcar Named Desire at The Marigny Opera House thru Aug. 24; 30 by Ninety’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in Mandeville thru Aug. 25), one of our city’s biggest cultural events blows into town over Labor Day Weekend. The extravaganza known as Southern Decadence returns to the streets of New Orleans with as diverse a cast of characters as one could imagine.
There are some happenings that take place indoors, however, that are well worth checking out.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars LIVE comes to the Mahalia Jackson Theater on August 25. Get ready for lotsa high kicks and low splits from such 9th Season All Stars as Angeria, Jorgeous, Plastique Tiara, Roxxxy Andrews, Shannel and Vanessa Vanjie in this show-within-a-show highlighting the charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent it takes for a Queen to be an All Star. Tickets are available online (https://www.mahaliajacksontheater.com/events/ru-pauls-drag-race-allstars/) as well as the Saenger Theatre box office located at 1111 Canal Street.
The Radical Faeries’ PoP [Prince of Perversion] Ball XX will feature entertainment by Debbie With a D, Aqua Mob Water Ballet, Quijote Duo, Ian Hoch & Alex Martinez Wallace, and more, followed by 80’s alternative dance music. The theme is “No Fake Erections” and colors are “Red, White & Blue, but especially Blue”.
The PoP Ball takes place on Friday, August 30, from 7:00pm-midnight, with the collaring/sashing of the new Prince 7:45-ish, at 708 Touro Street (go thru the gate & down the alley). Suggested donation is $20; no one will be turned away for lack of funds, but an additional $15 is required to enjoy the open bar. Swimming pool is bathing suit optional but please bring your own towel.
And speaking of towels, don’t miss the 7th iteration of Bette Bathhouse & Beyond (Southern Decadence edition) on Sunday, September 1, beginning at 9:00pm at Café Istanbul.
NYC impresario (and erstwhile part-time New Orleanian) Daniel Nardicio brings Bette Bathhouse & Beyond back to New Orleans where singer/comedienne Amber Martin will recreate one of Bette Midler’s iconic shows done at NYC’s notorious gay bathhouse, the Continental Baths. Renowned DJ Johnny Dynell will be playing “Bathhouse Disco” from the era between Amber’s sets, while Drew Brody performs as “Barry M.” on piano to accompany Amber/Bette’s three 20-minute all-Bette song sets. Having seen Ms. Martin recently in NYC, she just keeps getting Bette-r and Bette-r with each BB&B.
Bette Bathhouse and Beyond‘s Drew Brody and Amber Martin (photo by Koitz)
The audience will be required to wear only towels, bathrobes, or underwear (bring your own towel, or rent one from the Bette staff for $3) to recreate the raunchfest vibe of the famed bathhouse and clothing is optional, so all Bette’s are off! Tickets and more info at https://www.redeyetickets.com/bette-bathhouse-beyond-southern-decadence/
The spirit of Decadence continues on the Northshore on September 7 when MissLEADING Lady’z returns to 30 by Ninety Theatre with Gia GiaVanni, Tayze Ya, and Dominique Delorean with brand-new numbers, fierce costumes, and performances that promise to leave the audience wanting more. “We are beyond excited to welcome Gia, Tayze, and Dominique back to our stage,” said Jason Leader, 30 by Ninety’s Executive Director. “Their energy, talent, and charisma have made them audience favorites, and this new show is sure to be even more thrilling than before.” (https://ci.ovationtix.com/35711/production/1208135)
30 by Ninety’s season continues October 12-27with Murder on the Orient Express, a stage version of Agatha Christie’s grand tale of the murder of an American tycoon aboard a luxury train that’s seemingly unsolvable until ace Belgian detective Hercule Poirot starts putting the clues together. Whodunnit?! (https://30byninety.com/shows/murder-on-the-orient-express/)
Also on the Northshore, Playmakers Theater in Covington opens its 70th Season with the comedy-writing team of Jones Hope Wooten’s ‘Til Beth Do Us Part, in which a conniving assistant insinuates herself into her harried boss’s business and marriage. Billed as a “Raucous Farce About Romance…and Revenge!”, Derek Thrush directs the production which runs September 7-22. (https://bontempstix.com/events/til-beth-do-us-part-9-7-2024)
Back on the shores south of Lake Pontchartrain, more traditional entertainments shall return to our theaters post-Decadence.
Crescent City Stage presents Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House in a new version by Amy Herzog at Loyola’s Marquette Theater, September 5-22. Jana Mestecky directs this classic tale of Nora whose seemingly perfect life unravels as secrets, hidden debts & societal expectations force her to confront the harsh truth that she’s been living in a carefully crafted dollhouse, yearning for freedom. Doug Spearman, Michael A. Newcomer, Sue Jin Song, Douglas Streater, Rachel Whitman Groves, and Elizabeth Newcomer as Nora star in this regional premiere. (https://www.crescentcitystage.com/adollshouse)
The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans will also be at Loyola with Penny Dreadfuls: The Remarkable Rooming-House of Madame Le Monde (Sept. 13-28 in the Lower Depths Theatre). Slapstick and horror abound in this night of grotesque Tennessee Williams vignettes set against a macabre funhouse, with a cast of bizarre and zany characters. No one knows what the Madame’s got in store in this shock show from the most hilarious and creepy corners of Williams’ imagination. I’m told it’s not for the faint of heart! (https://ci.ovationtix.com/35398/production/1182264)
I wonder what another gay giant of 20th century culture, Cole Porter, would’ve made of Madame Le Monde. (In fact, I wonder if Porter ever met Williams…and what a collaboration of theirs might’ve looked like!) If you prefer witty and sophisticated instead of zany and bizarre, head to the Monkey Hill Cabaret September 8, 12 or 15th for A Swell Party, Songs of Cole Porter, featuring Phil & Heidi Melancon, Claudia Baumgarten & Alfred Richard. For reservations, call (504) 202-0986 or email melonsongs@gmail.com
Ms. Baumgarten returns October 11-13 with her one-woman show Wit & Wrath: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker at the WWII Museum’s Stage Door Canteen. With a biting wit and acid tongue, Parker was among the most widely read and quoted women of the 1930s and beyond. When the show first appeared ten years ago, I wrote “Smoothly directed by Diana Shortes, Baumgarten was a stylish guide to Parker’s life and career.” I’m sure that’s still the case. (https://www.nationalww2museum.org/programs/wit-wrath-life-and-times-dorothy-parker)
Claudia Baumgarten in Wit & Wrath: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker
There’s some wit, a little wrath, but mostly boisterous fun in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock which Jefferson Performing Arts Society will be doing at its home on Airline Drive in Metairie; I certainly enjoyed it when I saw it on Broadway. The musical pretty faithfully follows the successful film’s screenplay and, if parts of the script are a bit ridiculous, or improbable to say the least, its strong narrative thread, not to mention good humor and overall joyousness, will keep you involved.
If you haven’t seen SoR, it follows Dewey Finn, an out-of-work zhlubby rock singer/guitarist who pretends to be a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. After identifying musical talent in his uptight students, Dewey surreptitiously forms a band of fifth-graders in an attempt to win the upcoming Battle of the Bands.
Directed by Leslie Castay, School of Rock stars Nathan Parrish, Rachel Looney, Daniel Rubio & Melissa McKenzie, and plays September 13-22. (https://www.jpas.org/performance/school-of-rock/)
In October, at their Westwego Performing Arts Theatre, JPAS offers Clue, a murder-mystery farce adapted from the 1985 film, based on the board game. The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. Led by Wadsworth the butler, Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard race to find the killer as the body count stacks up (and up and up).
When 30 by Ninety did it a few years ago, I found it to be “a very funny piece of theater” and “entertaining summertime fare”; the national tour, which recently performed at the Saenger, however, played up the yuks and slapstick and silly jokes, so things felt more cockamamie and the final curtain left me more exhausted than amused. You can see what direction Director Jack Lampert will take October 3-13. (https://www.jpas.org/performance/clue/)
Speaking of murder, Aqua Mob, New Orleans’ first and only community-based water ballet ensemble, returns to The Drifter Hotel on Tulane Avenue from September 26 until October 12 with Evil Dead 2: Drowned by Dawn, a water ballet spectacular version of the classic Sam Raimi film. In ED2:DbD, S-Mart employee Ash is once again battling demons, but this time the demons come from the horrifying depths of a pool on the aforementioned Tulane Avenue.
I thought last year’s offering, Carrie: Blood in the Water, was Aqua Mob’s most accomplished effort to date. Will their Evil Dead 2, written and directed by William Hudson, surpass that? To find out, get tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/evil-dead-2-drowned-by-dawn-tickets994075766377?aff=oddtdtcreator for this sure-to-sell-out extravaganza!
Another extravaganza, Cirque du Soleil’s new country music show, Songblazers, arrives at the Saenger Theatre September 21 and 22. Songblazers employs acrobatics, aerial acts, and displays of extraordinary strength as it pays tribute to legendary and modern country & western trailblazers, and charts the journey of its two main characters who try to forge their own path to country recognition. (https://www.saengernola.com/events/songblazers/)
The cast of Cirque du Soleil’s Songblazers, A Journey into Country Music
Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Country comes next to the Saenger, October 15-20. Set in 1934 in Duluth, Minnesota, it reveals how a group of wayward travelers’ lives intersect in a Midwestern boardinghouse. Written & directed by playwright Conor McPherson, Girl from the North Country reimagines 20 Dylan songs including “Hurricane,” “Slow Train Coming,” and “Like A Rolling Stone.” Seen on Broadway just before the pandemic shuttered theaters, I found Girl dreary and manipulative with too many stories packed in; maybe you’ll feel differently. (https://www.saengernola.com/events/girl-from-the-north-country/)
She is certainly never dreary, but she may manipulate your funny bone till you hurt. “She” is the one and only Varla Jean Merman whose Errors Tour touches down at Café Istanbul September 20 and 21. The Ditzy Diva (her words, not mine) has swiftly tailored The Errors Tour for her fans, The Mermies, and will take you through the Taylor Swift catalogue, creating hilarious hits and egregious errors. Jam-packed with classic bits, giant wigs, and over-taxed costumes, this tour-de-farce is certain to be an unforgivable, er, unforgettable evening of “Varla’s Version” of entertainment. At least, that’s what she says. And I believe her 100%. (https://varlajean.com/schedule)
A diva of a different sort will be onstage at the Mahalia Jackson Theater on September 27 and 29 when the New Orleans Opera Association (NOOA) presents Tosca. Puccini’s opera about love, passion, and political intrigue, set in the heart of Rome, tells the story of the fiery singer Floria Tosca, who finds herself caught up in a web of political upheaval and personal sacrifice. New York City Opera’s former Music Director George Manahan conducts. Soprano Melody Moore, making her NOOA debut, takes on the leading role of Tosca, emerging lyrico-spinto tenor Dominick Chenes portrays Floria’s love interest Cavaradossi, and baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. returns to the NOOA stage to reprise the villainous role of Scarpia. (https://neworleansopera.org/tosca/)
Another diva of a really different sort can be found in Trey Ming’s dark comedy drag musical The Night Fiona Flawless Went Mad. In it, after Fiona Flawless, a “breathtaking drag queen, talented chanteuse, and…admitted murderess”, turns herself in for a double homicide, she and her psychiatrist dive through convoluted memories in search of that pivotal moment when Fiona’s otherwise-flawless mind disconnected from reality–the night she went mad. The show explores issues of Queer identity, loneliness, and the reclamation of self-love.
When Ming’s one-act psychological musical murder mystery debuted in 2019, I wrote admiringly that “if it started off as mere camp, by the end, the show had deepened into an acute portrait of a troubled soul.” I’m happy that Fiona will be back with us again (tho, these days, who can blame her for going mad?).
The Night Fiona Flawless Went Mad plays October 4-14 at the AllWays Lounge’s The Twilight Room and stars Laveau Contraire, Prince Octavian, Malakani Severson and Bette Tittler. (https://FionaFlawless.eventbrite.com)
And still another variety of diva will be at the Mahalia Jackson on October 24 when Patricia Quinn, the original Magenta, greets fans prior to a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The evening will also feature a costume contest, a performance by the local Shadow Cast, and a memorabilia display with artifacts & costumes from the movie.
The longest-running theatrical release in film history stars Tim Curry as the devious and fabulous Frank-N-Furter, Meatloaf, Barry Bostwick & Susan Sarandon as the nerdy couple Brad & Janet, and the film’s creator Richard O’Brien as Riff Raff. Tickets for The Rocky Horror Picture Show can be purchased at the Saenger Theatre box office; limited VIP tickets are available and include a meet and greet with Ms. Quinn. (https://www.mahaliajacksontheater.com/events/rocky-horror-picture-show/)
Just in time for Halloween, this evening sounds like it’ll be quite a treat!
