‘Burlesque’ Etched in My Brain
I finally caught the Burlesque show at Coco Cabaret on what turned out to be their closing night. I had heard it was funny; hilarious is more like it. I also heard it was well done; cleverly brilliant is more to the point.
Writers JT Horenstein and Tamale Ringwald teamed up, took the 15-year-old movie starring Cher, Christina Aguilera, et al, substituted drag queens, twisted the locale to take place in Puerto Vallarta rather than Los Angeles and combined a couple of major characters, Hey! It’s a small stage.
“A burlesque is a … musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.” This was that definition and so much more.
All of the major sponsors for Burlesque had video footage seamlessly melded into the narrative to boost their businesses. Mentions of them peppered the dialogue and a few of the owners who are well-known and loved in town were roasted. See? Brilliant! The singular reference to being gay came out of Nacho Granados’ mouth, the only straight guy in the works. See? Funny.
I was not prepared for the extraordinary caliber of the voices; why not parody all the moving parts? Argentine transplant Nacho Granados, who played waiter/unrequited songwriter Eddie, I know well; he delivered perfection as he always does. Evita Loca, who embodied Cher as Tess, owner of the cabaret, did not break character for a second. The show could have been called “Burlesque – Including A Tribute To Cher.” Evita has better legs!
Ada Vox is a young, 30-something drag legend from American Idol and Queen of the Universe fame. Move over, Christina Aguilera, the new girl in town, Ms. Ali(ce), is in the house.
Delta Miles is big, bold, and brassy as Nikki, the darling, loud, drunken has-been of the Burlesque Lounge. With his outstanding voice, Devin Richard did double duty as two diametrically opposed characters, Sean (the Good but Gay) and Marcus (the Evil skyscraper-builder).
Burlesque is already in rewrite, as most of the cast members are not from Vallarta and have obligations in the US for the summer season. There are also the tiny details that burlesque as a genre contains numerous dance numbers that usually incorporate some kind of striptease, neither of which happens in the current design. There is talk of a touring company and a recurrence of a new show in Vallarta.
Whatever direction Burlesque takes, in the hands of Tamale and TJ, it will be groundbreaking and unlike anything else in the city. In the 34 years I have lived in Vallarta, a few shows have been etched in my brain for their out-of-this-world production values: Equus, for the drama; Vacare, for creating a dream onstage; Princesas Desesperadas for the comedy and I can add Burlesque for the Best Musical. This is significant because I have seen Equus, Vacare, and Princesas multiple times, and Burlesque was but once, and that on closing night. How I wish that wasn’t so.