Burlesque (Salford)

Venue: The Lowry
Where: Salford

The Lowry Burlesque nights are proving popular as ever with a full house in the Quays Theatre for this adult themed variety show.

For someone who is, according to her website, one of the UK’s most in-demand comperes, Rosie Lugosi, the Vampire Queen, is a poor host indeed, failing to establish a rapport with the audience which in turn means that the atmosphere is lacking throughout. This is a shame as a good compere could have lifted spirits following the poorer acts of the evening.

The cabaret acts score mixed success. In the first half Lexie Sex performs the naffest fire eating routine I have ever seen and goes onto perform a weird, and utterly boring, routine with feathers in the second half. Heavy Metal Pete puts Lexie to shame with his excellent fire eating routine in the second half, which redeems him nicely after his poor act 1 contortionist routine.
 
There are two striptease acts, one of which outshines them other by miles. Velma Von Bon Bon fails to realise the potential of both her Scooby Doo and Bo-Peep inspired stripteases, whereas Audacity Something-or-other (never quite caught her name and there didn’t appear to be a programme) is hilarious throughout with clever and witty striptease acts set firstly on a desert island and then highlighting the changing role of women through the decades.

Star of the show is singer Coco Malone, who belts out several well known tunes and ends the show with a rousing rendition of “All That Jazz.” This is a singer worth looking out for in the future.

An evening of mixed success but too patchy to tempt me to the next Burlesque night at the Lowry in July.

– Malcolm Wallace