Immodest Burlesque Strips Off at West End’s ArtsDate: 23 February 2005
The spirit of London’s red light district will be felt several streets southeast of Soho in April when striptease storms the stage at the West End’s historic Arts Theatre, the first London base for the Royal Shakespeare Company and formerly the home of the Unicorn Children’s Theatre for more than two decades.
Immodesty Blaize and Walter’s Burlesque! - which promises to “rip up the Rule Book” in a “quest for domination and gratification at its raunchiest best” and deliver “the high-octane thrill of great, sexy, satirical, oh-so-Cabaret, full-on burlesque” - opens for a limited 12-week season from 3 May to 16 July 2005 (previews from 20 April).
Billed as “the Queen of British Burlesque”, the self-styled Immodesty Blaize (pictured) will co-star with Walter, uniquely, a male star in what’s traditionally a female world. The show, previously staged at Wilton’s Music Hall, also features five showgirls, pianist Rod Melvin, clown Mr Spike Loons and a giant rocking horse.
Cast members will flaunt “feathers and bows, corsets and cami-knickers, diamonds, diamanté, the sharpest stilettos, powdered wigs and whirling tassels”. And they’ll be on the look-out for the most outrageously dressed audience members who will be invited to sit in the café area at the front of the stalls and take part in the evening’s entertainment.
Immodesty Blaize and Walter’s Burlesque! is directed by Jane Gibson, former head of movement at the National Theatre, whose credits include Hamlet, Sweeney Todd and Peter Pan. Artistic direction and set design is by David Roger. The season at the Arts is produced by Andrew Sutton, Edward Snape and, interestingly, Trevor Beattie.
Beattie is the high-profile chairman of advertising agency TBWA. As creative director at TBWA, he was credited with developing the ”Hello Boys” posters for Wonderbra and the controversial FCUK branding campaign for French Connection. Commenting on the appeal of Immodesty Blaize and Walter’s Burlesque!, Beattie said: “I’ve seen the future and she’s wearing contra-rotating nipple tassels. This will be a night out like they used to have. It’s sexy, intelligent, funny, camp, energetic, satirical, risqué, androgynous, exuberant and at least seven other cami-knicker clad adjectives.”
Built in 1927, the Arts started as a theatre club to avoid the Lord Chamberlain’s stage censorship. In the 1940s and 50s, a young Peter Hall directed the UK premieres of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Eugene O'Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra and Jean Anouilh’s Waltz of the Toreadors at the 340-seat theatre. Other notable UK or world premieres have included Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker, Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane, O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh and Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer. From 1966 to 1988, following a short-lived inaugural capital venture for the RSC, the Unicorn Children’s Theatre set up residence at the Arts.
More recently, after a period of darkness and a £250,000 refurbishment in 2000, the Arts became a member of the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and has hosted productions including Another Country, Closer to Heaven, The Vagina Monologues, Happy Days, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, Hurricane and Bombshells.
Just opened this week, Corin Redgrave plays the late drama critic in the RSC’s production of Tynan, which continues its limited six-week season until 26 March (See News, 11 Jan 2005). As previously tipped (See The Goss, 16 Feb 2005), fellow one-man show Fully Committed - which won this year’s Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Overall Fringe Production for its initial season at the Menier Chocolate Factory and which was due to run at the Arts concurrently with Tynan - has now officially closed due to the ongoing serious illness of its star Mark Setlock. It had been booking to 9 April 2005.
- by Terri Paddock
UPDATED, 5.38pm: Since first publishing the above story, a spokesperson has contacted Whatsonstage.com to emphasise that there is no full nudity and, as such, the show should not be considered 'striptease'. The evening's burlesque entertainment, she said, is appropriate for all ages and members of the family.
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