Stripping and Symphony: Sublime, sublime, sublime!
If there seems to be something familiar about the new Applebottom Burlesque — it’s because there is. The unfamiliarly-titled ensemble that debuted to an absolutely screaming, no-standing-room left crowd upstairs at the 801 Monday night is really the latest shuffling of the performers we know and love. Descending from the almost always faaabulous Key West Burlesque but with a mostly new set of stars, it was familiar, lovely bodies with howling new material.
To follow the billing, there was Rocky Bottom, Cheeky Derriere, Frenchie, Flutter Bi, Dark ‘n’ Stormy (who, it turns out, can do a lot more than sing) Buffy L’Orange and emcee Top Jimmy (who, it turns out, can do a lot more than engineer sound as a DJ). There was also Velvet Garcia with his usual intensity and an extra helping of humor.
They were all over-the-moon marvelous, making the most of the 801’s small, thrust stage, a teeny stage with a runway really, a suspended vagina of shiny fabric and some props I was too engrossed to make note of . . . .But it’s a good venue — the vibes are certainly right.
I’ve long felt that Frenchie (Shawna Lacy Wynd) was the production energy behind the group, although they seem to work so well together that a backstage cooperative is entirely possible. On the other hand, the tickets said “Sushi Productions,” and the diva herself, in boy drag, managed the door. We wonder if ‘Frenchie and Friends’ might have found a stable home for their Last Monday burlesques, Applebottom or otherwise.
They can call it anything they damn please, so long as they keep producing them.
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Call it ridiculous to the sublime, or low art to high, if you must, but tonight brings the South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s second major concert of the season, an unequaled opportunity to experience excellent classical music without leaving our tiny paradise 158 miles from any metropolis one could expect to have a symphonic orchestra of this quality (unless maybe we should begin to consider Havana). There’s an other-worldly hint to tonight’s program, name name, I’m intrigued.
There was also Wednesday morning the regular and regularly amazing children’s program, this time delighting youngsters from schools from Poinciana to Treasure Island Montessori up the Keys. Stay tuned for the full story. Really, parents, the best thing you can do for a kid, culturally, is to expose her or him to art, preferably top art. Our symphony. Impromptu Concerts. The Custom House. Art galleries. Live music. TSKW. The coming visit of stars of the famed New York City Ballet. Local professional theater. Keys Kids. The KWHS music program. And on and on.
Amazingly, in this tiny city, the opportunities are almost endless. Be good to your kids. Be good to You. It’s good for the soul. Tickets, I hear, are still available at the TWT box office this afternoon or at keystix.com anytime. Curtain, for some reason, is 7:30, with Ed Pitts’s musicology lecture beginning at 6:45.
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Scrumptious/delicious Michael Haykin and Susan Sugar at Lucky Street … A Haykin/Sugar Show is possibly the best fine art one-two punch of the season and it’s coming up next week. Watch for details.
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Ongoing art: “Finding Your Voice in Watercolor” classes with instructor the gifted Karen Beauprie are being offered at the Key West Art Center, 300 Front St., Old Town, on an ongoing basis every Tuesday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. The cost is $80 for 4 lessons/$25 single lessons.
Students must have a working knowledge of watercolor and bring their own supplies; Supply List available at www.beausartstudio.com. Class size is limited to 12 students.
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