By MICHAEL DALE
“….a happy and healthy dose of body positive antics that are so sweet, silly and approachable you can have a great time while completely forgetting to be aroused.”
“I always wanted to do Donny and Marie… at the same time,” says Margaret Cho at the top of her Off-Broadway revue, The Sensuous Woman. And though the cheery ninety minute spectacle contains no hot Osmond action, her sex-centric variety show, featuring a cast of burlesque performers and out-of-the-mainstream comics, is still, in a sense, very wholesome. This isn’t sex presented to shock or titillate. No, stripped of its mystery and eroticism, Cho and her troupe give us a happy and healthy dose of body positive antics that are so sweet, silly and approachable you can have a great time while completely forgetting to be aroused.
Entering through a chorus of fan dancers (directed by Randall Rapstine and choreographed by Kitty McNamee), Cho’s opening monologue riffs on the usual gang of celebrities (Britney Spears, Larry Craig, Ann Coulter, O.J. Simpson et. al.), giving the lightest of insight on world politics (“The Middle East is so fucked up!”) before addressing her own sexual preferences, sexual practices and body issues. She then turns much of the evening over to her guest stars, whose performances range from smile-worthy to very funny to just delightful.
The burlesque queens include 3’10” Selene Luna, who pops out of a baby carriage to work a traditional bump and grind out of a gorgeous red gown. Later on she does a lovely shadow dance behind a white sheet to Nina Simone’s recording of “Feeling Good.”
The glamorous Miss Dirty Martini, a very familiar face and figure to fans of New York’s burlesque scene, appears as a patriotically attired scales of justice, which becomes seriously imbalanced by money. As she strips to Dolly Parton’s vocals of “God Bless The U.S.A.” she seems to be devouring dollar bills, then in her own unique fashion, proves the old adage that you can’t buy the American economy. You can only rent it.
Belly dancer Princess Farhana has a cute routine as Oz’s Dorothy and Ryan Heffington, wearing tiger-stripped tights has a wildly energetic dance that is not only “in your face”, but to some audience members “in your lap.”
Cho herself gets into the act in a routine called “Chairman MeeOw” where she enters as a communist youth twirling red banners and then removes her military uniform to reveal a beautifully tattooed body.
The funniest act of the evening was Liam Sullivan as his agitated nerd-girl character named Kelly. Kelly speak-sings two songs, one about shoes and one about wanting to borrow a friend’s top. It’s hard to describe why this is so funny, but there’s something about Kelly’s rhythmic aggression and repetitive lyrics that are just a scream.
Also very funny are Kurt Hall and Diana Yanez from the comedy troupe, The Gay Mafia, as they portray gay rapper Lisp (“I’m not a homosexual — I’m a sexual homo!”) and his lesbian counterpart, Havana (“Don’t get in my face, bitch. Get in my crotch.”), especially in a special rap showing their appreciation for fag hags. Later on, Hall teams up with Cho in a unitarded pas de duex of sexual positions to 2 Live Crew’s “Me So Horny.” Yanez makes a few appearances as Ms. Cho’s maid, Margarita. The performance is likable, but the material is not especially funny. Also likable but not especially funny is transgendered female-to-male stand-up Ian Harvie, who nevertheless does finish strong.
If what I’ve described above doesn’t exactly sound “wholesome” or “sweet” to you, as I wrote in the opening paragraph, I suppose that’s just a matter of personal taste. But any show where men and women of any sexual persuasion can feel comfortable sitting together while heartily cheering on strippers for their talent and creativity and laughing at jokes about anal sex acts and about learning English by spelling words during cunnilingus sounds like a good time to me.