Theater in the City: Boobs and Bitches
with Raven Snook
click to enlarge
- Photo Noah Klein
Growing up, I idolized Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. She was a 19th-century shiksa goddess/fag hag, complete with a snappy wardrobe, nasty attitude and homo husband (Steve Tracy, the actor who played her spouse on the show, died of AIDS in 1986). After the series’ early ‘80s demise, Alison Arngrim aka Nellie ditched the blonde wig and became an AIDS activist/stand-up comedian, and now she’s truly my hero. I caught her one-woman show, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch (which returns to The Cutting Room, 19 W. 24th St., May 12-13), last year and she is a potty-mouthed hoot who dishes on her costars (apparently off screen Melissa Sue Anderson aka Mary Ingalls was the real cunt while Michael Landon was a good-natured drunk who forgot to put on underwear), various old-school icons (her Liberace tales are priceless) and her rumored lesbian affair with Laura Ingalls herself, Melissa Gilbert.
Two of my other idols are performing this week — but I actually know these gals in the flesh. Neo-burlesque sensations and Starshine Burlesque producers Little Brooklyn and Creamy Stevens are mounting an especially sexy, star-studded show (Rififi, 332 E. 11th St., May 11) to benefit Exotic World USA, the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to preserving the history of their art form. The ubiquitous World Famous *BOB* hosts this risqué revue, which includes celebrated shimmiers Julie Atlas Muz, Dirty Martini, Jo Boobs and Miss Delirium Tremens. With prizes to be won and clothes to be lost, it’s the hottest night $5 can buy.
My friends at The Classical Theatre of Harlem are embracing the absurd with their revival of Samuel Beckett’s groundbreaking play Waiting for Godot (HSA Theater, 645 St. Nicholas Ave. at 141st St., May 17-June 25). Directed by CTH co-founder Christopher McElroen and starring Wendell Pierce from HBO’s The Wire (who gave a riveting performance as a freed slave in the troupe’s mounting of The Cherry Orchard last season), this dramatic masterpiece is bound to be reinvented by this crackerjack company.
And if you missed Harvey Finklestein’s Sock Puppet Show-girls the last few times it played New York, the X-rated antics are back indefinitely (Ace of Clubs, 9 Great Jones St., every Saturday beginning May 13). The reviled/revered Paul Verhoeven/Joe Eszterhas flick has inspired a string of campy stage shows. But HFSPS was (as far as I know) the first and the only one with pole dancing footwear. Indulge yourself… just make sure you wear a condom.
Two of my other idols are performing this week — but I actually know these gals in the flesh. Neo-burlesque sensations and Starshine Burlesque producers Little Brooklyn and Creamy Stevens are mounting an especially sexy, star-studded show (Rififi, 332 E. 11th St., May 11) to benefit Exotic World USA, the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to preserving the history of their art form. The ubiquitous World Famous *BOB* hosts this risqué revue, which includes celebrated shimmiers Julie Atlas Muz, Dirty Martini, Jo Boobs and Miss Delirium Tremens. With prizes to be won and clothes to be lost, it’s the hottest night $5 can buy.
My friends at The Classical Theatre of Harlem are embracing the absurd with their revival of Samuel Beckett’s groundbreaking play Waiting for Godot (HSA Theater, 645 St. Nicholas Ave. at 141st St., May 17-June 25). Directed by CTH co-founder Christopher McElroen and starring Wendell Pierce from HBO’s The Wire (who gave a riveting performance as a freed slave in the troupe’s mounting of The Cherry Orchard last season), this dramatic masterpiece is bound to be reinvented by this crackerjack company.
And if you missed Harvey Finklestein’s Sock Puppet Show-girls the last few times it played New York, the X-rated antics are back indefinitely (Ace of Clubs, 9 Great Jones St., every Saturday beginning May 13). The reviled/revered Paul Verhoeven/Joe Eszterhas flick has inspired a string of campy stage shows. But HFSPS was (as far as I know) the first and the only one with pole dancing footwear. Indulge yourself… just make sure you wear a condom.
