Burlesquire’s first full-length show in review

Burlesquire photo courtesy SinnSavvy Productions

The men of Burlesquire are very cute. They are also very talented. The opening number of their first full-length performance, Mannequin, was a 5 piece bit of choreography that was very much Backstreet Boys meets La la Cage aux Folles. That, along with a very typical comedienne drag queen emcee, Miss Genesis Wild, created a first impression that teetered on the edge of trite. Luckily the show did not linger there long.

The criticism may be a bit harsh, considering that, although I may have seen Beyonce style routines in Portland before, Burlesquire did it better than almost anybody, and moved beyond the style quickly, incorporating post-modern dance, and of course, as the name implies, the sex appeal of burlesque. Just the ability to meld these three very different performance forms into a successful variety show is a feat next to impossible. And even the fickle Portland crowd ate it up like a ripe fresh mango.

And indeed, Burlesquire has the ability to corral quite the audience. Not only was it mixed male and female, gay and straight, but the buttoned up and the punk rock all happily cheered together. Well, happily for the most part, as my compatriot and I were, unfortunately, in the douchebag section of the audience. Nevertheless, the crowd filled the space but did not overwhelm it, and the Hawthorne Theater provided a good venue.

The other acts varied from the “traditional” drag such as Sabel Scities (who at the tender age of 21 can already out lip synch many a queen…I see great things coming from this girl) to the highly choreographed black trussed all-female postmodern dance company Lyrik, to truly bizarre robot/clown/doll acts.

For the most part they complimented Burlesquire’s diverse performance pieces, which increased in authenticity and originality as the evening progressed, but they did not serve to make the show a more cohesive piece. In general, Mannequin did not tell a story or feel like a finished work of art. But it was a lot of really great dance, burlesque and drag thrown together into a night of innovative fun. I fully expect the next performance to be just as fun, and most likely blow me away completely.