The Burlesque Hour is the brainchild of performance artist and writer, Moira Finucane and her partner, theatre creator and director, Jackie Smith.
For most people the term burlesque conjures up images of pin-up girls cheekily strip-teasing out of feathery frocks. But there’s a lot more to burlesque than stripping and The Burlesque Hour has it all. Returning to Canberra for its second season in February, I chatted with the show’s star, the truly charismatic Moira Finucane, about The Burlesque Hour phenomenon and what we can expect to see in the new show.
‘We live together, create together, work together, travel together — it’s a beautiful thing,’ Moira says of the pair’s fifteen-year creative collaboration. They also have twin girls under the age of two. ‘The girls come on tour. They go to sleep and we do the show. It’s tiring but you can do it. I was back on stage and nude, eleven and a half weeks after giving birth — it was surreal and thrilling.’
But it wasn’t always show business for the couple; back in the 1990s, with no theatrical training, Moira was fed up with working hundred hour weeks in a ‘regular’ job when she decided she wanted to be an actress. She auditioned for a play and got the part. She then started performing her unique “burlesque macabre” acts in underground clubs way before the current burlesque revival.
‘Nobody was doing anything like it,’ she says, ‘drag kings hadn’t been invented yet. My Romeo act blew people’s minds.’
She took her acts all over the globe, then one day Moira and Jackie decided to put together an entire show of all the best stuff they’d seen and done in this genre around the world. The idea was to put together a show of completely underground work never seen in the mainstream arts scene, with a collective of talented performers — all with a background in underground queer performance — and present it in an explosive package for everyone to enjoy.
The Burlesque Hour was borne and was different to anything the world had ever seen before, crossing circus with drama, hard core industrial with early opera, the literary gothic with burlesque, and feminist performance art with sideshow to celebrate the complexity and redemptive potential of humanity. The first show sold out and the show has constantly evolved, touring in nine countries, with 27 sell-out seasons, they have performed for over 45 thousand people. TBH is a visual, audible, sensual feast with something for everyone; it’s provocative but with a great love of humanity.
‘It’ s transgressive and the audience feels the love — that’s why it’s successful,’ says Finucane ,who adds that although TBH pushes the boundaries of mainstream theatre, they never set out to shock, ‘If you set out to shock your audience, you are assuming you know more than them.’
That said, TBH will be different to what a lot of the general public — whose only exposure to burlesque may be Dita Von Teese and The Pussycat Dolls — will expect from a “burlesque show”.
Yes, TBH contains nudity, and hot, sexy women, but it’s a variety show with humour, brains and brawn that explores sexuality through the empowering and increasingly popular medium of burlesque: a classical sensibility of art forms that are a grotesque mockery, exaggeration and parody that poke fun at society.
‘There’s a lot of fantastic, gorgeous tassels and tease all around the world and it’s great but it doesn’t stay with me’, Moira explains, ‘It’s rare to see something that can make you laugh and respond sexually, emotionally and politically. All those responses at once is burlesque at its best — if it doesn’t have any grit there ain’t no pearl.’
There’s plenty of grit in The Burlesque Hour; lots of gorgeousness too, but lots of grit.
So are there any new acts in the show?
‘There will be gobsmacking new acts and stars, as well as old time favourites like ‘Pearls’ and ‘Milk’ — or there would be a riot,’ she jokes. ‘Guinness World Record hula hooper, Jess Love, will be back with new guest star, Tony Lamond — the 77-year-old “Godmother of Australian variety”.’
Moira describes her own new act as, ‘eight meters of silk chiffon, jet black beads, me naked in high heels and black rain.’
‘The Incredible, weird, wild and beastly Maude Davey is doing a new piece to a Hunters and Collectors classic with a showgirl twist. Yumi Umiumare is doing a piece inspired by the underground dance clubs of Tokyo. There will even be a group routine; a very sexual vampiric piece in crinoline. There will be a few surprises too. A smattering of the old and a dollop of the new all set up in the same gorgeous club style.’
Finucane & Smith's Salon of Live Ladies (The Burlesque Hour)
The legendary, indefinable, genre busting, burlesque-eats-its-young Salon that has critics raving and festival audiences around the world in raptures, Salon of Live Ladies is a meteor-shower of provocative, alluring and astonishing Acts by some of the strangest, sweetest, most powerful, most monstrous, most human artists in the world.
There have been several shows recently, such as The Vagina Monologues and Breast Wishes, with great appeal to women. But nothing has hit the spot quite so directly and so life affirming for women as Menopause the Musical. One report said of an audience of 600, only eight were men, but they thoroughly enjoyed the show too. Red Hat Society members have been regular attendees at the Q.
Menopause the Musical comes to the Q Theatre in a refreshed production with a totally new cast. International Director, Patty Bounder has worked to make the show more aligned to the overseas productions, while keeping the Australian flavour.
Four women meet by accident in a department store; Power Woman, Dubbo Housewife, Earth Mother and Soap Star. They quickly discover a bond in that they are all either approaching, going through or have recently gone through, “The Change”. Over 25 great popular songs such as ‘The Great Pretender’, ‘Only You’, ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, and ‘I will Survive’ are parodied and given new lyrics as the four leads sing loud and strong. So ‘Puff, the Magic Dragon’ becomes ‘Puff, My God, I’m Draggin’.
The show’s author, Jeanie Linders who attended the recent Melbourne opening night, says it is a celebration. It’s often stated the show was inspired by too much red wine and a hot flush, she remembers standing in front of the fridge singing ‘Hot Flash’ to Rod Stewart’s ‘Hot Legs’.
More than just about what happens during menopause, it explores the whole range of issues facing women over 40.
Woeful hot flashes, forgetfulness, mood swings, wrinkles, night sweats and chocolate binges are all confessed and made fun of. Often considered something to be kept secret, the show’s message is that menopause is a passage for all women, but that it should no longer be a silent passage. My friends who’ve been have all said there was a wonderful sense of sisterhood with audiences recognising and indentifying with the issues.
So if a night of celebrating and empowering women, done with great hilarity, dance and song, in a theatre full of women sounds like fun, and you’ve somehow managed to miss it so far, don’t miss it at the fabulous Q Theatre.
Menopause the Musical is showing at The Q Theatre, 253 Crawford St, Queanbeyan. Bookings 6298 0290. Tues 2nd to Sat 6th February 2010, 8pm $39, $44, $49. Thur & Sat 2pm $39.
After twenty years, Australia’s Indigenous Dance company, Bangarra presents highlights drawn from all seventeen of their productions. Artistic Director and Choreographer, Stephen Page has been the driving force of the company since establishing it in 1989 with Lead Dancer, his late brother Russell and Composer, his older brother David.
Instead of just cutting bits out of past works and shoving them on like a concert, Fire is a whole new work, taking you on the journey of Bangarra’s growth over twenty years. It also features exciting design installations, multimedia imagery and some of the company’s most memorable works.
Bangarra is a Wiradjuri word meaning ‘to make fire’ and so Fire became the name of the show.
‘I wanted it to be something connected to the spirituality of what makes you want to dance,’ said Page.
Included is Bush, Stephen’s powerful work to help come to terms with the grief from his brother Russell’s suicide in 2002. Russell was the company’s Lead Dancer, having performed with the company at the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony. His death was a terrible blow to the company and everyone involved, as the company is in many ways like a family. Instead of giving up, they’ve grown even stronger. Bush was inspired by the Dreamtime creation stories of Arnhem Land.
Appearing in Fire are two dancers with strong connections to Canberra who’ve been with Bangarra for many years. Daniel Riley McKinley started dancing aged nine appearing with Quantum Leap. His highlights have included a tour to London and Paris in collaboration with the Australian Ballet performing in Rites and touring New York, Washington and Ottawa with Awakenings. Jhuny-Boy Borja was born in Manila and grew up in the Northern Territory. He’s graduated from the ANU and is not only an impressive dancer but also a software engineer and has a bachelor’s degree of pure mathematics.
For Alchemy, Page told Australian Ballet star, David Mcallister, that he had created this part for Steven Heathcote and himself where he would cover them all in ochre.
‘I was like, “Oh, wow. That sounds really interesting,”’ said Mcallister. ‘He didn’t tell me that all I would be wearing was a jockstrap.’
More recently, other choreographers such as Elma Kris and Frances Rings have developed their own works, giving a different perspective on contemporary indigenous dance drama.
‘If you’re a Bangarra fan out there, god, you’re going to get a best of Bangarra experience,’ said Page. ‘And, if you’re a new fan, then you’ll be awakened to this great storytelling that’s through dance theatre.’
Friday 20 & Saturday 21 November 2009 at the Canberra Theatre. Bookings 6275 2700 or canberratheatre.org.au
Remember the puppet sex that featured oh-so-subtly within the Matt Stone/Trey Parker film classic, Team America?
Well if you loved that, do I have a treat for you! Avenue Q began its Melbourne run earlier this year, and is touring the country in the upcoming months, with Canberra shows already on sale for October. Created as a homage to children’s TV classic, Sesame Street, and by some of the great minds that actually puppeteered on the show itself, Avenue Q is the part-puppet/part-human performance set in the lower, lower east side of New York City. It tells the story of young Princeton, a college graduate trying to find his purpose in life, post-undergrad degree. It is both outrageously funny and jaw-droppingly clever and if you haven’t yet seen it, hop on a bus, get on a plane, or fill up your tank and drive there NOW! You won’t be disappointed!
Imagine Fraggle Rock meets Friends on acid. The soundtrack is sensational, the design simple yet genius, and the storyline engaging from curtain up to curtain down. Plus, you get the aforementioned puppet sex which, while slightly disturbing, is really something you need to see to believe.
Those that were lucky enough to catch Darren Gilshenan in the delightful and touching comedy Elling really saw special theatre.
Gilshenan, most recently seen on ABC TV’s Chandon Pictures, is the sort of special actor that brings an amazing physicality, innovation and humour to everything he does.
He was amazing in The Servant of Two Masters, so I knew this was an essential production to see. Also outstanding was veteran actor, Frank Whitten, whose poise and ease perfectly captured the character of the famous poet still grieving for his wife after many years. The rest of the cast were also great. A simple concept of two mental institution patients attempting to cope with the difficulties of living outside after many years of sharing the same cell was perfectly realised. At no point however were we laughing at the difficulties they faced and we shared their hopes and tragedies with anxiety and warmth.
The Burlesque Hour is the brainchild of performance artist and writer, Moira Finucane and her partner, theatre creator and director, Jackie Smith.
So are there any new acts in the show?
There have been several shows recently, such as The Vagina Monologues and Breast Wishes, with great appeal to women. But nothing has hit the spot quite so directly and so life affirming for women as Menopause the Musical. One report said of an audience of 600, only eight were men, but they thoroughly enjoyed the show too. Red Hat Society members have been regular attendees at the Q. 
After twenty years, Australia’s Indigenous Dance company, Bangarra presents highlights drawn from all seventeen of their productions. Artistic Director and Choreographer, Stephen Page has been the driving force of the company since establishing it in 1989 with Lead Dancer, his late brother Russell and Composer, his older brother David.
