MAY THE TORSO BE WITH YOU
Forget about Broadway or the latest Marvel Comic movie. The fun, hip and cool burlesque Star Wars parody — which isn’t just for fans of the franchise — is the show to see this winter live onstage in Hollywood.
No stranger to L.A., Burlesque started in the nineteenth century and combines comedy, camp, and adult entertainment with a lot of sexual innuendo. The Empire Strips Back, created by Russell S. Beattie, was originally conceived in Sydney, Australia in 2011 and traveled all over the continent. In 2016, The Huffington Post wrote an article that went viral, the show started playing elsewhere, and the rest is history. The raucous and fun show may have originated Down Under, but it’s definitely a Hollywood show.
As you would gather, this vaudeville uses many familiar props and puppets, along with American pop music, to support sexy dancers with hot bodies as they subtly strip in choreographed numbers: A female Luke Skywalker twerks to Nicki Minaj as she hoses off her shuttlecraft; Princess Leia gyrates in a bikini to Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”; and sultry dancers swing their lightsabers accompanied by an amazingly scintillating light show. Expect sexy Stormtroopers, a Darth Vader that makes you want to join the dark side, and even a seductive Boba Fett. It’s mostly cheesecake, but male dancer Jin Kim moves like a gymnast and practically steals the show in a number with Chewbacca that is worth the price of admission.
The crowd is heavily hipster heterosexual, with couples and sci-fi nerds of all stripes, but this is for anyone who likes a party atmosphere, which never flags for hours of light-speed ribaldry, aided by emcee Eric Newton. The cocktails definitely helped get everyone riled up; by the second act, the screeching and yelling noticeably went up a few decibels. The 500-seat Montalbán Theatre is in the heart of Hollywood and it was packed to the rafters with an enthusiastically pleased crowd. The rebels have definitely landed.
The cast includes Terence Beckles, Alexandra Fitzgibbon, Kanie Sequoia Freeman, Abby Hazlett, Dian Sitip Meechai, Isa Musni, Eric Newton, Cecilia Qu’in, and Erin Vonder Haar.
photos by Kevin Berne
The Empire Strips Back
Foster Entertainment and Neil Gooding Productions
Montalbán Theatre, 1615 Vine Street in Hollywood
Wed-Fri at 8; Sat at 7 & 9:30; Sun at 7
ends on January 1, 2023
for tickets, visit Empire Strips Back