Vivacious Vaudeville

Overview

The Vivacious Vaudeville Auckland Fridge Special kicked off with a bang, or rather, a crack. The show is lively, funny, slapstick and sarcastic in all the right places and the audience lapped up the one hour show.

For those of you who are not quite sure what a vaudeville is all about, it's a type of entertainment which was popular mainly in the US in the early 20th century. It features a mix of specialty acts such as burlesque, comedy, dance, acting, circus and live music.

The show began with sirens and police chasing the poor Vaudevillians, and descended quickly into 'boy' humour with Romano Zucchini, the dirtiest hairiest Italian playboy to ever grace the Q Theatre stage. His first whip cracking show had the audience in stitches, and when he called for audience participation hands shot up in the air. Luckily no-one was injured, although I suspect the poor girl who had to put on an arm-length glove to find the the handkerchief hidden in a nearly naked Romano may be mentally scarred for some time.

Looney Rouge sung two beautiful songs that will have you singing 'Eggs for Breakfast' for a week, and her second song 'Thank God I'm Pretty' was a clever mix of taking-the-mickey ('Thank god I get that occasional champagne from a man at a bar') while also touching on the serious social implications of being pretty ('Thank god everyone always questions everything I do because I am pretty therefore I can't be smart').

Willow Noir had the tongues wagging with two beautiful burlesque performances, one of which won her the title of Miss Burlesque New Zealand. It was cheeky and absolutely brilliant. Patty Haag provided comedic entertainment during the breaks (if not just for the stripy socks and tiger slippers paired together) and The Speitatet, the swinging, grooving and spontaneous jazz trio, played beautifully. Finally, Lilly Loca – MC and Theatrical Vaudevillian – put the Va-Va-Voom into Vaudeville. Her toned legs were the envy of every girl in the room. Her yankee cousin from southern USA made an appearance, and her other relative, Auckland favourite Gary also stopped by (they all seem remarkably familiar).