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A new wave spectacular harks back to to the 19th-century music hall
AT the Brisbane heat of Miss Burlesque Australia recently -- one of a nationwide tour of sold-out shows -- a queue stretched around the city block before doors opened. Backstage, in the brief lull between rehearsal and performance, contestants kicked off stilettos to eat pizza on the floor. A documentary film crew circled the room. One by one, girls in feathered headdresses and jewel-encrusted corsets moved into the blaze of spotlights to answer the same questions: Is burlesque feminist? Is it empowering for women?
In New York a few weeks earlier, the annual Coney Island Congress for Curious Peoples -- a popular convention of sideshow practitioners and historians -- was timed to coincide with the seasonal reopening of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. Old-school showmen with handlebar moustaches, private collectors of Victorian curiosities, the founder of the Morbid Anatomy Library, cultural theorists and the hosts of television show Oddities came together with assorted sideshow performers to celebrate the heritage and cultural legacy of the sideshow inside the yellow-and-red-striped surrounds of the Coney Island Sideshow museum.
Every Australian capital has multiple regular shows of this sort: Brisbane has BB le Buff's Cabbaret (which draws on a mix of circus and burlesque elements), Chad St James's Carousel (which combines burlesque, rockabilly, circus and music) and Lena Marlene's RagTag Review (which features burlesque, cabaret and circus). Melbourne has dedicated venues such as the Burlesque Bar and Red Bennies. Perth has several permanent troupes, including Twisted Vaudeville Circus. London, too, has witnessed the flourishing of a new alternative cabaret scene. Any night of the week, regular events such as Leicester Square Theatre's Sideshow: The Weirdest Show on Earth and London Burlesque's Sexy Circus Sideshow can be found playing to capacity crowds. Here audiences are invited to gasp and applaud at acts such as sword swallower Miss Behave, strip-tease unicyclist Count Adriano Fettucini and flocks of glittering burlesque performers with names such as Stiletto Siren and Venus Noir.
Contemporary theatre and club-goers may find themselves bemused by this sudden revival of a style of entertainment that traces its origins to 19th-century variety hall. This new wave of variety-style show cites the vaudeville heritage. Their style is a celebratory...