(Source: ChrisKPhotography)
While W.C. Fields might find it hard to fathom, Philadelphia has been the hotbed for a burgeoning neo-burlesque scene – thanks in large part to the long-running, shimmying shenanigans of the Peek-A-Boo Revue.
Born in the Five Spot nightclub in 1998, Philadelphia’s Peek-A-Boo Revue was created by club owner Phil Cohen, who produced a weekly Wednesday evening affair notable for a troupe of male and female performers willing and capable of doing almost anything related to sexual tease.
More than ten years later (and one traumatic fire at their original home), the Peek-A-Boo Revue, now happily ensconced at World Cafe Life, has performed with Murray Hill, the Pontani Sisters, while entertaining celebrities like Jennifer Tilly, and Chris Noth for his birthday, and the casts of “Saturday Night Live” and “Cirque de Soleil” (and you know you’d better be naughty and nasty if you’re entertaining that bunch…) With a cast of statuesque beauties performing classic burlesque striptease, it’s no wonder that Philadelphia Magazine labeled the Peek-A-Boo Revue “the best troupe in the world.”
Now, for one night only, to coincide with the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), the three-week smorgasbord of arts centered around the theme “Paris: 1910 – 1920,” the Peek-A-Boo Revue morphs into the Moulin Rouge for their take on the can-can and all its suggestive incarnations. Expect the risqué and provocative – for remember, it was in 1890s Paris that the striptease originated. More than a hundred years on, we’re still thrilled and titillated by the art of undressing, a fact that the Peek-A-Boo Revue understands all too well.
Go ahead, summon your inner Josephine Baker and work a banana skirt in honor of Paris and PIFA – and the Peek-A-Boo Revue.
DETAILS: Saturday, April 30, 2011, two shows, 8 and 11 pm, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215.222.1400
LINK: Peek-A-Boo Revue
