Are you looking for a good time? Can you handle the thrills and chills that only overheated, gyrating biker vixens can dish out? Do you know who Kitten Natividad is? If you answered "Yes", "No", or "Huh?" to any of these questions, you need to see "Go-Go, Kitty, Go!".
Billed as a valentine to 60's sexploitation revolutionary Russ Meyer, "Go-Go Kitty, Go!" is one of those perennial campy fringe parody musicals, only well above average. It is inspired by (and, indeed, blatantly but lovingly rips plot and dialogue from) cult classics like "Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill!" and "Mondo Topless". The show tells the story Wanda (Kim Ders) and Sugar 36(Erin Quinn Purcell), go-go dancers with martial arts mojo and plenty of "va-va-vroom". When friend and co-worker Po-Po Transvesti turns up dead in a suspicious car accident, the girls started on a twisted journey to find the truth. Psycho politicians, drug-crazed musicians, corrupt cops and cardboard props all add to the madness, and you never know when a tense situation will turn into a hip-shaking production number.
The authors of this affectionate send-up are Erin Quinn Purcell and Gregory Jackson, who won raves last year for their show "Duets: A Romantic Fable". They clearly know and love their source material, and director Samuel Buggeln leads a camp-savvy cast through their paces with quick pacing and surprising wit. Ders' take on the Tura Satana tough gal is dead on, and she has an adorable foil in perky counterpart Purcell. Its' absurdly fun to hear Ders snarl lines like "Love is blind, and you're an idiot". Recurring jokes about a character named Dick are mildly funny the first two times, not funny the next 10. Beyond that, the joke becomes that they are STILL making the joke, which is hilarious.
The sets and props, all cardboard cut-outs, are inventive and astonishingly funny. At one point, Wanda noisily shatters a cardboard bottle of Jack Daniels, then, in a fury, smashed a box of Kleenex to the same sound effect. Little moments like these that put Go-Go Kitty over the top.
Though the show makes a few required jabs at the current administration, its' strength lies in the carzy cast and its' ability to keep the tone of the show fast paced and light hearted. Also, it never crosses the line from sleaze into smut. No nudity, no cursing, but plenty of wham-bam innuendo. The crowd at the Lucille Lortelle was clearly in love with our hard-bitten heroines, and I, for one, proudly donned my souvenir "I am a Go-Go Kitty" button as I exited the theatre. I'll be saving my button for future use, too; I have a feeling the Kitties will soon be riding hard and fast back on the New York theatre scene.
Photo: James Worrell
From right: Greg Jackson, Erin Quinn Purcell, Vin Knight
