Review - Erotic Broadway: What's In A Name?

While calling the recent entertainment at The Triad Erotic Broadway may carry the same lack of appropriateness as expressed in the traditional arguments against the moniker Holy Roman Empire (It's really more "cute and sexy" than erotic and the material's ties to Broadway are sporadic at best.), the cheery and playful variety show directed and choreographed by Tricia Brouk offers bouncy fun for all (legal) ages.

At the center of the festivities is a fetching ensemble of dancers. Gina Bombara, Kristin Jantzie, Liz Piccoli, Michelle Pruiett, Tonya Wathen and Samantha Zack open the night with a parody of A Chorus Line's "I Hope I Get It" ("How many hotties does he need?") where Michael Bennett stand-in Joe Ricci calls out choreographic instructions for them to slap each other's butts and display their tassel-twirling skills. Ricci, who seems to be primarily a singer (he croons a nice "Old Devil Moon"), also serves as the evening's co-host with stand-up comic Sunilda Caraballo ("I'm originally from Puerto Rico. The island, not the borough."). The premise that has the two competing for stage time never really goes anywhere, but Brouk's best staged number is a very funny routine that has Caraballo teamed with Wathen and Pruiett in three separate synchronized dances set to "Flight of The Bumble Bee" depicting a woman preparing for, and then going out on, a date.

Pruiett supplies another highlight on her own, hitting comedic and vocal zingers in Jule Styne and Frank Loesser's novelty number, "I Said No," where a puritanical woman finds herself losing control over a man who wants only one thing from her. (Music Director Andrew Sotomayor provides piano accompaniment for the singers while the dancers perform to recorded music.)

Scantily clad dance solos and pairings by Zack, Piccoli (who also choreographs), Amber Bloom, Wathen and Adam Perry are certainly pleasing, if lacking in build and dramatics; the exception being a very romantic coupling of Wathen and Perry caressing each other in white cotton undergarments. Choreographer Brian Brooks takes the stage with Aaron Walther, each sporting pink ruffled undies and a pink feather boa, for "Dance O'Matic," a routine that gets laughs from their difficulty in playing such a small space.

While an Abbott and Costello parody called "Whore's On First" ("I just want to know what's the name of the girl who does oral." "No, What's the name of the girl who uses her hand.") falls flat and a bit where Mistress B shapes balloons into things other than animals completely upstages her faux-German singing of Stephen Sondheim's exquisitely hilarious, "I Never Do Anything Twice," the rather perky Colleen Hawks does very nicely with a funny monologue about a lover blessed with size but not endurance.

The presence of downtown and Coney Island burlesque star Julie Atlas Muz, both ravishing and comical as she teasingly performs a classic fan dance, offers some legit eroticism to the evening. And the evening's guest star, Brenda Braxton, performing her Smokey Joe's Café show-stopper, "Some Cats Know," supplied confident Broadway pizzazz.

Erotic Broadway has been running Monday nights at the Triad since June and, as mentioned by Ricci, this is the third complete version of the show. As with any variety evening such as this there's always some highs and lows to deal with but while the show is pleasant and enjoyable now, it needs to be polished up closer to the level of Muz and Braxton to really live up to its label when it returns to The Triad in October.

Photo of the company by Jason Weston

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