SHOWGIRL: Vulgarity, Heat, Dancing, Money, Sex, Power, Vanity, is Coming to NYU Skirball

NYU Skirball will present the North American premiere of Showgirl,  a theater piece that ponders the question “How do we survive in a world full of scumbags?,” on Friday October 18 and Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 pm at NYU Skirball. Showgirl is co-presented in partnership with L'Alliance New York and is part of the 2024 Crossing The Line Festival.

 The film Showgirls was a notorious 1995 flop about the ambitions and travails of a Las Vegas dancer. Its aesthetic, political vision, and the questions it raised about Hollywood's treatment of actresses, inspired French performance-makers Marlène Saldana and Jonathan Drillet to take a closer look at the issues of “camp” and, more generally, of good and bad taste.

The play Showgirl (singular) is an explosive show with a queer, funny and tragic aesthetic, for all those who have dreamed of glory, light and glitter. Saldana plays all the film's characters to original techno music by Rebeka Warrior.

The play Showgirl premiered in 2021 at Théâtre Saint Gervais, Geneva. Its concept, text and performance are by Jonathan Drillet & Marlène Saldana, freely Inspired by Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven's  1995 film.

Jonathan Drillet and Marlène Saldana founded their company The United Patriotic Squadrons of Blessed Diana, based in Paris, in 2011. In 2021, they created Showgirl at the Théâtre Saint Gervais, Geneva as part of the La Bâtie festival. In 2023, they continued their research on Verhoeven's movie by going to Los Angeles and Las Vegas through the Villa Albertine program. They came back with images for their own movie, Starkness, which will premiere in September 2024 (Barberousse Films). Their next creation, a group piece for 10 dancers, called Les chats, will premiere at Théâtre du Nord (Lille) in November 2024.

TICKETS

Showgirl will play Friday October 18 and Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 pm.  Tickets are $50. Tickets are currently on sale to NYU Skirball members and go on sale to the general public on June 24 at noon. Tickets can be purchased online, by visiting the box office in person, Tuesday - Saturday from 12:00 pm -  6:00 pm, or by calling 212.998.4941. NYU Skirball is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012.

NYU Skirball's programs are made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the Howard Gilman Foundation; Van Cleef & Arpels; Collins Building Services; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; and Marta Heflin Foundation; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Allies for Arts Access Fund support.

Subways: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to West 4th St.; R & W to 8th Street; 6 to Astor Place.

Programs, artists, and ticket prices are subject to change.

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