Review: RSVP 'Yes' to Game-Changing MADAME DRAGON'S 60TH BIRTHDAY BASH at Café Nordo

It's easy to feel skeptical when young Sara Porkalob steps onto Café Nordo's stage and claims to be celebrating her sixtieth birthday. But with her effortless "still-got-it" physicality and chutzpa, Porkalob became a believably spry sixty-years-young Madame Dragon. In her latest iteration of her one-woman show "The Dragon Lady"--Porkalob's tribute to her gangster grandma--"Madame Dragon's 60th Birthday" is an expansive and immersive tribute that tells Maria Porkalob's (aka Madame Dragon) stories of sex, murder and motherhood through spoken word, music, and food. This is not just dinner theatre. This is a party.

Written, directed, and starring Porkalob, "Madame Dragon's 60th Birthday" compiles a series of vignettes, sprinkled with a few songs grandma knows you'll love. Porkalob has a great voice, and she does a fabulous job singing both funny parodies of classic songs, and original pieces by Pete Irving. She also has really fun rapport with her accompaniment jazz trio, The Ex Husbands. Madame Dragon is the ultimate M.C. at her own birthday, and she never lets you forget it.

As a performer, Porkalob is nothing if not tireless: she plays just about a dozen different characters as she reenacts her grandmother's memories. She has a great ability to shift between characters easily, often playing more than two in the same scene. This is especially impressive when said characters are experiencing drastically different emotions simultaneously. In one scene, Porkalob convincingly plays both the hysterically crying baby brother and the uncomfortable older brother trying to cheer him up. In another moment, she's giving birth, and the next she's serving her guests (the audience) short ribs. Porkalob was high energy and magnetic from start to finish. Being a powerhouse clearly runs in the Porkalob family.

Fair warning to the gentlemen dining on the inside of the table-you may get asked to get up and dance with grandma, and you will dance with her, because she's not really asking. Not that you'll turn her down, because you'll want to cut a rug with the seasoned sparkplug. I certainly did! Madame Dragon is a star and she knows it.

Now, despite what Madame Dragon may tell you, the four-course meal of Filipino cuisine was actually prepared by Chef Aaron Verzosa. It's a hearty meal that, between the appetizer and the main course has a Sinigang broth palate cleanser that knocks your socks off.

"Madame Dragon's 60th Birthday Bash" has set a new standard for dinner theatre. In this production, the food isn't supplemental or gimmicky. It's an added form of storytelling. This isn't a removed two-hour monologue. It's an immersive, interactive celebration of a woman and her skeletons. Porkalob's reworking of her one-woman-show was a labor of love and a tour de force; it's well-rounded, wild, and worthy. This is one family you'll want to be apart of. For throwing a killer party for a killer Filipina matriarch, I give "Madame Dragon's 60th Birthday Bash" an inspired 4.5/5 stars. Buy a ticket while you still can, and make sure to wear something nice for grandma.

"Madame Dragon's 60th Birthday Bash" performs at Café Nordo through January 22nd, 2017. For tickets and information, visit them online at www.cafenordo.com

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