Song and Dance, With Some Naughty Thrown In
‘Rococo Rouge,’ Company XIV’s Burlesque Show
Laura Collins-Hughes
October 15, 2014: If you were a prudish sort, not much given to bacchanals, the curtain stretched across the stage might be your first clue that XIV, an intimate new theater in the East Village, was not the place for you. The orgiastic Moulin Rouge revelry painted there is fair warning of what lies ahead in Company XIV’s glitteringly sexy, exuberantly celebratory show Rococo Rouge — minus the genitalia open to the breeze. In this opulently designed, high-glamour fusion of opera and circus, ballet and fan dance, the men prefer jeweled codpieces, the women assorted skimpy, spangly underthings. Also the occasional long, elegant gown. Conceived, directed and choreographed by Company XIV’s artistic director, Austin McCormick, and gorgeously lit by Jeanette Yew, it has more than a dozen varied numbers and a fashion parade of costumes by Zane Pihlstrom. Audience members sip cocktails as they watch. “You’re in for an evening of nakedity and debauchery,” the amped-up hostess, Shelly Watson, says, clad in a deranged golden ensemble topped by a towering Marie Antoinette-style wig with a bird cage inside. Extravagant, disciplined decadence is this show’s comfort zone.
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