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Fri. Nov. 23 Here’s an idea: Spend Black Friday (Nov. 23) watching the Babes in Boinkland perform burlesque to Davi d Bowie tunes. Sounds a bit more fun that fighting with folks for those super bargains at the mall, now doesn’t it? Niki Luparelli, of the Steamy Bohemians, is the chanteuse who will be singing from the Bowie catalog for this evening at Club Oberaon called “Oh You Pretty Things: An Explosive Cocktail of David Bowie Covers and Burlesque!” Bowie wrote the song “Oh You Pretty Things” for his 1971 album “Hunky Dory,” a precursor if you will to the heightened and ambiguous sexuality and glam-rock that came just a bit later with “Ziggy Stardust.” “Oh you pretty things, don’t you know you’re driving your mamas and papas insane,” Bowie sang. “Let me make it plain/You gotta make way for the homo superior.” They’re calling it “a loving, electric blue, lavish, total blam blam tribute to The Thin White Duke, inspired burlesque and go-go dancing by some of Boston's most beautiful dancers.” The Babes in Boinkland – the folks who give you “The Slutcracker” - and Mary Widow of Black Cat Burlesque, will take it all (or most of it off, down to panties, pasties and g-strings) as they go-go dance and strip to Bowie’s songs.
JSInk asked Luparelli about it all. "This is my 6th full on Bowie tribute show," she said. "I started doing them for just his birthday in 2011, and the response was so great, we just kept doing it. Some of the shows have been more reck centered with other bands joining me, such as the ones I did at Ralph's and the Middle
East. Oberon is more of a theater so I'm able to camp it up and bring more burlesque....I've been obsessed with Bowie since I was 18. I love his music more than any other. It's the soundtrack to my life. We're doing 24, maybe 25 of some of his best known, and some deeper cuts. There will be 'Young Americans.' There will be 'Absolute Beginners,' but not too much from 'Ziggy.'" "Tricky" Niki Luparelli will be joined by the Gold Diggers, which includes pianist-singer Dapper Dan Burke, bassist Christine Moad, drummer Legs and Eggs Greg, saxophonist Johnny English and violinist Marnie Hall, with backup vocals from Niki’s sisters (we presume) Susan and Melissa Luparelli
As to the Boston-based singer, she caresses with her classically trained/abused voice then sucker punches with her bawdy patter and mastery of the absurd, not to mention the ridiculous amount of items she can pull out of her bra like a magician, or Mary Poppins’ carpetbag.
She appeared in the 2004 Las Vegas Comedy Festival, the Boston Comedy Festival 2002-2007, and was once told by Piers Morgan at the Hammerstein ballroom that she was "the most annoying woman [he'd] ever met.” With the Gold Diggers, she has opened for Frank Stallone, Gary Lewis (formerly of the Playboys), and Peter Tork (of the Monkees. Winner 2011 Sexiest Musician, 2011 and 2012 Best Jazz act in New England’s Pulse Magazine and is appearing as Miss December in the Narragansett Beer 2013 pinup Calendar.
Starts at 9. Tix $20 advance/$25 door. 2 Arrow St., Cambridge, 617-496-8004 www.americanrepertorytheatre.org |
