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Open: 04/04/2010- Close: 04/25/2010
Swingin' At Jack's: An Aerial Circus Cabaret Reviewed for TheaterOnline.com By: Lauren Wissot
"Swingin' At Jack's: An Aerial Circus Cabaret" is the latest production from the multitalented quintet known as Suspended Cirque, three women and two men who dance, sing, do acrobatics, play the sax and, oh yeah, fly through the air on ropes, hoops and trapezes with the addictive exuberance of kids at a carnival. The last time I saw an early incarnation of "Swingin' At Jack's," also at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, I lamented that no one had given them an artist residency. Well, now they've got every Sunday in April at this Brooklyn performance space, decked out to be a mid-century speakeasy complete with jazz band. So go, baby, go! This much tighter show opens the minute you enter the cavernous club with French hostess Anna Clicquot (Michelle Dortignac) escorting you to your booth before leggy cigarette girl Lucille Armagnac (Angela Jones) or flirtatious blonde Sassy Sue (Kristin Olness) comes by to chitchat and sell some hooch. While the band sets up stage right the muscular stagehand Fred Walker (Joshua Dean) prepares the rigging that hangs above the pathway separating Galapagos' trademark ponds. By the time proprietor Jack Jameson, Jr. (Ben Franklin) takes the stage in orange pants and suspenders to announce the first number we've been intimately, physically welcomed into the group's gravity-defying world. The story that connects the cabaret fun to follow involves the sudden return of Jack's long lost love Vicky Lee (singer Victoria Lecta Cave) who left him for the USO and eventual marriage to a wealthy man. But this plot (and a superfluous subplot that a bit too tidily matches up Fred with Jack's now brokenhearted fling Lucille) takes a backseat to the thrilling midair choreography set to jazz standards. The show moves seamlessly from petite brunette Anna on trapeze to the sultry "Imitation Of A Kiss," to burlesque babe Lucille on two ropes suspended from the ceiling performing to "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby," to Fred and Sassy Sue doing the "Chattanooga Choo Choo" with a single rope, switching positions so that one is controlling the apparatus from below, allowing the other to spin like a whirling dervish. Then there's the "Big Spender" centerpiece with all three women swinging together high above the audience, wearing fishnet stockings and corsets, weaving seductively between each other's legs. Come fly with me indeed! And alternating between the goodtime swing of Jack on a rope to "Just a Gigolo" (with Sassy Sue on sax joining in with Vicky and the band) and the slow sexiness of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," in which Sassy Sue in sparkly black body stocking hangs from her ankles on a trapeze, the show even manages to capture the high hopes of a more innocent era. Watching Fred wrap his arms up in the two ropes like bandages as he winds his way skywards to "Over the Rainbow" is all the evidence one needs that dreams really do come true. Venue: Galapagos Art Space : 16 Main St |
