Gorilla Tango Theatre Hosts NYC's RHINESTONE GORILLA BURLESQUE, 6/22

New York City's Rhinestone Gorilla Burlesque is on its first national tour, with performances in DC, Atlanta, Austin, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Detroit.

This Capraesque little-show-that-could crowdsourced its tour through the generosity of its hometown fans and an outrageously successful Kickstarter campaign. Now, the girls are traveling cross-country squeezed three to the backseat of their clown car sedan. Their shows are their only chance to shake their sillies out and get sexy during their month-and--a-half on the road, so expect things to get wild and weird. This show--hosted by producing director Lucida Sans--features Rhinestone Gorilla's GEmma Stone, Debra Delorean, Avian Rush, and Kinky Demure. Audience members will have a chance to win a date with GEmma Stone in Rhinestone Gorilla's signature dating game. Gemma's hope is to have a beau in every port by the time this tour is out. Follow Rhinestone Gorilla's roadside antics on their tour diary, www.rhinestonegorilla.tumblr.com.

Rhinestone Gorilla Burlesque & Dating Game will be on Friday, June 22nd at 11:59pm at Gorilla Tango Theatre, 1919 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago. Tickets ($20) are available at the door and online at gorillatango.com.

From barely legal to legally bare, Rhinestone Gorilla is New York's ragtag army of art school delinquents. Heralded as "dangerous-minded and infectious", The Rhinestone Gorillas are not your average showgirls; they're rhinestones in the rough, anti-glamour guerilla grrrls prone to attack and entice. Rhinestone Gorilla is dedicated to the performance art style of neo-burlesque signature to the New York scene. Their acts are frequently comedic, often referential, and always character-driven. Expect to see acts inspired by Snoopy, T.S. Eliot, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the perverse imaginations of the Rhinestone Gorillas themselves.

Formerly known as Alpha Psi Ecdysia, Rhinestone Gorilla Burlesque was founded in 2008 as the nation's premier undergraduate burlesque troupe. While based on the campus of the State University of New York at New Paltz, Rhinestone Gorilla lived a double life as an educational institution and a professional producing entity. On the New Paltz campus, Rhinestone Gorilla dedicated itself to teaching burlesque history, the politics of neo-burlesque and the practice of burlesque performance; off-campus, Rhinestone Gorilla was the underage darling of the New York stripperformance art scene, getting naked on school nights at The Slipper Room, Rififi, Public Assembly, and Sugarland and in venues in LA, SF, Boston, and beyond. Though frequent subjects of controversy and police activity, Rhinestone Gorilla's students on the SUNY campus--who have inherited the name Alpha Psi Ecdysia--remain the only state-sponsored strippers in the nation. The Rhinestone Gorilla Burlesque troupe members are Lucida Sans (producing director), Debra Delorean (assistant producer), GEmma Stone, Angelique A'Lamode, Izebel Vivant, Kinky Demure, Avian Rush, and Spartacus Rising.

Gorilla Tango Theatre (GTT) provides year-round theatrical venues where audiences of all ages can consistently go to see a wide variety of talented artists. GTT exists to provide artists with an opportunity to produce their work in professional environment. GTT was created by Dan Abbate and boasts two venues: an 80-seat performance space in Bucktown and a 150-seat performance space in Skokie. GTT Bucktown is conveniently located at the intersection of Western and Milwaukee in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood.

Easily accessible by public transportation, GTT is steps away from the Western Blue Line stop and the #49 Western, #73 Armitage and #56 Milwaukee buses. Street parking is readily available. Gorilla Tango’s Skokie Theatre is located in the heart of Downtown Skokie; street and lot parking available. With shows for all ages, all GTT performances are on a rating system, similar to the one used in movie theatres. GTT offers a variety of affordable beer and wine for purchase.

To post a comment, you must register and login.