Review - Arias With A Twist

This week I had my first experience With the joyful adult visual fantasia known as Arias With A Twist; a madcap collaboration between puppeteer/designer/director Basil Twist and cross-dressing chanteuse Joey Arias that first hit town three years ago. It's an eye-popping blast.

Despite the corset-created curves and the Bette Paige bangs, the muscular Arias is not the kind of artist that would confuse audiences With his gender-bending theatrics, but that's not the point. The ninety-minute romp is a glitzy fun house of absurdity that allows the charismatic star to pop off a few double entendres, eccentrically dig some jazz classics and go off on playful adventures.

And what a playground Twist has created. If you pay attention to the plot (at least I think there's a plot), it has something to do With Arias being abducted by aliens, having a brief sexual encounter With a pair of well-endowed devils, eating some funny mushrooms, being transformed into a Billie Holiday type supper club entertainer before the big Busby Berkeley finish. Twist's outer spacescape, jungle landscape and maze of a Manhattan skyline - which Arias stomps through With pithy quips like a fabulous Godzilla - are all done With style and beauty.

Arias' playmates include a pair of anatomically correct demons (I'm just assuming demons have penises.), a chorus line of chorines and a remarkably detailed four-piece marionette combo known as The Dream Music Orchestra. The quartet is actually a vintage set from the 1930s, hand-carved for Twist's grandfather, big band maestro Griff Williams. Behind the scenes and clad in black are puppeteers Lindsey Abromaitis-Smith, Chris DeVille, Kirsten Kammermeyer, Matt Leabo, Jamie Moore and Amanda Villalobos.

While the ideas behind the visuals and the gags may lose a few points for originality, the gorgeous and humorous work by Twist and the giddy lunacy of Arias make for an exceedingly fun night out.

Photos by Steven Menendez.

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