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Following her sold out performances of Chelsea Mädchen at Joe's Pub and at the HOWL! Festival last year, Tammy Faye Starlite brings her bravura theater piece focused on the music and commentary of the glamorously decadent Warhol Superstar and Velvet Underground chanteuse, NICO, née Christa Paffgen, to the historic Duplex Cabaret Theatre (61 Christopher St. @ 7th Avenue) every Saturday night in June.
Inspired by current economic catastrophes of the same sort that provoked the climate of fear that begat the Third Reich, Tammy Faye Starlite forswears her country persona for an evening of song performances -- und gespräch -- in a dark, Weimar-cum Warhol Kabaret Konzert directed by Michael Schiralli. Chelsea Mädchen runs at a swift 75 minutes and includes the brilliant repertoire of songs associated with Nico's brief, yet legendary, tenure with the Velvet Underground including "I'll Be Your Mirror," Femme Fatale" and "All Tomorrow's Parties." Starlite will also perform classic Nico covers of David Bowie's "Heroes," Rodgers and Hart's "My Funny Valentine," Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine" and The Doors' "The End." The show will culminate with a rousing finale of "Deutschland Über Alles."Starlite, backed by a six piece band recreates actual encounters Nico had with journalists based on text by T.D. Lang. The piece includes dreamlike reminiscences about Lou Reed (and Jews in general), Andy Warhol, John Cale, Jackson Browne, David Bowie, Alain Delon and others.
"Nico was, and remains, a heroine and emblem for these dark days of civil unrest and our unceasing fascination with sybaritic self-destruction and the willful deconstruction and annihilation of beauty," noted Starlight. "I've got the songs, the accent and the hair down and am working tirelessly on the cheekbones."Frank DiGiacomo, writing in the NY Daily News, noted, ?"The lucky few who got to see performance artist Tammy Fay Starlite's one-woman homage to Velvet Underground singer Nico - 'Chelsea Mädchen' - are cheering her attempts to take the show Off-Broadway. Starlite's fans include living rock legend Danny Fields who was close to the Teutonic terror and got her signed to Elektra Records. Fields says he initially didn't think a tribute to Nico 'should ever be done,' because the German singer was sui generis, but, he adds, Starlite 'embraces the knowledge and sensibility' of his late friend. 'It's not an imitation, it's a rediscovery of Nico.'" Fields told The Examiner's Jim Bessman. "I love what she does. She's wonderful." Starlite called his approval "a papal blessing.'"
"It was like receiving holy manna from Danny Fields who knew Nico so well," says Starlite. "He invited me over to listen to a tape of a phone conversation with her in 1971, and you could hear the pleading in her voice even at that point. She wasn't destitute yet, but seemed to have an enormous gaping need that I think was filled by drugs."For her role as Nico in Chelsea Mädchen singer/performance artist/bandleader Starlite temporarily abandons her preternaturally godly country star character whose set list has included "Miguided Magdalene," "God Has Lodged a Tenant in My Uterus," "Ride The Cotton Pony" and the classic "Did I Shave My Vagina For This?" Nico was a German singer, composer, fashion model, actress, and Warhol Superstar. She is known for both her vocal collaboration on The Velvet Underground's debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, and her work as a solo artist from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. She also had roles in several films, including a cameo in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls (1966), as herself. She died in July 1988, as a result of injuries sustained in a bicycling accident.
LISTINGS EDITORS: The Duplex performances of Chelsea Mädchen start at 9:30 PM on June 4, 11, 18 and 25. Tickets are $15 and with a two drink minimum. Tickets can be purchased by calling (212) 255-5438 or online at http://bit.ly/g1Skd6FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TAMMY FAYE STARLIGHT: http://www.tammyfayestarlite.com/
