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.
Click here for Michael Dale's Twitterized theatre reviews.
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