By\u00a0Olivia Gunn<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Geno\u2019s Rock Club<\/strong> isn\u2019t my typical Friday haunt, but after a week of nine-to-five routines, I need to add a little more spark to my night. Like Sally Bowles, I\u2019m craving the \u201cstrange and extraordinary.\u201d The evening\u2019s entertainment, presented by Voulez-Vous Burlesque, is playfully entitled The I F*cking Love Food Show<\/em><\/strong>. With a name like that, it\u2019s sure to add, well\u2026something. We order our drinks and boldly sit at the table closest to the stage. It\u2019s dark save for a lone inflatable cupcake placed center stage. Soon the emcee emerges, dressed in a chef\u2019s coat and hat and armed with the sassy crudeness that brings to mind Joel Grey\u2019s performance as Master of Ceremonies in the 1972 film version of Cabaret<\/em>. He rouses the crowd into a state of anticipation and titillation worthy of a decadent night at the Moulin Rouge. <\/span><\/p>\n Oh, What a Show!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The first act begins with a strange and amusing interpretation of Ronald McDonald\u2019s old nemesis, the Hamburglar. On the stage, we watch a man overcome by his love of the Happy Meal burger. Once the performer is stripped down to his skivvies, he\u2019s joined by a life-sized version of his obsession: a hamburger that playfully peels away two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun to the strains of Jimmy Buffett\u2019s \u201cCheeseburger in Paradise.\u201d The show continues in suitably surreal and playful fashion, with acts ranging from a raucous tap routine to a rendition of the Chordettes\u2019 classic 1950s pop hit \u201cLollipop.\u201d My fiance\u2019s favorite is a two-person dance choreographed to Warrant\u2019s 1990 hair-metal classic, \u201cCherry Pie.\u201d In fact, the male contingent of the audience seems particularly responsive to the artist\u2019s use of whipped cream during this performance. No matter what your level of prudishness, the good-natured atmosphere of the show makes it hard not to find yourself laughing and cheering along while sparkles and breasts go flying across the stage.<\/span><\/p>\n D<\/span>uring the second act of the evening, we\u2019re introduced to the star of the show, producer\/director Sundae Morning<\/strong>. Her routine involves tempting three unsuspecting volunteers from the audience to eat ice-cream sundaes with their hands tied behind their backs. Ms. Morning cackles as three men take the stage. With little else than a glittering maraschino cherry topping her head in the way of clothing and a mouth full of Bette Midler-esque lines, she captures our attention even as three grown men wolf down ice-cream hands-free in front of us. My cheeks hurt from laughing by the time she leaves the stage. It\u2019s clear to me I must <\/em>meet the woman behind the pasties.<\/p>\n Tasty Delight<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Christina Mosher<\/strong>, a.k.a. Sundae Morning, grew up in Lyman, Maine. At 21, she attended her first drag show. \u201cLook, my brother says \u2018hoss\u2019 instead of house and drives a lifted truck, if that tells you anything,\u201d she says of her upbringing. After performing in shows doing \u201cfaux drag\u201d (a female performance that adopts the style of male drag queens), Mosher eventually began performing at the now-closed Studio 55, directing a weekly drag performance. Since Studio 55\u2019s closure in October 2016, Voulez-Vous Burlesque, Mosher\u2019s 13-member troupe, still puts on two cabaret performances per month. Each show, written and choreographed by Mosher herself, takes about three weeks to produce, including the design and creation of costumes. Who knew a bucket of rhinestones costs $15? But it\u2019s all worth it in the end, says Mosher, who notes that her confidence on stage has sometimes surprised audience members. \u201cI\u2019ve had women tell me that they wish they could do what I do, but just aren\u2019t comfortable. I think to myself, \u2018Why is it radical for a size-14 woman to be comfortable showing her body?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Many of Voulez-Vous\u2019 performances poke fun at popular culture and current events\u2013as any good cabaret act should. The troupe\u2019s Inauguration Day show at Geno\u2019s a few months ago took audience members by surprise. Mosher recalls a few men being a bit taken aback at just how much fun the troupe had with Mr. President. \u201cAt the end of the day, you\u2019re going to offend somebody,\u201d she says with a cheeky wink. \u201cThere\u2019s a time and place for everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This summer you can catch several cabaret performances by Voulez-Vous in Portland, including I F*cking Love Food Part Two <\/em>at Portland House of Music and Events <\/strong>on June 15 and When You Wish Upon a Bra<\/em>, a Disney-themed performance in August. If you\u2019re still not sure you can handle a night out with Voulez-Vous, ask yourself, \u201cWhat good is sitting alone in your room?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summerguide 2017![\"SG17-After-Dark-Cabaret\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SG17-After-Dark-Cabaret-300x282.jpg\")
Interested in something a little different? Dare to feel a little uneasy? OK, Portland. Let\u2019s do this: \u201cWillkommen! Bienvenue! <\/em>Welcome! Im cabaret. Au cabaret.<\/em> To cabaret!\u201d The Forest City\u2019s irrepressible new Voulez-Vous Burlesque<\/strong> troupe is doing for Maine what Le Chat Noir did for Paris in 1882 and Christopher Isherwood\u2019s fictional Kit Kat Club did for 1930s Berlin.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nAdd a soup\u00e7on of naughty to your evening with Portland\u2019s premier cabaret troupe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-13030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-summerguide-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13030"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13374,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13030\/revisions\/13374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}