Can the biblical tale of Adam and Eve be told in stunning burlesque without upsetting any higher powers? The audience didn’t seem to care while soaking up this witty, imaginative and delectably subversive version. The devil opens the show with Sam Tinnesz’s “Play With Fire.” The lyrics are altered to set the mood as in “my boys like to play with fire.” As is usual for a Company XIV performance, things do indeed get hot.
Poor Adam is created but soon thereafter complains of loneliness. A cleverly executed scene produces Adam’s rib, the key ingredient for making a woman. (Are we really still teaching this in schools?) Dean Martin’s “If You Were the Only Girl in the World” cheekily underscores their duet. Costumes (Zane Pihlstrom) in this show are fantastically bawdy and sparkly. Adam and Eve wear sheer material decorated to look like a nude body over their undergarments. Remember, shame takes them a while to discover. Scott Schneider and Danielle J.S. Gordon were terrific in their roles and atmospheric dances.
An elaborate snake dance ensues. The temptation. The bite. The fall. Adam and Eve are cast out of paradise. There are seven paths to hell. Seven deadly sins. Now the cast wants to celebrate as we are getting to the pulsating heart of this show. “Sinners, a toast… to hell!” The spirit being conjured is summed up by the follow up remark. “May your stay there be as fun as the way there.”
After a perfectly timed intermission, Austin McCormick’s burlesque extravaganza kicks into high gear. The seven sins are thematically embraced in this ex-warehouse space. The decor is described as Versailles decadence spliced with Prohibition era dance halls. The room can definitely get a little smoky (for design effect) and the superlative lighting by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew completes the visual picture.
If you’ve never seen Company XIV before, attending is a super stylized and dreamy trip back in time. The performers greet you and are also the bartenders. Different types of seating are available. This show has a few large tables in the middle of the room. These people are served food and drinks. They also get a close up on some of the action. There is a party-like vibe but when the lights go down, all eyes are focused on the performers and their impressive skills.
Marcy Richardson is a peacock strutting her stuff as Vanity. If you have seen her act before, she has an knack for aerial acrobatics while singing opera. This time she performs “L’eliser D’amore” (The Elixir of Love) by Gaetano Donizetti. The troupe’s trademark intermingling of musical styles is typically fascinating. Ms. Richardson returns later in the show during Greed and delivers the best routine I have ever seen by her. That is saying a lot if you’ve been lucky enough to catch her act before.
Lust is appropriately placed in the middle of the show. In an ensemble piece, two men hang upside down in a full split position from the overhead lighting fixture. This is a brief moment in the show but it informs the high level of quality. You notice the double lyra in the air when you take your seat. During a Jealousy scene, Troy Lingelbach and Nolan McKew are dazzling on this apparatus.
Cab Calloway’s “Everybody Eats When They Come to My House” concludes the Gluttony section. A little can-can nods to the Moulin Rouge feel of this nightclub. After all, we are told, “everywhere there’s a lot of piggies living piggy lives.” Funny, sexy, artistic, athletic, musical, breathtaking and endlessly entertaining, SEVEN SINS is a perfect introduction to this company. Stay far away if bare buttocks and teasing sensuality offend your delicate sensibilities.
SEVEN SINS is performed at Théâtre XIV in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The show is running until October 31, 2020. A delicious slice at Artichoke Pizza can also be had on the nearby corner.