Top, L-R: MiscAllaneous DomTop, Corvette Le Face, James Tigger! Ferguson, Jo Weldon, Jonny Porkpie. Bottom: Cashlee Banks, Gal Friday
Photo by Bob Krasner
Ah, it’s that time again! December is here and it’s the season to roll out “A Christmas Carol.” But it wasn’t until now that you could enjoy a burlesque-style telling of the Dickensian tale that is definitely not geared toward the whole family.
Impresario Jonny Porkpie is currently presenting “Filthy Lucre,” his heartwarming, scantily clad rendering of the old standby, in Midtown. Of course, he’s made a few changes: the lead is a woman, Ebeneza Scrooge, who runs a strip joint; and Tiny Tim is so named in reference to a particularly minuscule part of his anatomy.
As you may have guessed, it’s a costume drama that frequently sheds its costumes.
Porkpie has been involved in the business for quite some time — writing, producing and performing in shows such as “Dead Sexy,” “Naked Planet,” “PRETENÇIÓN” and “The Naked Truth,” a burlesque game show. Ten years were also spent as a producer and emcee at The Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.
Although he’s got a degree in visual art from Brown and an MFA in Creative Writing for Children (seriously, we didn’t make that up), he’s enamored of an art form that has been creeping its way into the mainstream for awhile now.
“Burlesque is a performer driven art form,” Porkpie muses. “It’s hard not to love it.”
He’s been coming up with scripted productions for some time, with structures that allow his cast to develop their own choreography. For instance, his “Naked Planet” was based on an old Star Trek episode, but his version involved a planet of burlesque performers.
“In every show we included the line, ‘That’s a pretty flimsy premise!’” he recounts. “It gave people permission to go along with the stupidity — there are only so many plots where people take off their clothes. I was amazed at…
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