Viva Variety Finds A Home
BY SISTER DANA VAN IQUITY
29 May 2003
It was the very first show held in Viva Variety's new permanent home, The Buriel Clay Theatre, on May 13. It also served as VV's fourth anniversary party. Producer and emcee extraordinaire Steve Murray appeared onstage in hot-looking, red leather, silver-studded pants to announce that this time the fundraiser was for yet another worthy cause, the Lesbian Health Research Center.
The program opened with the indie music of Frances8, a quintet and not an octet as one might expect by their title, featuring an amplified guitar and electrified mandolin, electric guitar, bass, and drums. Their first number, sung by a hot female vocalist, was "Two Anxious Faces" who were "trying to make another situation better than the last," as the angst-ridden lyrics confessed.
Scott Capurro, on a whirlwind tour of the tri-cities--SF, SJ, and Berkeley--proved one cannot be too politically incorrect, as his targets moved from gays to straights, from whites to blacks to Asians, from trailer trash to valley girls, from the handicapped to the disabled, and even the nine-eleven incident. Ouch. He boldly goes where no other comic has gone--perhaps shouldn't go, perhaps a bit too far, but his wild gesturings and hilarious face-muggings make it all seem somehow so palatable. Besides, don't those blind people deserve to be made fun of? Er...um...ahem.
Performing a few numbers from their upcoming June 23rd Plush Room show, "Dine: Where Food & Lust Burst Into Song," were the delectable Kitchenettes--Eryka Raines, Linda Kosut, and Lua Hadar. The trio was radiant in red, singing "Bring Out the Men," with the telling lyrics: "So many men/so little time/Iwant them all/Is that a crime?"
With all this talk of food, it was the perfect time for intermission and a slice of delicious anniversary cake in the foyer. Jodie Holland provided beautiful acoustic music on her guitar and I could not help seeing a resemblance in sound and appearance to Lisa Loeb. In between choruses of her original song, "Beautiful Lover, I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind," she whistled melodically while strumming.
What would a Viva Variety show be without "the irrevocably damaged" Peggy L'Eggs?! Her character was invented especially for the first VV show and has been alive and unwell ever since. This night was no less sick or satiric, as she interpreted "Que Sera Sera [Whatever Will Be Will Be]" in a very disturbing minor tone that did not recall the joyful Doris Day in any way. She was dressed similarly to the aging Baby Jane Hudson in a faded party dress that kept twirling up as she began spinning around and around in an increasingly fevered pitch. At one point she put spoons at the sides of her mouth, stretching the lips to resemeble someone flying so fast that the force of gravity was pressing against her face, and all while some hideous music box played maniacally in the background. Unsettling to say the least! But it's why we love Peggy so.
John Fisher has written many excellent plays, his latest hit being Queer Theory at the Exit Theatre. It's all about Jeff Webster, a professor with a bizarre thesis concerning Elizabethan sexuality: his controversial position is that men and women of the 16th centry were prone to slip from one gender to another. In immersing himself in this study, he finds his own gender switching back and forth against his will--much like Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hide, except it's a male/female duality and fluidity. This night several cast members from Queer Theory performed a scene, with the inimitable Matthew Martin acting as the teacher's transsexual sister and narrator.
Over the past 30 shows, over 300 acts have given their time and energy to help make these shows a success and generate over $14,500 to some wonderful organizations. BE sure to check out the website www.makeitsoproductions.org for more information. And mark your calendars for the next VV, June 24, the Gay Pride show.