Stage: The Fashionistas

Sensual overload

By Barbara Scherzer

Like many of you, I attend Strip production shows to be entertained and to engage my senses. At a recent viewing of the new show The Fashionistas, I was left with one feeling: thorough confusion. The complicated plot appears as both live action and a plethora of videos that continually switch between fantasy and reality without delineating the difference. This show is a confusing jumble, difficult to follow, and detracts from anyone's ability or desire to kick back and simply enjoy the abundance of eye-candy and fetish fashions.

Director/producer John Stagliano based his show on his award-winning and money-making adult video, Fashionistas, but has stripped away the sex, sadism and masochism plot points. It contains neither nudity nor dialogue, but has plenty of singing and dancing. With no show program to guide me, I was puzzled by what remained of the original plot.

I later found a summary posted on the production's website. To help you out, the story purportedly revolves around a love triangle involving a costume designer, her female boss and the famous male designer they both desire to bed. None of this was evident from the action on stage or the scene-setting videos. Further, the principal characters project little to evoke our sympathy.

Another problem is the positioning of the live aerial artists, who take flight above the audience's heads at about the midpoint of the theater. Audience members at the front of the theater must choose which to see. They cannot view both directly, although the airborne acts are shown on the video screens.

The dance and fashion vignettes are backed by taped tracks of rockers such as Evanescence, Led Zeppelin and The Crystal Method. A single live percussionist, not credited on the website, ably accompanies most of the musical numbers. Enrique Lugo and Nick Navarro choreographed the cast's synchronous moves. One of the more whimsical sequences departs from the S&M fashion theme with the women dancers cheerleading each other on to the Lords of Acid tune, "I Must Increase My Bust."

Though never intended as a mainstream offering, The Fashionistas nonetheless needs a major overhaul to demystify its plot. This show is currently all dressed up with nowhere to go.