A group of Australian burlesque dancers are performing a truly stripped-down version of “Star Wars” ― emphasis on the strip.
The appropriately titled “The Empire Strips Back — A Burlesque Parody” will be storming California starting May 31, hot on the heels of the release of the new “Star Wars” film “Solo.”
The cheeky show ― emphasis on “cheeks” ― features 12 dancers acting out 60 separate characters from the movies, including Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and scantily clad stormtroopers.
Russell Beattie, the show’s director, said the sexy sci-fi show began long, long ago in a theater far, far away ― 2011 in Sydney, Australia, to be exact.“We created it as a bit of a joke,” Beattie told HuffPost by email.
Beattie and others were working on a parody "Star Wars" book called Wookieerotica when they got the idea.
“Since we were creating the costumes and doing the work, we thought we'd put a one-night show for a hundred of our friends and fans,” he said. “Little did we know that it would become our biggest production.”
A full-blown version debuted in 2014 and has had a successful run in Australia. Along the way, there were challenges.
“Finding the right Chewbacca for our show was difficult,” he said. We needed someone who is that tall and has the dance training that the production requires.”
Figuring out the proper choreography for Darth Vader or other characters is also something Beattie had to keep in mind.
“We make sure that everyone has a good understanding of who the characters are,” Beattie said. We might change the character’s gender, costume, etc., but the core characteristics always stay the same.”
The first show of the six-city tour will be in Riverside, with Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento to follow before the show ends in San Francisco on June 9.
Beattie also promises that anyone who fears they might see "Solo" spoilers at the show need not worry.
"We mainly stick to the originals. They are so well-known, and hence, so easy to parody," he said. "The latest films are very divisive and our show enjoys bringing the fans together."
"Star Wars" isn't the only film series that Beattie has burlesqued.
"We've done 'Game of Thrones,' 'Batman,' and 'Kill Bill,' to name a few," he said. "We did talk about an 'Avengers' one a few years back. But the fan boy in me would want to spend too much money making a life-sized Hulk for the show. Our next parody production will be 'Ghostbusties' -- a 'Ghostbusters' parody."
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GiGi La Femme
Known for: Producing and occasionally performing in "Revealed," a fully nude show in Manhattan's East Village. The risque creation became such a hit, the New York Times bid La Femme a pointed farewell when the slower rhythms of Nashville, and a nice man, came calling. Signature act: Performing as her sci-fi doppleganger Princess Leia. Based in: Nashville
The World Famous *BOB*
Known for: Playing with gender. From her Robert Smith-inspired stage name to her self-billing as a "female-female impersonator", WFB has a genius for avoiding pigeon holes. She even made a living as a drag queen at one point, despite not needing any drag to be a woman. That's what we call a can-do spirit! Signature act: Mixing a martini in her cleavage. Based in: New York City
Known for: Mixing sweetness and horror. Jeffrey Deitch, whose gallery hosted one of Muz's exhibits in 2007, compares the sculptural quality and gender play of her work to "the early work of Duchamp and Man Ray. There's a conceptual comedy to it." Aside from looking like living art, the muscular girly girl fulfilled a long-held dream of many 8-year-old selves when she became Head Mermaid at the now defunct Coral Room. Signature act: Taking a (staged) beating as Italian opera plays in the background, and emerging nude and covered in fake blood. Based in: Manhattan
Tigger!
Known for: Irreverence, "high camp," being a pioneering male star in a heavily female world. Tigger! (pictured to the right) often gets the Dita-esque moniker of the "King of Boylesque," the term for burlesque as performed by boys. Signature act: Becoming Father McTigger, an altar boy-loving priest who pulls a communion wafer from his shimmering purple thong to the strains of Olivia Newton John's "I Honestly Love You." Based in: New York City
Known for: Being one of the longest performing burlesque stars, with a career that began in the 1950s and continues today. The octogenarian known as "The Tempest in a D-Cup" says she was one of Elvis Presley's lovers in her Hollywood days, but even in her 70s, she managed to charm Robert Ebert. Signature act: The "time capsule," as the AP coined it: "She knows nothing of poles. She would never put her derriere in some man's face. Her prop of choice is a boa, perhaps the occasional divan." Based in: Las Vegas
Known for: Raunchy and comic high-concept acts that usually involve pulling something (or many things) out of her orifices. She's considered as much a comedienne as she is a burlesque star. Signature act: The "Pee-Wee Herman," in which she dresses up like the "Playhouse" host and pulls platonic joke props (rubber chicken, whoopee cushion) out from where they're lodged around her body. Because: "How can you receive a Pee Wee Herman suit and not find a way to turn it into an act?" Based in: New York City
Known for: A 1950s variety show host's showman sensibilities, which has endeared him to Hollywood and TV executives alike as boylesque's answer to Dita Von Teese (whom he emcees for regularly on stage). Signature act: "Have Yourselves A Murray Little Christmas," a retrofitted holiday song that Hill pulls out every December for his annual Christmas show. Based in: New York City
Bambi The Mermaid
Known for: Being the Queen of Coney Island, where she's performed in the annual mermaid parade for more than a decade. Her pantyless, psychosexual hijinks made her a longtime muse of fetish photographer Doris Kloster. Signature act: Eating crickets and goldfish in her "Geek Act," holding Burmese pythons for the "Snake Charmer," dressing as fantastical half-human creatures (not just a mermaid) in "Sideshow." Really, take your pick. Based in: New York City
Stormy Leather
Known for: Her androgynous good looks and rocker sensibility. We trembled at her perfect bone structure and profile shots in the Magnetic Fields' video for "Andrew In Drag." (She's the dapper gent). Signature act: A Cylon strip routine that involves dressing like a Battlestar Galactica robot and stripping down to the skin. Based in: New York City (Photograph Courtesy Alex Colby.)
Legs Malone
Known for: Being "the girl with the 34 and a half inch inseam." A co-producer of New York's Sugar Shack Burlesque, Malone blurs the line between defining herself by her body and transforming it. Signature act: She does a mean Bettie Page. Based in: New York City
Known for: Being one half of a burlesque power couple along with husband Johnny Porkpie, until they called it quits. Luckily the two were together long enough to found Pinchbottom Burlesque, one of the city's most ingenious burlesque spots. Signature acts: Performing as her alter-ego Kobayashi Maru, an android creature. Based in: New York City
Dirty Martini
Known for: Being a key player in the "new burlesque" movement in New York along with Julie Atlas Muz, The World Famous Bob and other burlesque royalty. In the process, becoming a plus-size poster girl to whom even the bone-obsessed Karl Lagerfield bowed down. Signature act: The "balloon strip," in which she slowly pops a constellation of balloons surrounding her body, closing with a pair in an obvious spot. Winky face! Based in: New York City
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