What a memorable night we had last night seeing the smash hit show BURLESQUE TO BROADWAY starring Quinn Lemley at The Gramercy Theatre NYC.
This show is truly quite phenomenal, like a sweet home-baked apple pie, this show delivers up a hot generous slice of Americana, with the show itself being a credit to all who are producing and performing it. I recommend you see this show most highly, as it enjoys a far-too-short run at the historical The Gramercy Theatre.
The ten piece big band is simply quite brilliant and captivating, with all its members enjoying professional Broadway backgrounds. If you love Big Band Music, well, you're in for a real treat as they deliver one snappy show hit after another. Watch the piano player conducting while he plays. There is a cohesion and intelligence to this group of players that is rarely found in such a tightly knit big band. The sound itself coming from the stage is also acoustically superior and well engineered throughout.
The star of this remarkable show, Quinn Lemley, is extremely beautiful, eloquent and magnificently talented as she takes us on her whirlwind twister of a journey ... and I mean Twister ... through the story of Burlesque which occasionally enters her very own life journey from singing as a little girl in her father's diner, the Buffeteria in Columbus Indiana, to the stories about how her own Grandmother changed her life forever. There is a sentimentality embedded at the heart of BURLESQUE TO BROADWAY that brought tears to my eyes. It is a heartfelt, genuine sentimentality, and Lemley tells her tale quite beautifully.
In my estimation, Quinn Lemley is not 'acting' Burlesque per say. She 'is' Burlesque. She is the real thing, an enormously talented actress, singer and performer who very much ranks up there with Gypsy Rose Lee, Mae West, Jayne Mansfield, Bettie Page, Dixie Evans, Diana Dors, right up to the likes of recent stars Cher and Bette Midler.
We were absolutely captivated with her performance and were riveted from start to finish, as she knocks out one heart-pounding song after another in a feast of glitter and glamour and brassy bawdy brilliance.
The entire cast works tremendously hard up there on stage delivering this intricate and skilled music show. Jaw dropping.
As the history of the art of Burlesque resurfaces on the world stage, and the theatre-going world once again gets to celebrate the Art of The Tease and the brassy sound of that exhilarating accompanying big band music here is a show that combines all the elements of Burlesque, and delivers it with the precision and skill of a tiger. These girls can sing too, with harmonies being complicated and unique, while all onstage possesses a remarkable voice,
One of the very best shows I have seen, ever, and I recommend you see it for yourself. Great fun, super skilled, and right on the bulls eye of authentic Burlesque.