Cabaret fun at Birchmere

With troupes such as the World Famous Pontani Sisters slipping into town frequently (often on the bill with Los Straitjackets) and bars such as the Showbar Palace of Wonders providing new outlets for sideshow-style performers, the cabaret/burlesque revival that has been bubbling in New York City’s night life since the early ‘90s finally is trickling into Washington. It’s starting to find an audience.

This is something “Le Scandal,” New York City’s longest-running variety show, is hoping to tap into tomorrow night when its motley mix of artists makes its first out-of-town appearance at the Birchmere in Alexandria.

“Le Scandal” is the brainchild of Bonnie Dunn, a fortysomething cabaret singer and dancer who spent years performing around the globe. After jet-setting for a time, she landed a job at New York City’s Cutting Room, a live-music venue that featured a weekly Saturday cabaret night called “Blue Angel.”

—Seven years ago, Miss Dunn assumed responsibility for the coveted weekend slot and cooked up her own production, “Le Scandal.” Unlike the bevy of dance-heavy vaudeville-style shows in the big city, the director chose to offer a more balanced slate of entertainers.

“It was very important to me to have a variety of circus, music and burlesque,” Miss Dunn says. “The live music is very important to me because of my classic music background.”

“Le Scandal”-goers in the Big Apple and Washington will witness a few leggy ladies executing the playful (but not explicit) striptease known as burlesque. Between their “revelations,” other talented types — including a unicycle-riding knife juggler, a fearsome contortionist and a magician pirit of a Coney Island sideshow.

Beneath these high-temperature offerings, the house band (a rollicking group called the NYC Blues Devils) maintains a cool undercurrent of old-time jazz and blues tunes; it brings the contagious energy of modern-day swing-era throwbacks such as the Squirrel Nut Zippers, but buttresses it with a more authentic sound that draws on such influences as Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller.

“The music [in “Le Scandal”] is great,” says pianist Scott Treibitz—name cq Web Devils founder. “People are discovering the roots of rock ‘n’ roll and blues when they come see the show.”

Miss Dunn’s big top already has garnered enough public and media attention to produce waiting lines at the Cutting Room that often snake out the door. That’s not surprising to the organizer. She asks, “Would you rather go to a club and just hear music and watch people pick up one another, or see a whole bunch of live entertainers?”

“One of the great things about [this type of show] is that people really had to work to be an entertainer in vaudeville days,” Mr. Treibitz says.

Miss Dunn adds that vaudeville and burlesque are exhibitions of “folk arts,” which means they often have the added bonus of ticket prices that won’t break the bank ke Broadway or Cirque du Soleil.

“Le Scandal” hits the Birchmere (www.birchmere.com) tomorrow

(May 25) at 7:30 p.m. cq

—Al and George give it up

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