Sex, Silliness and Star Wars

 The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody, now playing at the Logan Theatre, is a sparkling example of an evening’s entertainment that is much better than it needs to be.  

Purely as a matter of its enduring pop-culture presence; the steady stream of sequels, prequels, adaptations and reissues; and the fact that there are 105 million more Americans today than there were on the date when the first Star Wars movie was released, there are probably a greater number of fanatical Star Wars fans today than there were back in the 1970s and 80s.  Add to that the renewed popularity of Neo-Burlesque, with its beautiful semi-strippers in spangly costumes, and the restlessness and hunger of post-Covid audiences for spectacle and silliness, and it would be hard to throw together any kind of Star Wars-themed burlesque show that wouldn’t be massively popular.

Yet, surely knowing all this, the creator of the show, Russall S. Beattie, and the other creators and performers of the original Australian production, nonetheless went the extra light year to mount a beautifully produced show that is at once funny, absurd, glamorous, creative, and sweetly erotic.  Subsequent successful productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego no doubt added to the appeal.

Like all Neo-Burlesque, The Empire Strips Back is presented as a series of brief vignettes, each one featuring a gorgeous burlesque dancer (plus one male dancer who performs a Hans “Solo”) interacting with Storm Troopers, Wookies, and R2-D2, draping themselves over Death Stars and Millennium Falcons, and otherwise having great unfrocked fun with the beloved products of George Lucas’ world-building 1977 film.  

There’s something about a sleek burlesque dancer cavorting with a hairy Wookie that is indelibly delicious. Another highlight is the Jabba the Hut sequence, wherein the dancers pirouette around a gigantic Jabba figure, who raps in rubbery sync with the music and looks practically as impressive, and just as gangster, as the original movie monster from 1983’s Return of the Jedi.

The dancers in this show, produced by Foster Entertainment and Neil Gooding Productions, presented with Fever, are easily the best burlesque dancers I have ever seen — slinky, sensual and bursting with spirit.  As in all Neo-Burlesque, the nudity is flirted with rather than flaunted, and yet is somehow simultaneously very sexy and enjoyably silly. 

The dance sequences are too short, and the evening is too long — more than two hours, including a 15-minute intermission.  I would have preferred more of the dancers and a little bit less of the evening’s only so-so master of ceremonies. (Being the MC of a burlesque show is admittedly a thankless job.)  There is a lot of fiddling and fumbling with the curtains between vignettes that I could have done without as well. 

Despite the tongue-in-cheek title, The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody doesn’t tell the story of The Empire Strikes Back, even in fragmentary satirical form.  It isn’t a parody of Star Wars at all, merely taking off on the movies’ famous iconography to present a evening of fabulous R-rated fun.  But that’s more than enough.  This is a show not to be missed by anyone craving an evening of Intergalactic Eros, raucous rock and rap music, and a temporary escape to Tatooine from the troubles of our own earthly existence. 

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Michael Antman

Open-ended run beginning May 24.

Presented at Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 N. Kedzie Blvd.

Tickets are available at http://www.theempirestripsback.com. 

Additional information about this and other Chicago area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.