Troupe comes to town
The performers in Pink Box Burlesque of Tuscaloosa spend all year preparing a special show — their annual fall masquerade.
“They get to let their hair down,” said Soapy “Mama Dixie” Jones, the troupe’s founder. “We get a little dark, a little dangerous, a little weird. Halloween is a favorite holiday around these parts, and the performers pour their spooky love into the show.”
The latest PBB production to receive this injection of “spooky love” is “Little Bo Peep Show: A Fairy Tale Masquerade,” to be presented at Saturn in Avondale at 9 p.m. Oct. 22, according to the troupe.
Like the other masquerades, “Little Bo Peep” will include mysterious characters, disguises and an ambience that welcomes the audience to join in the masked fun, Jones said.
And the show, part of PBB’s ninth season, is another chance for Jones and her fellow performers to attract new fans to an old showbiz form — burlesque — that has experienced quite a renaissance in America in recent decades.
“Little Bo Peep goes into the woods to find her sheep. There’s an evil queen, a good queen and a jazz band,” Jones said.
PBB performer Luna Blues will portray Bo Peep, and will be joined by several regulars known by their stage names: Mona Squeels, Kitty B. Haive, Hoops DeVille, Ophelia Love, Winnie Wont, Nubia Gorme’ and Harley Plush. Jones will handle all of the vocal numbers.
PBB includes both male and female performers and typically offers a mix of tease, dance and song, as well as comedy and live music.
The PBB Band features musical director Nigel Featherbottom, who plays piano, saxophone and a bit of bass and guitar, Jones said. He’ll be joined for the Saturn show by Harmful Johnson on guitar, Dick Move on drums and Mr. Bassman on bass.
The annual masquerades “always include someone dying, someone getting lost and someone finding that thing they never knew they needed,” Jones said. “It’s a good story.”
“Little Bo Peep” will be the first fairy tale given the group’s masquerade treatment.
“Each year’s story is different,” Jones said.
This will be PBB’s second show at Saturn, following an appearance in March when the performers had an amazing time, Jones said. The troupe has also played Black Market Bar in Five Points South.
She heaped praise on Saturn, calling it “an amazing venue” and a “community asset” that welcomes all sorts of entertainment.
Burlesque has been booming nationally since the 1990s, and interest is still growing, Jones said.
“I think it brings a flavor of realness to the stage that other performance forms lack, and the empowerment it provides gives agency to those who feel at home in its style,” she said.
Jones is one of the artists who has experienced this empowerment.
“Before I started this troupe, I had never taken the stage for anything,” she said. “I’m a rather shy person. I tend to keep to myself. I’ve always been labeled as odd or weird.”
The other members of PBB have experienced their own transformations, Jones said.
“It’s a family full of people who have meaningful things to communicate on stage,” she said. “Expressing themselves allows them to grow and learn and find a voice for their perspectives. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”
Jones revels in the creative contradictions, or seeming contradictions, of this classic American pop style.
“Burlesque is a raw art form that has strength in its vulnerability, pride in its humility, power in its satire,” Jones said. “I think I’m suited to burlesque more than I’m suited to any form of theater that behaves itself.”
Perhaps because of this nearly perfect fit between artist and genre, Jones — after nearly a decade running PBB — remains hungry for show business.
“I love it every day,” she said. “When I’m not at rehearsal, I’m researching, booking shows, finding new costuming, discovering new music and new ways to challenge myself and the other performers.”
Jones believes Pink Box can still grow its Birmingham and Tuscaloosa audiences.
“I meet people all the time who have no idea what burlesque is [and] are excited by the prospect of it,” she said. “There’s always someone we haven’t reached yet.”
And the impresario and performer continues to look to the troupe’s future. “I’m proud of what we’ve become and excited for what’s to come,” she said.
Jones said PBB is the longest running burlesque troupe in Alabama and already is planning something special for next season’s 10-year mark.
Doors open at Saturn at 8 p.m. on Oct. 22. Admission is for ages 21 and up. Tickets are $12 in advance at saturnbirmingham.com and $15 at the door. PBB will also present “Little Bo Peep” at The Flying Monkey in Huntsville on Oct. 8. For more information, go to pinkboxburlesque.com or facebook.com/pinkboxburlesque.