The Slipper Room is a variety theatre and house of burlesque, comedy and neo-vaudeville, located in the Lower East Side district of Manhattan, New York City.
The Slipper Room is a variety theatre and house of burlesque, comedy and neo-vaudeville, located in the Lower East Side district of Manhattan, New York City.
The concept of performers and impresarios James and Camille Habacker, the venue first opened in 1999 when the neo-burlesque scene of New York was in its infancy, [1] becoming the first venue built specifically to showcase the work of a new collective and designed to nurture emerging talent. The shows consist of performance artists, dancers, drag queens, vaudeville, variety and sideshow acts, often performing outrageous, messy and lewd routines. [2] The Habackers encourage performers to push themselves to try out new work without fear of censorship. [1]
The Village Voice describes the Slipper Room as "a glorious reinterpretation of classic mid-19th Century European opera houses, complete with fleur-de-lis wallpaper, sumptuous purple banquettes, and a soaring stage", [3] while The New York Times advises the meek "to stay on the mezzanine", where "audience members on the stage level have been known to be licked, tickled and mocked". [2] NYC.com observes the venue as being "instrumental in reviving—perhaps even creating—the burlesque community in New York City, for the first eleven years as the cozy, intimate cocktail lounge it once was, and now as the two-level burlesque theater and bar and it's become... a stunning paean to the Jazz Age with a stage that vaults the full two stories up, where balcony visitors get a bird's eye view of the action." [4]
Writing in an August, 2000 edition of the Voice, the author Jackie Collins hailed the Slipper Room as "Heaven!", adding "It's a snazzy Orchard Street hangout where Hello, Dali!—a surreal tribute to the art of transsexualism—had us cheering on all fours. As the trannies tarted themselves up backstage, Amanda Lepore and Sophia Lamar performed deadpan magic tricks in panties; Tina Sparkles pushed her sequinned titties into an audience member's face in a vivid tribute to the Lion King, Candis Cayne climaxed Le Jazz Hot in a way skimpier ensemble than Julie Andrews could ever manage; and Gloria Wholesome shed her boa while dedicating Different Drum to George W. Bush (though Bush is generally this crowd's goal genital). The switcharoo finale had our female host, *BOB*, stripping behind a screen to reveal a huge prosthetic schlong, then declaring, "In the future, there is no gender!" [5]
Adam Gopnik, writing in the New Yorker: "The Slipper Room is owned by a young couple named Camille and James, who renovated it and installed a perfect bijou stage, and they have struggled hard to keep it both gay and straight, as a young couple with a jazz bar in the Thirties might have struggled to keep their little place integrated. He has Ken Burns bangs and a warm smile; she is blond and went to Franklin & Marshall, a liberal-arts school in Pennsylvania. They are the kind of charming, sincere young couple who in another city would have opened the one independent bookstore with a Beat section, or the one coffee bar not actually a Starbucks. In New York now, they have the Slipper Room, and they put on their own New Burlesque revue on Saturday nights: The show that looks like your dad's old Playboys, plays like your bachelor uncle's vinyl, and grooves like a cool, net gimlet. James emcees, and Camille dances topless." [6]
In 2001-2, the Slipper Room became a "poster lounge" for reforming the city cabaret laws after twice being forced to close [7] due to the violation of New York City's Prohibition-era cabaret laws and regulations, under which it was illegal for people to dance without permission – on or off-stage – from the NY authorities. [7] In a crackdown led by former NY mayor Rudy Guilani, the Slipper Room was among a number of bars and clubs to be penalized. In May 2001 they were fined $150 and padlocked for the night when a Department of Consumer Affairs agent wrote them up for having a male go-go dancer on stage. [7] In June 2002, a D.C.A agent "caught patrons dancing and hit the place with a $30,000 fine, later reduced to $6,000, again padlocking the place". [7] After that penalty, the Slipper Room hung a "no dancing" sign inside the venue in an attempt to keep patrons from dancing. Camille Habacker stated it wasn't easy. "People at the bar would hear a good song and start shakin' it. We had to tell people to stop – they thought we were kidding". [7] The Slipper Room, enlisting the help of a lawyer and co-forming the Legalize Dancing NYC coalition, prompted a change in the city's cabaret laws. [8] [9]
Artists who have guested at the Slipper Room over the years have included such acts as Lady Gaga, [10] Leonard Cohen, [11] the Scissor Sisters [12] and U2, [13] while popular downtown performers Dirty Martini, Murray Hill and Matt Fraser often appear. Variety shows are regularly hosted by comedians Bradford Scobie, Matthew Holtzclaw and Matt Roper under the guise of various characters, and also by James Habacker himself. [14]
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "exotic" or "burlesque" dancer.
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, does not typically dance but usually sits at tables. Performances are usually introduced by a master of ceremonies or MC. The entertainment, as performed by an ensemble of actors and according to its European origins, is often oriented towards adult audiences and of a clearly underground nature. In the United States, striptease, burlesque, drag shows, or a solo vocalist with a pianist, as well as the venues which offer this entertainment, are often advertised as cabarets.
A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other erotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, and can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style. American-style strip clubs began to appear outside North America after World War II, arriving in Asia in the late 1980s and Europe in 1978, where they competed against the local English and French styles of striptease and erotic performances.
Clicquot Club was a nightclub at 15 North Illinois Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the heart of the city. Billed as the club that "never closed", it became notorious as an illegal gambling spot in the city.
Neo-Burlesque, or New Burlesque, is the revival and updating of the traditional American burlesque performance. Though based on the traditional burlesque art, the new form encompasses a wider range of performance styles; neo-burlesque can include anything ranging from classic striptease to modern dance to theatrical mini-dramas to comedic mayhem.
Dixon Place is a theater organization in New York City dedicated to the development of works-in-progress from a broad range of performers and artists. It exists to serve the creative needs of artists—emerging, mid-career and established—who are creating new work in theater, dance, music, literature, puppetry, performance, variety and visual arts.
Dirk Weiler is a German actor and singer.
Spiegelworld is an American comedic theater company and contemporary circus known for its current shows: Absinthe, OPM, and Atomic Saloon Show, all in Las Vegas, and Atlantic City's The Hook. The theater company takes its name from the traveling Belgian performance tents known as spiegeltents in which it has staged a number of productions.
‘’’Santos Party House’’’ was a New York City nightclub located at 96 Lafayette Street between Walker and White Streets in the TriBeCa neighborhood of downtown Manhattan. Originally named the “Lafayette Street Jungle Gym”, Santos Party House was recognized as the “Best New Nightclub” by ‘’Paper‘’ magazine’s Annual Nightlife Awards, and has also won awards for its parties, sound system, lighting, and dance floor.
The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series is a semimonthly performing arts series which was hosted by Amanda Stern at Joe's Pub in New York, on the first Wednesday of every month - but ended in May 2016.
Jonny Woo is a British comedian, actor, and drag queen. He co-owns The Glory: an East London pub where he regularly performs.
House of Yes is a creative collective and nightclub in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City. The House of Yes nightclub was opened by artists Kae Burke and Anya Sapozhnikova, and partners Justin Ahiyon and Ilan Telmont in 2015.
(Le) Poisson Rouge is a music venue and multimedia art cabaret in New York City founded in 2008 by Justin Kantor and David Handler on the former site of the Village Gate at 158 Bleecker Street. The performance space was designed and engineered by John Storyk/WSDG. It has become known for its focus on artistry, bringing contemporary classical music into the club setting, and offering a variety of set ups so that a seated classical performance can be followed by a standing set by a rock band or a DJ. Responding to a performance of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time featuring pianist Bruce Brubaker at LPR, The Wall Street Journal reported: "The crowd – many of whom wouldn't even have known who Messiaen was – sat in rapt silence, and roared their approval at the end."
A vedette is the main female artist of a show derived from cabaret and its subcategories of revue, vaudeville, music hall or burlesque. The purpose of the vedette is to entertain and captivate the public. Vedettes are expected to sing, dance and act on stage. Particularly accomplished artistes are considered super vedettes or first vedettes. Vedettes often appear alongside groups of dancers, flashy and revealing costumes, magicians, comedians, jugglers, or even performing animals. Vedettes specializing in burlesque generally do striptease and may also perform nude on stage.
Maxine Therese Linehan is an Irish and American singer-songwriter and stage actress. Born in Newry, Northern Ireland, she performed as Nancy in Oliver! in the UK, touring it in Ireland and England with the Irish Operatic Repertory Company. Her job as a barrister in London took her to New York City in 2001, and six years later, she created an autobiographical show, So Far... which garnered her her first MAC Award nomination. In 2008, she co-founded the Alloy Theater Company with Michelle Pruett and starred in its production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's song cycle Tell Me on a Sunday, Jacqueline McCarrick's The Mushroom Pickers, and the company' first off-Broadway production, William Luce's Brontë: A Portrait of Charlotte.
The New York City Cabaret Law was a dancing ban originally enacted in 1926, during Prohibition, and repealed in 2017. It referred to the prohibition of dancing in all New York City spaces open to the public selling food and/or drink unless they had obtained a cabaret license. It prohibited "musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of amusement" without a license.
Industry Bar, or simply Industry, is a gay bar and nightclub in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Owned by Bob Pontarelli, it is a sister establishment to Barracuda, a gay bar, and Elmo, a restaurant. Industry opened in 2010 and caters primarily to a crowd of young gay men and tourists. Its musical selection is mostly pop, and its live entertainment consists of a number of weekly drag shows, many of which are hosted by internationally recognized drag queens. New York City nightlife journalists frequently note Industry as one of the top gay venues in Manhattan.
Sony Hall is a concert venue operated by Blue Note Entertainment Group located on West 46th Street in the Theater District, Manhattan, New York City. Like many theaters in NYC, it has served many functions since its opening in 1938. Located in the basement of the Paramount Hotel, it began as Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe nightclub where the 1945 film Diamond Horseshoe was filmed, and later spent time as a burlesque theater before becoming a legitimate Broadway theatre under the names Century Theatre, Mayfair Theatre, and Stairway Theatre. As a Broadway theater, it is most well known for the transfer of the Tony Award-winning original Broadway production of On Golden Pond in 1979. After becoming a private venue through the 1980s and remaining mostly closed through the 1990s and 2000s, it reemerged in 2013 after a 20-million-dollar renovation as a theater hosting the immersive production Queen of the Night. It is currently run as a live music performance venue showcasing audio and visual technology by Sony.
Club Cumming is a gay bar and nightclub in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It frequently hosts cabaret events, Broadway-style shows, dance parties and drag performances. Celebrities, especially Broadway actors, often make pop-up appearances there. The club opened in 2017 and is co-owned by actor Alan Cumming and promoter Daniel Nardicio, who founded it with the owners of the space's previous establishment. The bar was ordered to temporarily halt its shows in 2018, when it was discovered that its liquor license did not include a provision for live entertainment. The matter was resolved swiftly and with community support. The club was shuttered in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it continued to host cabaret and comedy shows via live stream for most of the year. The venue reintroduced on-site outdoor events in December 2020 and reopened at full indoor capacity in May 2021. Club Cumming has generally been well received by critics, who cite its eclectic entertainment repertoire, its inclusivity and the spontaneity of its atmosphere.
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