Red stocking legs dangling mid-air, a sexy female singer wearing a red sequinned lace dress drapes seductively over a black shiny piano, a trio male chorus support her breathy Eartha Kitt rendition…. what a delightful beginning!

It is a feast of acts for the audience; twenty-two acts to be precise. I had already eaten dinner… mmmm perhaps it’s a smorgasbord of sweet treats in store for me!

The exquisitely presented printed programme seems to indicate this and is swimming in gorgeous pages of historic facts and pictures of the burlesque of old, references, influences and parallel indications of the ‘the Blush Review’ menu. I am ready to order…. 

True to their namesake there are many ‘blush’ moments to shock, even tantalise, the most liberal of audience members, and to my amusement looking around there are times when people have hands cupped over their dropped jaws, eyes wide, pupils dilated: how fantastic!!

There is full frontal nudity, cheeky cheeks and sexual content for the audience’s perusal, the cast is not shy. 

This adult content is done at times subtly and cleverly, as in the ‘Roseburg – The District’ act, where two ladies intertwine, swap clothes baring breasts briefly, twist and cling to one another, all whilst hanging from two suspended swings.  

The same female duet of Sarah Houbolt and Eve Gordon also wow in their ‘Slug Sex’ act, a daft punk meets national geographic meets circus visual and verbal dialogue depicting the mating ritual of slugs. This is executed on silks, the ladies dressed in gold hooded bodysuits. A nice touch is the two Kiwi blokes who follow with banter about gardening and lettuce. Witty stuff. 

I treasure the black light white ostrich feather solo performed by Nisha Madhan in ‘Etude in Pointalism’ and scene stealers Mike Edward and Ebon Grayman at the end of ‘Flying Cherubs’ are, quite unexpectedly, spectacular: a curious blend of skill and cheesy finesse, tongue firmly in cheeks. The flying cherubs are hilarious too, a humorous touch. 

Like any smorgasbord though, you soon realise your eyes were bigger than your stomach and your desire to indulge, even at the dessert station, wanes. So for me there is an overload of creative ideas, all trickling sometimes oozing with so much parody. It is a tricky, multi faceted programme to line up. There are times it lacks cohesion and flow as it takes me a while to warm into ‘Blush’ mode. 

Thank goodness for gems like acts ‘Josephine’ and ‘Aphrodite and the Maiden’ which make me roar with laughter and realise that the parody is developing into something saucy and fun! Some acts however remind me why I avoid one night stands with strangers; how they are naked and revealing but not necessarily sexy or intimate, sometimes experienced in a brightly, badly lit room and disappointingly awkward. 

There is an abundance of potential, a ridiculous amount of fun to be had and top notch talent displayed during this energetic burlesque review.  I enjoy the audience-performer interaction and secretly wish for more. 

But call me old fashioned, I also want it to be presented in a slicker, slightly more subtly seductive package. Perchance am I secretly hoping to be transported to a stereotypical Parisian dimly lit burlesque club… and I know I should really open my conventional mind to the possibility of a new vouge; a Kiwi style of burlesque…. But I just can’t shake my need for a little…. je ne sais quoi.
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