Over the last few years of this post-modern, post-feminist world, burlesque has made a dramatic comeback. It has busted - I use the word advisedly - out of its niche market into the entertainment mainstream, thanks to the clever spin that it's actually all about female empowerment and absolutely not about getting one's nipple tassels out for the lads. I wonder quite how many women will leave the Garrick feeling empowered by this.
It doesn't help the sisterhood's cause that a large portion of the first half has the seven scantily clad lovelies, the Hurly Burly Girlys - note: burlesque is particularly "empowering" for those with young, perfect bodies - writhing around male crooner Spencer Day. It's like a bad night at Casa Berlusconi and when mistress of ceremonies Miss Polly Rae makes her belated entry as Marie Antoinette (catchphrase: "Let them eat cock") it seems apparent that this wouldn't be Germaine Greer's ideal evening out.
This is undoubtedly the raunchiest burlesque show I've seen, blurring even further the always unclear line between burlesque and soft porn. Bump-and-grind scenes featuring staples of the latter - schoolgirls, nuns, cowboys - only add to the confusion. There's no doubt that the piece, overseen by Kylie Minogue's creative director William Baker, is slickly designed and stylishly curated, but one fears its greatest box office assets lie elsewhere.
Until May 1. Box office: 0844 412 4662, nimaxtheatres.com
The Hurly Burly Show
Garrick Theatre
Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH
