|
One of
our favorite sightings of chanteuse diva
extraordinaire Joey Arias took place on a
summer afternoon—not the hour one usually
associates with the transgressive nocturnal
nightingale. But it was Wigstock Sunday, and
as we walked beneath the High Line, heading
for the piers along the Hudson, a yellow cab
pulled up in front of us—and from the back
of the cab emerged two long legs sheathed in
black nylons, the feet shod in impossibly
stacked black patent leather stilettos. We
stopped where we were—and watched as the
black-clad Ms. Arias emerged from the yellow
cab, looking like some femme fatale from a
New York film noir. With unflappable calm,
she made her way across the cobblestoned
street—and onto the West Side Highway, where
she could’ve stopped traffic herself had
there been no traffic lights.
Presence—that’s what Arias possesses; the
kind of presence that can make any street
corner a stage.
The square footage of the stage at the
downtown venue HERE is close to that of a
king-sized bed—and yet Arias commands that
bit of real estate as if she were working
the entire expanse of Radio City Music Hall.
Proportion is everything in this show, and
with Basil Twist’s ingeniously designed
puppetry and dexterous direction, Arias
offers the audience the equivalent of a
magic mushroom ride through the outer
galaxies and deep into the bowels of hell.
With a leer and a delivery that would make
Mae West proud, and a body built by costumer
Thierry Mugler, Arias resembles a Vargas
girl booted from the pages of Playboy for
smoking too much wacky weed.
At one point, Arias becomes the protagonist
of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, stomping her
way through Manhattan in those killer pumps,
swallowing subway cars and biting off
skyscraper spires—all while delivering acid
commentary on the denizens of each nabe and
recalling the days when she used to take the
number 6 train to work at Fiorucci’s and
Bloomingdales.
The point being, Arias is a New York
institution—and after seven years in Vegas
where she headlined Cirque de Soleil’s
Zumanity, it’s good to have her home again.
Well-loved for her ability to channel Billie
Holiday, Arias sings the Holiday canon with
such conviction that it’s easy enough to
feel we’re hearing Holiday in a downtown
boite. And when Twist’s marionette
supper-club combo joins in behind her,
albeit in two-foot form, the illusion is
akin to a funhouse mirror, where reality is
distorted into the most hypnotizing shapes.
Recently extended through December 31st,
Arias With A Twist has a manic energy
similar to your favorite New Year’s Eve
party, the one where everyone’s a little
crazy and plenty bombed and dying to get
laid before the year ends. With Arias in
charge, accompanied by Twist’s highly
suggestive and over-sexed puppets, Arias
With A Twist insures that no one goes home
unfulfilled.
|
