2010 was when Peepshow Menagerie really began to hit their stride. They now had some hit shows under their shimmy belts, but were still feeling their way around and experimenting with themes they wanted to see on stage, some worked well in terms of attracting an audience, a couple of them not so much.
We started the year with a play on both a book title as well as a Bowie song in a show called "2010: A BURLESQUE SPACE ODDITY" and it was definitely one of the big hits of the year. It was also a Sci-Fi theme without being tied to parodying any particular fan property. It was then followed with a show that was a only a moderate success, despite it being a great show titled "WATCHING THE DETECTIVES" which was a live burlesque murder mystery with fantastic poster art by Robin Ator. We followed that with our 2nd annual edition of "BURLESQUELAND!!" which took place over a weekend in March and included a 2nd night of burlesque at the Monday Night Tease and another day at Disneyland with friends and fans. We followed that in April with a show that was inspired by the Ring Cycle Opera titled "THE BURLESQUE OF NIBELUNG". Not a huge crowd, but one that was really into the show and theme.
That next month we took on a new show on top of our regular show as we became the showrunners for the L.A. chapter of NAKED GIRLS READING which is exactly what it sounds like in that it was a show where some of our regular performers read to the audience in the nude and was created by Neo-Burlesque Legend Michelle L'Amour. As the nudity put us under different laws, we did the show in a theatre where alcohol couldn't be sold, rather than a club. Te themes we did that year were "THE NAKED CITY" (stories about Los Angeles), "FAN SERVICE" (all about fandom), and "SEA FAIRE" (where we read stories about pirates).
2010 was the first year we did our Beatles themed show titled "PLEASE TEASE ME!" which was a big hit that year. That was followed by what would be our first ever 'sequel' show in "BEACH BLANKET BURLESQUE: SHIMMY IN THE SAND" which was a direct sequel to the previous year's "BEACH BLANKET BURLESQUE" and was both a kind of soft reboot to the series and the first to feature Miss Angie Cakes as Annette in a role she would continue excellently for years. That was followed by the 2nd edition of "MERRIE MALADIES" and our first ever all musical show "PEEPSHOW MENAGERIE: THE MUSICAL!" which was a a kind of origin story about the show featuring Red Snapper and Mr. Snapper as version of producers Scarlett Letter and Chris Beyond. The poster art was created by Sebastian Kadlecik (of the comic book "Penguins Vs. Possums").
September brought us our 2nd edition of our David Lynch themed "BENEATH THE SURFACE" and in October our Burlesque Monstergirls returned in "MAD MONSTER BURLESQUE PAJAMA PARTY". Then in November we did our first forray into the fetish world with a show titled "Oh, O!" (The title being a play on The Story Of O).
And we ended the year, emboldened by an overall sucessful year with 2 shows in December, starting with a full burlesque play based on the Dickens classic titled "A BURLESQUE CHRISTMAS CAROL" and later in the month we did our third fundraising show for Inner City Arts titled "TELEVANGELESQUE: BURLESQUE HELLHOUSE". Basically it was a great year with a couple minor bumps in the road (we would have bigger bumps down the line) and a lot of fun for us and our audience.
(Click on posters to see bigger images and bonus material)
