By Robin Rosemond
Turnagain Times Correspondent
I’m back in Alaska, and it’s a beautiful thing. All I really want to do is hike, fish, and live off the fat of the land, but being gainfully employed is my biggest challenge and top priority. I can’t complain because I will be working on the hit musical Rock of Ages as an electrician at the Atwood Concert Hall this week. If you attend, I will be back stage making fog or some other theater magic. Rock of Ages is the last show of this year’s Concert Association Broadway Season. I hear it’s a good time. Alaska Center for the Performing Arts 621 W Sixth Ave. For more information: (907) 263-2787
Go see Mad Myrna’s wildly popular production of Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, playing every weekend through May in Anchorage. Directed by RJ Haywood, this interactive, energetic musical set in a seedy, futuristic cabaret bar on the planet Frottage III is a hoot. Danger lurks at Saucy Jacks and as the cabaret acts are being picked off one by one by the relentless Slingback Killer, the Space Vixens are the only ones who can solve the crime! Saucy Jack has been a hit since its premier in 1995 at the Edinburgh Festival.
The original idea was an attempt to produce a piece of theatre that would appeal to people who might feel more at home in bars and clubs than theatres. Its intense involvement of the audience and the sexy electronic score made it an instant success.
Counterpoint Theatre took over the rights to the show in the summer of 1996 and produced it in a variety of venues from the Oxford Fire Station to the Hackney Empire on its journey to the West End. It played at the Queen’s Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue for twelve weeks in the summer of 1998. Following the West End success, the show moved into a permanent home - Saucy Jack’s, a club within a Victorian Railway arch under London Bridge, built especially for the show.
This bespoke seedy club opened in early evening with a complete program of bizarre and wonderful cabaret leading up to the show and dancing afterwards till late. Saucy Jack’s closed its doors in early 2002 and in the same year the show once again returned to Edinburgh with a hit production in a giant circus tent.
In the summer of 2003 the rights to Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens returned to the authors who have retained Samuel French to publish the libretto and release the long-awaited amateur rights. Now it’s here in Anchorage! The show runs Thursdays through Saturdays through May 26. It runs approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes including intermission. Mad Myrna’s, 530 E 5th Ave, Anchorage. $25.00. Tickets through Centertix. Mad Myrna’s is a bar! Must be 21+ with valid ID to enter; or minors age 18-20 accompanied by parent.
I missed a few Anchorage restaurants while I traveled the states. One of my first stops when I came home was for the lunch special at VIP Korean Restaurant on Northern Lights. When you drive in to the Valhalla Shopping Mall you can choose to shop at the Asian grocery, indulge an Indian Buffet at Bombay Deluxe, or order the lunch special at VIP’s. All are good choices, but VIP was what I’ve been craving. Especially all the exotic sides of veggies served with the luncheon entre.
The green beans, bok choy, potato, tofu, kim chee, seaweed salad etc, ”It’s all good.” as they say, and I suggest you head over and try the spicy pork, which is their specialty that does not disappoint. VIP’s Korean Restaurant 555 West Northern Lights (907) 279-8514.
Write to me: rosebud61155@mac.com or check out my blog: www.rosemondpost.com.
