Hey Californians, a burlesque show is headed your way for a short tour all the way from Australia starting on May 31. Not just any burlesque show though, this is "The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody."
Yep, a Star Wars-themed burlesque show.
It started off in 2011 as a one-off event in Sydney but apparently the demand is high for sexy, stripping Stormtroopers. Its organizer Russall S. Beattie soon found himself extending its run, and then extending it some more. In 2014, he directed its full-blown production.
It was booked in a 150 capacity room with the expectation that he might get three nights out of it. Those three nights sold out in record time and the show has since succeeded beyond any expectations. Four national tours and one complete overhaul later, the show has delighted an audience of over 50,000 people since then. February 2016 saw a Huffington Post online video article on the show go viral, with its 20 million views in a few days spark the interest of many international promoters, thus an international tour is planned with the show heading overseas indefinitely within weeks/ days of the latest Australian tour ending.
Six lucky California cities will host the tour: Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and Sacramento, with a final show in San Francisco. Tickets are available now.
Btw, this is how they get around the legality of using the almighty Star Wars brand:
(HuffPost)