Act One

With Every Heart Beat – Robyn
The Company: Singers – Lilli Bubalotovich, Dante Inferno, Billie Black, Charity Dawn, Choreography by Lilli Bubalotovich, Concept – La Minouche

If You Dare – AC/DC
Created & performed by Dew Lily

That Man – Caro Emerald
Vocals – Lilli Bubalotovich, Dancers – Gina Putanesca, Charlotte Webber, Suki Tsunami, Choreography – Georgie Gates, Concept – La Minouche

Make Love Like a Man – Def Leppard
Created & performed by The Mohel, featuring The Barback

I Can’t Do It Alone – From Chicaco
Lyrics, creation & performance by Gina Putanesca

Groove is In the Heart – Dee Lite
Vocals – Dante Inferno, Dancers – Georgie Gates, Billie Black, Suki Tsunami, Charity Dawn, featuring Lilli Bubalotvich, The Mohel & The Barback, Choreography by Lilli Bubalotovich , Concept – La Minouche

To Build a Home – Patrick Watson & The Cinematic Orchestra
Created & performed by Charlotte Webber, featuring The Mohel

Act Two

Rumor Has It – Adele
Vocals – Lilli Bubalotovich, Backup – Dante Inferno, Georgie Gates, Gina Putanesca, Charity Dawn, Concept – La Minouche

Remain Nameless – Florence and the Machine
Created & performed by Charlotte Webber & Suki Tsunami, Concept – La Minouche

When We First Met – C. Dawn, M. Goldstein
Created & performed by Charity Dawn & The Mohel

Kiss With a Fist – Florence and the Machine
Vocals – Billie Black, featuring The Cabana Boy, Coreography by The Cabana Boy

Army of Me – Bjork
Created & performed by Charity Dawn & Dante Inferno

Rev 22-20 – Puscifer
Created & performed by Billie Black

Get Your Freak On – Missy Elliott
The Company, Created by Lilli Bubalotovich, Gina Putanesca, Georgie Gates, Charity Dawn, Concept – La Minouche

A very special thank you to Carolyn Kelly for lending us costumes and naughty props, to Joshua Hind for the voice of Les Coquettes, & to Angela McQueen, Emelie Scott & Angela Cheng for making us beautiful.

Kisses & Spanks to our volunteers – MarjWingrove, James Arnold, Jackie Houghton, Lindsey Alston, Sarah Jamal & Jessica Sinclair.

Suki Tsunami - photo by Ryan Visima

Here in Coquettes land, we know that any true lover doesn’t need a specific day dedicated to acknowledging amour. Every single day is devoted to love in our world! We’d be silly indeed to not capitalize on the success of our past Valentine’s day shows, so this year we’re cooking up another celebration of all things passionate and romantic.

We’ve been musing on the idea of doing a “Heaven and Hell” themed show for some time now, and V-day seemed to be the perfect fit. If you explore love from all sides, there are so many facets to this complex phenomenon – the warm, squishy feelings of falling into new love, the deep comforting experience of long-lasting familiar love, the raw passion and fire of difficult relationships, the pain associated with the loss of love. It seemed to us that Heaven and Hell were the perfect backdrops for a show that celebrates the agony and the ecstasy of love.

We hope you’ll join us on February 12th, whether or not you wish to acknowledge Valentine’s Day.

You can look forward to sizzling new numbers created on the following themes:

Heavenly hosts in charge of all things romantic

The crush you had/have on that cute nerd

Love in exchange for money

Slaves for love, ready to do your every bidding

The girl next door with legs that go on for miles

Surrendering to deep commitment

Infidelity and betrayal

Rough love

Self love

Gender bending love

Kinky love

We have the following Coquettes on board for February 12th:

La Minouche

Lilli Bubalotovich

Suki Tsunami

Georgie Gates

Dante Inferno

Billie Black

Charity Dawn

Gina Puttanesca

Charlotte Webber

The Mohyl

The Barback

Dew Lily

Because our darling Carpenter can’t join us for this show, we are proud to introduce a very special guest man prop – The Cabana Boy!

We can’t wait to show you what we’re cooking up. Rehearsals are shaping up beautifully and we’re really excited about the numbers we’ve created. Bring someone special to share in the fun.

Avec Amour,
xo

By now you may have heard of a little something we are calling ‘Speakeasy’. If you’ve been in a bubble, or in a cave somewhere and you don’t know what we’re talking about, Speakeasy is our exciting new dinner cabaret series at beautiful Revival debuting February 14th and running three times a month for the whole year!

We need performers of various genres to program these shows, but we want the cream of your crop. Our audience is sassy, sophisticated, and elegant and we aim to put our very best feet forward. We’d love submissions for acts including music, burlesque, dance, cirque, clown, comedy, performance art – anything that will send people out into the night buzzing with excitement.

If you’re interested in performing with Les Coquettes at Speakeasy please send us your photos, a brief intro letting us know why you’d like to be involved, a CV or outline of your performance background, and video clips of your very best material. All performers will be paid for their time. We love up-and-comers, but Speakeasy is a stage for seasoned pros only please. Interested talent can email us at info@lescoquettes.com

Spread the word! Soon all of Toronto will be clamoring to get into Speakeasy!

Our 2012 tickets are finally on sale, and I’m so excited to tell you about our season!

Les Coquettes have entered into a whole new partnership with our home stage Revival after eight years of collaboration. We are now booking and producing all of the burlesque at the venue, which means top notch shows that are guaranteed to knock your socks off any time you see bump and grind at this beautiful locale. We’re eager to partner with some of our favourite troupes and producers and we feel deeply honored that Revival has entrusted this important responsibility to us.

Our season begins when we return on February 12th with our first Main Stage production Salvation. This show is a look at love from all angles – pretty, fluffy, feel-good to raw, dirty and aching. Act One is set in Heaven, and Act Two takes place in Hell. You can expect lots of fun familiar tunes, feathery glam goodness, and some ultra hot fetish-inspired turns.

On Valentine’s Day we give you our brand new baby Speakeasy. Inspired by the great fun we had under Tina Rasmussen’s brilliant direction in The Spiegel Tent, we’re re-inventing dinner theatre with something we call Dinner Cabaret. Executive Chef Christopher Woods has created the sumptuous menu below, and we’re pulling together an a la carte offering from our favourite local talent for a new show each night. Speakeasy runs three nights a month for the duration of the year.

Speakeasy will start with live music during the dinner hour at 7:00pm.  The main event begins when dessert is served and the whole evening is capped with a dance party. Entertainment is a least two hours of a sizzling good time and there are plenty of opportunities for talent of all genres. Here’s our mouth-watering menu:

On October 24th and 28th we mount our annual Halloween production – probably one of our best loved shows. This year, we give you The Bone Orchard Follies. Our story unfolds in Purgatory where the strange and wonderful denizens there put on a nightly cabaret to ease the long, long wait for judgment. Special thanks to my old friend David Christo for the original show concept.

For the holidays this year we present Twinkle on December 16th. Our fans seemed so grateful to have an excuse to dress up, so this year we’re continuing the tradition by treating you to a cocktail soiree inspired by the Rat Pack era of old Vegas glam. We hope you’ll come turned out as beautifully as you did for our production of Gala!

And now, a special treat to see who’s actually reading. Here’s the link to purchase tickets, which isn’t available to the public for another week. Shhh…don’t tell. My boss will kill me. Also, if you buy tickets to all three shows at once, we’ll give you a gift pack that includes a pair of pasties and the fascinator of your choice which you can pick out at the first show you attend. Meow!

Two more sleeps until our big show at the Sanderson Centre! I’m totally caught up in the crazy of costume organizing, repair, packing, list making that it feels a bit ridiculous to also be laying down plans for our upcoming season. There is no such thing as free time right now, but I thought that if I didn’t steal a moment to check in on our lovely fans I’d be a bad Coquette.

I’m so excited for all of the plans we have for Revival. We’ll be able to share those details with you next week when season’s tickets go on sale. We always offer advance ticket sales to our regular guests, so if you’d like to be on that list drop me a line at info@lescoquettes.com and be the first in line to choose your seats for the upcoming season.

Gala! was a huge success. We really had a blast, despite missing our handsome Mohyl who had to be benched just before game time with a shoulder injury. We nursed him back to health and he returns to us for New Year’s Eve.

The beautiful images in this post are courtesy of our friend Olena Sullivan who returned to us again for the holidays. Olena, we love your work!

We’re super thrilled to be teaming up with artist, visionary, and super rad female Sonya Barnett (co-founder of Slutwalk and the Madame behind the Keyhole Sessions erotic life drawing series) to design all of our promotional materials for our upcoming season. Sonya designed our poster for Cabaret Enchanté and it’s by far my favourite yet. Early stages of planning have me juicy and I think you’re going to love the imagery she is creating with Ryan Visima’s awesome photography.

Speaking of our handsome photographer, we’re kidnapping Ryan and taking him to Brantford with us so he can live Tweet the show and our back stage antics. For those of you who can’t be there in person, you can follow the fun at @LesCoquettes. Ryan joins us on the 31st, and I’ll keep you in the loop on the 30th.

Now I must run. Trim needs to be added to our sailor outfits for additional sparkle and I need to find an emergency pair of black opera gloves. Keep your ears open for news of ticket sales next week!

Avec Amour,

La Minouche

Look how happy they are! Now, imagine them with delicious food in front of them...

Les Coquettes and Revival Present ‘Speakeasy’

Canada’s hottest cabaret theatre company and College Street institution Revival are partnering to present a dinner theatre series called ‘Speakeasy’ in 2012!

Riding on the wave of success that Les Coquettes have achieved with their 2011 performance season, this innovative troupe is excited to re-open the kitchen at Revival and launch an intimate, interactive show with delights for all of the senses.

Revival owner Joe Saturnino brings twenty plus years in the restaurant industry to the table, and Speakeasy offers an amazing opportunity for self-starting chefs with flair and passion.

We’re looking for a chef who can design our prix fixe menu, build a food, kitchen, and serving staff budget, run the kitchen and serving operations, and cook. Food will be served banquet style with a maximum of three courses and dessert will be served in tandem with the hour-long show.

There are 31 dates planned for Speakeasy, starting with our Valentine’s Day launch on February 14^th. Opportunities are included beyond this venture too with Revival hosting a myriad of private events in 2012 and in need of a chef who would like a venue to call their own. Opportunities for entrepreneurial chefs with small catering companies in need of a full-sized kitchen could also apply for the right applicant.

Interested applicants should email their résumé, a letter of introduction, and two references to info@lescoquettes.com.

For additional details about Les Coquettes, please visit www.lescoquettes.com

For details about Revival:www.revivalbar.com

Coco Framboise showed up with her giant tassle to save the day!

We’ve almost recovered from the excitement of Gala! and tonight we launch into final preparations for New Year’s Eve at the Sanderson Centre in Brantford. The fun never ends!

Some of you have asked for our set list, so here you go darlings…

ACT 1

Born This Way – The Company, vocals by Lilli Bubalotovich, La Minouche, Billie Black, Dante Inferno and Dew Lily. Choreographed by Kathryn Romanow

It’s Oh So Quiet – Dante Inferno vocals, Georgie Gates fan dance, choreographed by Georgie gates

Surprise ‘Holiday Miracle’ guest artist performance by Coco Framboise!

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? – Dante Inferno

Singing In The Rain – The Man Props, choreographed by Kathryn Romanow

My Discarded Men – Lilli Bubalotovich vocals, Georgie Gates, Dante Inferno, Suki Tsunami, Charity Dawn, choreographed by Kathryn Romanow

ACT 2

Only Girl in the World – Georgie Gates, Charlotte Webber, Suki Tsunami, Charity Dawn, choreographed by Georgie Gates

Honky Cat – Dew Lily vocals, Dante Inferno, Lilly Bubalotovich, choreographed by Lilli Bubalotovich

High Heels – Billie Black, choreographed by Billie Black

A Silent Film – Charity Dawn and The Carpenter

Some Like It Hot – Lilli Bubalotovich, Dew Lily, The Barback

Dancing on My Own – Billie Black vocals, Suki Tsunami aerial rope, choreographed by Suki Tsunami

Fireworks – The Company, with Charlotte Webber on aerial rope, choreographed by Kathryn Romanow

We were fortunate enough to have both Ryan Visima and Olena Sullivan shoot the shows. Stay tuned for their photos. Also, our friends at Girlzporn were able to join us and are working on a video teaser to help spread the Coquettes love. Girlzporn is a website dedicated to female positive porn for a female audience. They were delightful to have around, and are welcome back any time!

A highlight for us was having Paula Citron from the Globe and Mail come and review the show. I think she liked us – we got a great write up, both online and in print.

And now my darlings, I must get back to the books. We’re getting ready to announce our upcoming season at Revival!

Quel whirlwind!

We’ve barely washed our knickers after the Halloween show and our holiday show is approaching at a break-neck speed. We’re rehearsing two shows in tandem – our December 11th production of Gala! for Revival PLUS our New Year’s Eve blow out at the Sanderson Centre in Brantford. To say the team is buzzing with energy would be some kind of ridiculous understatement.

Our Holiday show is a bit of a departure this year. Instead of our usual campy nod to the holiday classics, which has always been a much more relaxed approach to production, we’re offering a polished piece of glitz and glam that has very little xmas whatsoever. We wanted to create a host of classic numbers that would give all of you a break from the endless litany of carols and red and green stuffs. We also wanted to offer an excuse for you to dress up – TO THE NINES!

Gala! is inspired by the high glam of Old Hollywood, but in true Coquette fashion, we’re adding our own touch to each number. I’ve never been a pop chart follower, but lately there are a few tunes stuck in my head and I felt like their catchy licks would make for some really great burlesque. Some of the selections, like our opening number, are straight up tongue-in-cheek, but some of them are electrifying! When you take a pop chart topper and add some smokin’ hot vintage lingerie you get great results.

Some of Gala! is culled straight from the cutting room floor, some of the pieces are homages to the stars of bygone eras, and some are colourful commentaries on the issues that plagued Hollywood (and continue to do so – Tom, come out of that closet already!). You’re in for a real treat, and it’s a great first-time show if you’ve never seen Les Coquettes before. We’re putting our best feet forward.

After we put Gala! to bed, it’s on to Brantford for New Year’s Eve at the Sanderson Centre. I can’t wait to see the team when they feast their eyes on that glorious theatre. We’re very honoured to be part of the 2012/2013 season at Sanderson. I’m thrilled with how many presenters are bold enough to bring us to their communities, and I have no doubt that we will warm the hearts of a whole new audience. We hope to attract some of our Toronto fans too! It’s going to be a great party, and a guaranteed way not to be let down by the usual half-baked, over-priced New Year’s Eve events that the GTA typically has on offer. We’re also performing with a live band!

Tickets for Gala! are selling fast, and I have no doubt we’ll see two sold out shows. We’re also introducing a new ‘no latecomers’ policy to help speed up start times for our performances. Doors for the early show will open at 6:00 and the show will begin promptly at 7:00 pm. The late show will now begin promptly at 10:00 pm. Should we offer a dance party after? Let us know what you’d like to see!

Ta for now. I must buckle down and get back to the sparkles and glitter. Looking forward to seeing your beautiful faces very soon.

Avec Amour,

La Minouche

x

This little kitten could simply not sleep in today. There is a small list of remaining tasks to attend to, and I am simply too excited.

The last couple of days has seen a massive influx of tickets moving, and having a crowded house always makes us anticipate show day with real glee. Our dress rehearsal gave me shivers last night! I was so happy with the way my costumes came together, and totally blown away by the heart and soul in each number. What an amazing team we have!

My dear friend Ming Wong has crafted a very cool costume for Charlotte Webber this time around for a hoop routine that will blow your mind! When a project requires more mastery than my limited sewing skills allow, Ming is my savior. One day I hope we can afford her talents full time. As a designer, she has mind-blowing vision.

We have a special guest for these shows, who in my opinion is one of Toronto’s very well-kept secrets, and a secret that needs to be revealed. Rob Merrifield first came to Les Coquettes as a man prop, and he returns to our stage in a duet with Charlotte Webber (which he choreographed, by the way) that takes my breath away every time I see them rehearse. We’re batting our eyelashes at him furiously in the hopes that we can keep him again for a while.

Tonight my makeup goddess Angela McQueen is having a sleepover party at the Minouche palace. We’re going to jam on last minute touches and I’m going to let her watch me make compulsive lists so I don’t forget any important details.

One of the biggest challenges I’m faced with for Cabaret Enchanté is the complexity of this show. We usually choose a theme and then offer up a variety show filled with numbers inspired by the theme. This time we wanted to create a story and take you on a journey that’s just a little deeper than the usual escape into the sea of art and flesh. As narrator, I need to make sure that everyone can follow, and as director I need to make sure that each number is clear. You’ll see our performers sometimes play more than one character in this show too! Fortunately, our gracious audience always seems to be eager to follow wherever we lead.

Lilli Bubalotovich has cooked up some amazing numbers for this show! Her solo is probably my favourite piece she’s performed yet. Her tireless work as our production manager should not go unnoticed either. Lilli is the head of the team that ensures our shows run smoothly and she’s also our co-founder and lead choreographer. I’m so amazed by this woman’s energy!

Before I settle into my day of last minute show prep, let me once again say if there was ever a Coquettes show that you have to see, Cabaret Enchanté is it. Our tickets will have no problem selling out, (in fact they’re nearly there) so I’m not pushing you to fill seats. My plea for you to attend this performance is because of the profound amount of passion and artistry that Les Coquettes have stepped up with in this show. Our performers continually raise their own bar, and they will completely and utterly steal your hearts this time.

SPOILER ALERT! Below is a list of the characters you’ll meet at Cabaret Enchanté. Stop reading now if you want to be surprised!

Your Fairy Godmother
The Wicked Witch
The Queen of Hearts
Alice (in Wonderland)
The Red Shoe Maiden
Rapunzel
Snow White
Doc (the Dwarf)
Pinocchio
The Three Little Bears
Bo Peep
Goldilocks
Miss Muffet
The Little Mermaid
The Mad Hatter
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
The Seven Dwarves
The Snow Queen
Dorothy (of Kansas) and her little dog too!

I shouldn’t be writing this right now. I should be sewing golden blossoms to Billie Black’s bra, but I really can’t resist the urge to pop in and tell you how much I love this time of production week.

It’s been a string of late nights here, with my domicile turned upside down by costumes, pasties, feathers, wigs. It’s deliciously pretty everywhere the eye can see! Last night I stayed up until the wee hours packing our gear for tonight’s dress rehearsal and everything looks AMAZING together. I can’t wait to see the beautiful boys and girls all decked out.

So, before I return to the matters that I SHOULD be attending to, I will share with you my favourite things about “almost showtime”.

1.) Dante Inferno – You may not know that Dante is also our Box Office Manager and Volunteer Coordinator. She’s a pit bull, and she’s the most organized person I know. At this time, when there are fires to put out everywhere, we are in almost constant contact. She also creates a seating chart that makes me glisten. Yeah, you know what I mean.

2.) Our volunteers – Lead by our exquisite Merchandise Manager and pastie and fascinator creator Polly Amorous, our volunteers are steadfast and die hard. You’ll see the same faces at every show, and what beautiful faces they are! I love the little notes I get where they excitedly share their costume ideas for upcoming shows. So wonderful. We love you guys!

3.) Luke and Lindsey – One of our most loyal man props and our beautiful Front-of-House-Manager always make sure things run smoothly. I know it’s because they’re wonderful people, and not just because Dante Inferno is kind of scary. Watch for their beautiful hand-crafted leather masks on sale at our shows!

4.) Angela McQueen and Jessica Shannon – I think it’s a testimony to our taste that our makeup artist and our hair goddesses are absolute knock outs. They’re so hot, we’re putting them in the show this time! They are also brilliantly talented, unbelievably kind, and such fun to have around. Angela’s makeup designs for this show are going to blow your mind, just wait. We had a super fun baking session in my kitchen this week. Yes, that’s right, baking.

5.) Pre-show, Intermission, Post-show play lists – This activity is so calming for me when I need to take a break from sewing, or gluing, or thinking. Listening to the tunes you get to hear before the action begins also gets me super excited for show time! I’m listening to our pre-show right now!

6.) Cupcakes! Sarah-Lyn of i bake cupcakes not only furnishes us with spectacular treats for our guests to enjoy, but she always has a plate of treats for us too. I find myself always looking forward to seeing her latest designs, and there is nothing like a post-show cupcake to go with mama’s gin and tonic.

7.) Curler heads and sleepy eyes – When the cast and crew show up on Sunday to tech our show in the space, I get to see them at their most un-Coquettish and this always makes my heart burst with love. They are all so dedicated and wonderful and I feel such a sense of family and camaraderie with them…sigh…

8.) Lilli’s pre-show speech – We always make a ‘Circle of Love’ before we go on stage, and I always, always look forward to Lilli getting teary as she talks to our cast. Yes, some of us CAN melt her icy Russian heart.

9.) The Revival Staff – What a wonderful bunch of handsome gentlemen. We don’t often get lady staff for our shows. Go figure! I’m sure they’re lovely too, but the men of Revival, well they know how to treat us right. x

10.) The lineup outside – Seriously, if you’ve seen it you know what I mean. Our photographer Ryan Visima always shows us a snap of the crowd waiting to get in and then I instantly feel like I have to pee.

Cabaret Enchanté is going to be jam packed, but we’re not turning anyone away! There are some seats still available for the early show on Sunday and for the shows on the following weekend, but don’t wait! Buy them soon! We’ll squeeze in as many standing room only guests as we can, and those tickets (and any seats we haven’t filled) will be available at the door. Don’t miss this show, it’s our most magical production yet!

Avec Amour,

La Minouche