Born Again
After four years in hibernation, Big Mess Cabaret awakes.
Mark Stehle
YULETIDE CHEER: Big Mess Cabaret's performance will feature the seemingly mundane carol "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" — with a musical saw, bass clarinets and a sword-swallower.
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[ cabaret ]
In 1987, Big Mess Cabaret (BMC) was born rather tamely — as the orchestra for Greg Giovanni's production of The Bogus Bride. Thankfully, composer/arranger Andy Bresnan continued onward with much freakier things in mind. By the time 1991's Three on a Meathook, One on the Floor debuted, BMC had evolved into a wild aberration of burlesque, performance art and genre-fuck music that went on to inspire almost all of Philly cabaret — from the Peek-A-Boo Revue to Carnivolution to Brat Productions.
"I'm not making claims for us — God knows we didn't invent it," says Bresnan. "But in 1990, there wasn't anyone doing this kind of entertainment."
Hosted by Carlota Ttendant, BMC's heavily costumed shows swirled together jazz, samba, drag, metal and circus acts, and — on top of that — usually morphed into strip-show auctions. Those were fun.
Sometimes they were poignant, too. In 2005, Bresnan arranged to hold a benefit for beloved actress Jilline Ringle, aka BMC's "Ida Dunham," who was then in chemo. Sadly, she passed away before the show took place, transforming it into a impromptu memorial.
That put BMC into hibernation. What had turned into a "16-piece ensemble and a rotating who's who of singers, actors, poets, dancers, fire-breathers and more than a few performers whose category of talents and abilities remains obscure" needed to take second place to Bresnan. He moved his family to Emmaus, and for four years devoted himself to his newborn son, his wife's burgeoning medical career and compositions for local choreographers.
Then he got stagesick. "Now that my wife is no longer on a resident's crazy schedule, and my kids are old enough to be storm-tossed a little bit," he says, "I look to the cabaret to provide a restorative."
This weekend's Als Die Dinosaurier Die Erde Durchsteiften (When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth), BMC's first show since 2005, will feature a familiar batch of older performers, freaks and musicians — locals who Bresnan feels are an untapped resource.
"Through some miraculous power of unknown origin, delightful people keep being drawn to these shows. After all these years, we could fill the stage with incredible technicians and honed performers," he says. "As our French horn player Jeremy Braddock put it, 'You have to watch out, or you'll have The Big Adequacy on your hands.'"
Being on hiatus has also allowed BMC to raid the icebox for oldies-but-goodies: Als Dinosaurier will feature "Black Sabbath" from Ozzy, a Led Zep samba and carols like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," featuring a musical saw, bass clarinets and a sword-swallower.
Unfortunately, Bresnan isn't sure of BMC's future. But he knows that being away has made him appreciate it more — which he admits is a terrible cliché. "It's horrible when the motto from a package of Kleenex can express your truest feelings," says Bresnan.
Fri.-Sat., Dec. 18-19, 9 p.m., $20, Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-6888, thetroc.com.
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