Somewhere in the noughties, Dita Von Teese was just about the most glamorous woman on earth, curled up in a giant martini glass, trailing feathers and jewels, a throwback to 40s and 50s glamour; Bettie Page with a great sense of spectacle and a knowing wink. Her latest show, Diamonds and Dust, feels like it could have been made back then, in that this wild west-themed floor show comes without much of the innovation, subversion, irony and identity politics that have happened on the burlesque scene in between, including in Von Teese’s own work.
The show is actually led by Faye Tozer from Steps. She’s a likable front woman, playing saloon owner Kitty LeRoy, her story of hardscrabble life and multiple husbands interspersed with acts combining burlesque, circus and dance. It’s gorgeous girls draped in pearls and lacy layers (teasingly removed), with a bit of lasso brandishing, a cowboy swinging from a chandelier (Magic Mike vibes) and Tosca Rivola proving herself talented on the cyr wheel. But the overall effect? I think the word is basic. Pretty young women taking off their clothes in not-that-interesting ways.
Artistically, this feels like a step backwards … l to r, Sienna Walker, Cristian Liberti, Faye Tozer as Miss Kitty LeRoy, Manny Tsakanika and Zinzile Tshuma in Diamonds and Dust. Photograph: Chris Davis Studio
Von Teese’s whole appeal is retro, and her obsession with period glamour is taken to deliciously detailed levels, but there’s retro and there’s retrograde. Or is that the point, that it’s a throwback? There’s something Tarantinoesque about the setting, a fetishisation of American pop culture and iconography. But I also couldn’t help thinking of the return to stereotypical femininity seen in tradwives and Maga women in push-up bras.
The real point of it all, of course, is Von Teese herself (beware, she’s not performing in every show). She appears at the end of each half, a vivid, otherworldly presence smothered in diamante, with sparkling red lips and tiny corseted waist. At 52 she’s the absolute doyenne and holds the stage with regal charisma. Whether in statuesque pose or exultantly riding a contraption that’s a cross between a bucking bronco and a pink velvet Chesterfield, she’s untouchable, and therein lies the appeal. There is no doubt she’s worth seeing, and it’s important to say this could be a perfectly fun night out, but artistically, it feels like a step backwards.