Death Becomes Her: SinSational Cabaret Builds Its Biggest Halloween Show Yet
Twenty performers will take over 707 Nightlife Saturday night, considerably more bodies than SinSational Cabaret usually brings together for one show.
For Death Becomes Her, the Rapid City cabaret is expanding its usual 10- to 12-person cast into a 20-performer production built around the movie and Broadway musical of the same name. The result brings burlesque, aerial performance, fire, comedy, dance and a little magic together for a Halloween show centered on beauty, rivalry and the pursuit of immortality.
“SinSational Cabaret is a crazy menagerie of fun, flirtation and talent,” said Breawna Schwartz Ventura, owner and manager of Flaunt Girls. “A mixture of different art forms all coming together for one Flauntastic entertaining event.”
Death Becomes Her takes that mixture and gives it a more specific theatrical framework. SinSational regularly develops themes for its traveling shows depending on the venue and season, but this one has grown into one of the company’s larger productions. SinSational works with performers through a local performance school, where people can begin with no stage experience at all. Some train for years before eventually joining the show. Others arrive with established careers and specialties, including performers who travel in from Las Vegas, California, Denver and other areas.
“Here in the Black Hills we have a performance school where we train people from the ground up, if they’ve performed before or have not touched a stage,” Schwartz Ventura said. “Some people perform with us for years before they enter the show.”
The combination of developing local performers and bringing in outside talent has allowed SinSational to build a cast capable of moving between very different disciplines. Among the performers appearing Saturday are Miss Marion Ette, an artist and burlesque producer; Anna Starenkova, a Ukrainian pole artist, burlesque dancer and aerial performer; and nationally traveling performers Rosie Cheeks, Aluna Eclipse and Mia Bigtease.
The show also includes a surprise performer with deep ties to Rapid City theater who will appear as Vonda B. Young. SinSational is keeping that casting under wraps until the show.
Each performer brings a different approach to the stage.
“The cast is a wonderful collection of local and international talent,” Schwartz Ventura said. “Each one of them has a bit of a twisted take on performance and humor, which makes it perfect for Halloween.”
One of the new pieces being introduced Saturday is a fire drumming performance led by Rosie Cheeks, Starla Siren and Lailani Lavish. It will be performed onstage for the first time during Death Becomes Her. The current cabaret grew out of Flaunt Girls, a Deadwood-based production with a history stretching back roughly 20 years. SinSational Cabaret began about five years ago as a spinoff of the Flaunt Girls brand.
Schwartz Ventura and Anna Starenkova developed the SinSational concept with Brianne Thompson at The 707 Night Club, creating a new show that could work both in a theater setting and as part of Flaunt Girls’ traveling productions.
SinSational describes its foundation as a combination of traditional burlesque cabaret, Broadway-style performance and professional dance, with aerial arts, fire, comedy and magic added as the company developed. The theater also became a place to try new work before taking it elsewhere; that pattern is contins with Death Becomes Her. Although Saturday’s performance is being presented as a one-night Halloween event in Rapid City, the production is not intended to disappear when the night ends. SinSational plans to offer the show to theaters and venues around the country as part of its traveling repertoire.
Doors at 707 Nightlife open at 6 p.m., with cocktails, fortune tellers, characters and other pre-show elements throughout the venue. Audience members are encouraged to come in costume, with a bottle of champagne going to the evening’s costume contest winner.
The stage show begins at 7 p.m.
General admission tickets start at $25, with reserved table seating and stageside VIP tables also available. The event is 21 and older.
For someone encountering SinSational for the first time, Schwartz Ventura said the scale may be the biggest surprise.
“The level of production and performance and the risks our performers take on stage are second to none,” she said. “We have such an amazing collaborative cast of talented individuals that are going to come together to make for the best Halloween show yet.”