How to describe “Beyond the Stardust”? It feels like buzzkill for me just to call it a loud disco with circus acts, given how the creative team bills it as an “Afro-disco-space-punk extravaganza,” and, near the start of the show, The Illustrious Blacks welcomed us to this “place for you on the night, a place where you can fellowship with a like-minded higher self, living above this primal plane…” The Illustrious Blacks are the duo (Monstah & Black) who wrote the songs for this “live album experience,” and lead the seven-member cast of singers, dancers and acrobats.
So it may be best for me to say just a few words of basic orientation and let JJ Mack’s photographs (and one video short) describe the show more artfully.
The show uses strobe lighting and haze effects (which audience members are warned about in the lobby) as well as occasional blacklight and an ever-present pounding beat, to which you are encouraged to dance, or at least sway; in any case, you are more or less required to stand: There are only a handful of chairs around the periphery of the dance floor. The show itself is seventy minutes long, but you can get to the dance floor a half hour earlier. The dozen songs suggest a theme of love and liberation (echoed in some of the slogans amid the elaborate artwork on the walls.) But the closest to a plot is the series of Instagram-friendly costume changes. Two of the cast members dress like go-go boys but turn out to be accomplished professional aerialists and pole dancers. Most of the performances take place on the runway, or in mid-air, but the MC and vocalist named Amazonian Rockstar does lead a conga line across the dance floor.
Beyond the Stardust
The Flea through October 18
Running time: 70 minutes
Tickets: ~$30 to $40
Conceived by Niegel Smith and The Illustrious Blacks
Music and lyrics by the Illustrious Blacks
Directed and choreographed by Niegel Smith
Scenic & Props Designer: Oscar Escobedo
Lighting Designer: Kate McGee
Sound Designer: Germán Martínez
Costume Designer: Delta Major FKA DeShon Elem
The Company:
The Illustrious Blacks: Monstah & Black!
MC/Featured Vocalist: Amazonian Rockstar
Dancer/Featured Vocalist: Courtney J. Cook
Pole/Dancer: Blaine Petrovia
Aerial/Dancer: Queen Ravenden
Chains/Dancer: DeShawn Marshall
