Coming Out of Their Shells

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More About

• Whiskey Richards
• Rachel McDowell
• Natasha Muse
• Television
• Children's Programming

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The women behind the variety show Monday Night ForePlays embrace the absurd. Among other sketch oddities, they’ve dressed up people as the bottles in an alcoholic’s liquor cabinet — making the next act, stand-up comedian Rachel McDowell, gleefully tell the audience that seeing a man dressed as a bottle of Jim Beam “was about the sexiest thing I’ve seen all night!” They’ve had Dora the Explorer visit the Tenderloin and converse with a tranny hooker and a homeless man. They’ve staged Clitoris: The Musical. But on a serious note, these women — part of the fierce, scrappy, and growing theater company PianoFight — have grown comedically and theatrically since late 2009, when they began writing, producing, and acting in a new show every few months. Their latest is called Spring EGGstravaganza. In it, producer Kate Jones says, they reinterpret (and set to music) a 17th-century poem about hymen restoration. There’s a group discussion on how to ease the monthly pain of “manstration.” A Craigslist rideshare goes horribly awry. (As they do.) And a popular energy drink gets a huge boost — and becomes potentially lethal. Filling the spaces between sketches are musical acts the Whiskey Richards and Hanna Rifkin. Stand-up accompaniment includes Natasha Muse, Chris Burns, and Mary Van Note.
Mon., April 18, 8 p.m., 2011