Sunday Feature: Theatre of Burlesque

Holly Gauthier-Frankel: Miss Sugarpuss

From Follies to Folies

“No one ever went wrong putting a half-naked, beautiful woman on a poster.”

By joel fishbane

On a recent trek through the downtown core, I glanced up through the haze of snow to see a friend toting a gun and dressed in black lingerie. No, I wasn’t standing outside Café Cleopatra; my friend was sprawled across a poster hanging in the window of a copy story. Seeing my scantily-clad friends on billboards has become an annual tradition for me. It always happens right before Valentine’s Day and it always means the same thing: Mainline Theatre is producing another show.

“No one ever went wrong putting a half-naked, beautiful woman on a poster,” says artistic director Jeremy Hechtman, currently rehearsing Sexy Dirty Bloody Scary, which is set to open on February 15. Hechtman has proved his theory on several occasions, from the orgy of my naked friends that promoted The Mid-Life Crisis of Dionysus to the poster for the 19th Fringe Festival, in which all pertinent information had been tattooed across a buxom beauty’s naked back. 

Ford's Focus: Holly Gauthier-Frankel

(photo credit: Andrea Hausmann)

Life Lesson from Holly Gauthier-Frankel

by Barbara Ford

I first met Holly Gauthier-Frankel in the fall of 2008 when I was the publicist for a small indie production in which she played the elusive moon. As I walked into the rehearsal between scenes, I heard an angelic voice singing show tunes.  Could this be the very same Queen of the Montreal Burlesque scene who seems to have been born in the wrong decade, her voluptuous figure and come-hither doe eyes reminiscent of the most deadly femme fatale from any 1950 film noir? As we spoke by phone on New Year’s Eve, I got a fascinating glimpse  of this very bright, insightful and articulate artist whose one-woman Fringe Fest hit, Miss Sugarpuss Must Die, will be remounted in the upcoming Wildside Festival at Centaur Theatre.

Growing up in a musical home, (Frankel’s mom is a singer and her step-dad, father and brother are all drummers) by the time she was 7 years old she was singing advertising jingles and dubbing movies.   At 10, she saw her first musical (Les Miserables) and knew she wanted to pursue a career in musical theatre.  She attended Roslyn Elementary and Westmount High School but had a hard time fitting in: at age 12 her peers were more likely to be artists in their 30’s and 40’s.  She wasn’t really into pop culture either, favouring Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, and shamefully admits she had to dumb-down to get by.  Frankel’s own mom coined the pet name “my little anachronism”!

Frankel attended Marianopolis CEGEP, studying theatre with Victor Garaway, whose creativity and progressive approach (using Yoga, Butoh and percussion as theatre training techniques) appealed to her.  She continued her education at McGill, studying English Literature and Women’s Studies, leaving with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a hefty dose of disdain for what she refers to as a “bastion of non-creativity” that had all but stomped out her originality.

CharPo's Picture of the Week; December 3, 2010

The MECCA Party with big winner Andrew Shaver (l) and Holly Gauthier-Frankel (photo: Liesl Barrell)