A few weeks back, we went to Tropicana de Cache’s Tuesday night boxing showcase — an exhibition that left us awed, but also curious about how the club functions when the boxing ring isn’t dominating the center of the room. What we found on a return visit was quite a different story.
There’s a hall of fame in the main corridor at Tropicana de Cache, a club on the Near West Side. The walls feature photographs of Latin artists who’ve actually performed there, even if it was (as in the case of Tito Puente) just a quick jam with the house band. There are Celia Cruz, Olga Tanon, Oscar D’Leon.
Their kind of music is what’s playing tonight as Carpacho y su Combo Sexy pump through their set and couples propel themselves through the seductive maneuvers required to dance merengue. This is, clearly, a heterosexual bar — there are male-female couples, clumps of women who stick together for protection, and single men lingering by the bar and on the margins of the dance floor.
But at midnight, the spectacle turns on something else entirely. Tropicana’s “El Show de Tranvestis” (“que vivan las chicas . . . que son chicos”) features remarkably polished female impersonators who perform mostly in Spanish, mostly to well-known hits by Latino superstars such as La India, and who have to balance the fact that they’re dealing with a mostly male crowd that’s alternately titillated and threatened by the show.
Tonight’s hostess is a shapely beauty named Veronica who tries to connect with a handsome young man sitting just off the dance floor. She’s utterly benign in her flirtations but he won’t even look at her. Every time she gets near the table, he grabs his beer, sucks on it, opens his legs wide, drops his other hand into his crotch and shrugs, as if to signal both his indifference and his independence.
Veronica works mighty hard but finally surrenders. The guy’s disdain is hurting the spirit of the show. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you,” she says in his direction. “We won’t offend anybody, you’ll see.”
And indeed they don’t. “El Show de Tranvestis” at Tropicana on Fridays is a quick runway experience: about 20 minutes long, a break to the merengue madness. A handful of queens, all lacquered and sparkly, go through their paces, receive their polite applause, then surrender the dance floor again to the grope and grab allowed by salsa’s salacious turns.
– – –
A few months back, when it looked like Randolph Street Gallery could still be saved, the Chicago Radical Faerie Circle held two immensely successful fundraisers for the organization. In the process of working together to produce the shows, the Faeries — an iconoclastic bunch who can’t even agree on a definition of exactly who or what they are — found themselves enjoying the sense of community brought on by the projects. So they decided to stay busy — RSG or no RSG — and have been at it all week with the Faerie Frolic Arts Festival.
There have been film festivals, cabarets, and general partying at the old RSG space on North Milwaukee Avenue all week. But for the weekend, the Faeries have a little something special. It’s called “The Call,” an indoor three-day camping experience surrounded by “art installations and beauty, while feasting on vegetarian meals and creating queer culture.”
Each weekend night, the EGGPLANT Faerie Players of Tennessee will present their full-length play, “Next Year in Sodom.” And Sunday afternoon, a circuslike performance fest will culminate with the Faeries’ annual ritual dedicated to the spring equinox.
– – –
More Top Picks Best Weighted Blankets For Seniors
While other groups disappear, up in Evanston, the Actors Gymnasium keeps going strong. Directed by Tony Adler, who used to write some of the most incisive criticism this town has seen for various publications (including this one), the Actors Gymnasium is a school for performers.
But rather than teach the expected, Adler and his crew teach unusual, wonderfully weird skills, like stiltwalking and flying (no kidding!). The Actors Gymnasium Performs is an annual spring event in which the school’s faculty — including Jellyeye Drum Troupe’s Rick Kubes, Julie Greenberg of The Midnight Circus, and puppet master Michael Montenegro — show off their talents and also raise a few bucks for the school. It’s this Saturday night.
———-
the facts
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, all day and night: indoor camping. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m., “Next Year in Sodom” by the EGGPLANT Faerie Players of Tennessee, Sunday, 2 to 6 p.m., performance circus and spring ritual, Chicago Radical Faerie Circle, at the former Randolph Street Gallery, 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. Call 312-329-3481. The space is wheelchair accessible.
Saturday, 8 p.m.: The Actors Gymnasium Performs, Noyes Cultural Center, 927 Noyes St., Evanston. For more information, call 847-492-1335. The Actors Gymnasium is wheelchair accessible.
Friday, midnight: El Show de Tranvestis, Tropicana de Cache, 2047 N. Milwaukee Ave. Call 773-489-9600. Tropicana is wheelchair accessible on the first floor.