I write about BenDeLaCreme because how could I not? I am compelled by forces far too forcey to resist: up to and including my own freaking-out, hair-pulling, screaming-girl fandom. My position on the matter is well documented, and Ben’s charms and talents are held in high esteem by teaming hordes. Every one of her shows is going to sell out lickety-split, with not a single further syllable of hyperbole from me. Yet still, I must.
Yes it’s true that our dear Ben is at long last returning to our wicked shores with a new live show tucked beneath her well-traveled, rhinestone-studded belt. It is also a fact that this particular show just ran to literal raves off-Broadway (rave reviews, that is, please save your glow sticks). But neither of these things is a surprise. At this juncture the brilliant be-wigged firework that is BenDeLaCreme is lighting up skies on both coasts–and even the fraught twilights of the EU and Australia sometimes, to boot. It’s expected. Like taxes. Like death. Like any sort of weather at all.
Since her famous and utterly televised liaison with She Ru Must Not Be Named, Ben has given the world plenty of impressive work, including a few successful laps around the off-Broadway block.
In her first Broadway-adjacent solo show, Cosmos, Ben splashed gaily in the tonic waters of science. But in her new show, Ben wades us deep into the the murky mud of theology. It’s called Inferno A Go-Go, and it gives us Ben’s unique and kaleidoscopic take on Dante’s, Inferno (“the original travel brochure of the damned!”). Ben leads us on a breathless guided tour of all nine levels of “fire and fun!” in her signature much-more-than-just-a-cabaret style. There’s flaming film interludes (courtesy of flaming Shane Whalund), new songs and costumes and characters and dances galore, some burning eyeballs, and even a puppet or two because OF COURSE Ben is also an accomplished ventriloquist somehow. Like, professional vaudeville grade. Because OF COURSE she is.
“It’s a rockin’ beach party without water or fun / Where everybody’s invited based on bad things they’ve done!”
Pure genius.
Inferno A Go-Go will happen at Ben’s traditional standard hometown stage, OddFellows West Hall, for a rather miserly six shows total, and if you click HERE, you can start blowing your mind with the brilliance that is BenDeLaCreme early, and you can click HERE for tickets (if there are any left). You’re welcome.
Welcome home, superstar. It’s about damn time.
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