Oh, Luigi!: Checking out Gorilla Tango Theatre’s new Super Mario Burlesque

If there’s anything Nintendo’s Mario and Luigi are not, it’s sexy women. And yet, in Gorilla Tango Theatre’s new burlesque show, Boobs And Goombas, (running Friday and Saturday nights through October) Super Mario World has been turned sexually upside down.

“After pursuing the princess for so long without ever really reaching her, Mario and Luigi have become frustrated and delusional,” says MsPixy, the playwright and director. “All the enemies they now encounter are even more deadly because they’re sexy and attractive.”

It’s an idea truly so absurd it almost makes no sense, but somehow, live, it works. Bombs become restraints. Goombas bump and grind. Mario fights to get 1-up.

Double entendres aside, Boobs And Goombas is a pretty intriguing concept for audiences, and has been doing well so far, selling out both its performances this past weekend and holding down some brisk pre-sales for the rest of the month. It’s not all pervs in the audience, either. “If you don’t go because you want to see boobs and you don’t go because you want to see Mario, just go to see how it can be done at all,” says MsPixy.

The A.V. Club stopped by a very seductive dress rehearsal for a preview. A warning, though: There’s no nudity in this, but there is suggestive dialogue and some women in bras.