What this town needs is a good variety show, thought performance artist Brigid Murphy. And next week Murphy celebrates the two-year anniversary of her own rowdy and raucous, intelligent and provocative Milly’s Orchid Show.
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Murphy’s dream was to get the whole spectrum of arts and entertainment together onstage. An unpretentious, even amateurish vaudeville show seemed the answer. “I’ve always loved vaudeville,” Murphy says. “And vaudeville makes [the performance] more palatable. It’s a way of sneaking in alternative stuff to an audience who might otherwise be intimidated by alternative stuff.”
It almost sounds like Murphy is mixing the medicine in with our favorite foods. She points out that “I have a format that is like a contract with the audience from the moment they walk in. If you don’t like what you see, hang out, it’s gonna change shortly.”
“I went to this bar called World Famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. It used to be real famous, Willie Nelson and all of them would go there after their gigs. But it closed when the Opry left. When it reopened, they didn’t touch anything.” One-man bands, men wearing cheesy polyester outfits and singing cover tunes, would set up in the storefront window. “They had a sign that said, ‘Band Plays for Tips.’ The bartender with the beehive hairdo and jeans would come over and sing some like, ‘Crazy,’ really badly . . . they were like Nashville ghosts.”
“Milly totally believes she’s going to make it,” Murphy adds. “And the cool thing is, it’s starting to happen. She’s got herself a show.”
