Holiday Confections

Martini & Olive's Holiday Inferno Funny, disturbing, uncanny, painful, spangled and tangled and, well, hooked on a feeling: Martini and Olive (Grant Richey and Judy Heneghan) are a duo of singer/"dancers" who perform a cabaret revue of the worst of '70s white-folks pop, punctuated with the sort of talent-show dance routines (with help from the Swizzle Stick Dancers) that will forever haunt my own memory. They free-associate songs we'd happily forgotten ("Sing a Song," "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing") and do more costume changes than Sonny and Cher. I thought my sister and I were the only ones who'd made up our own cringe-inducing choreography to A Chorus Line back in the day, or appreciated the disco version of the Star Wars theme. (Though I could have done without the long Meatloaf "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" section.) Yes, the '70s are old-hat as satire material, but I've never seen anyone capture not only the trappings but the spirit of my childhood, an era that for Martini & Olive--and me--was composed of endless amateur shows, musical theater fantasies, terrible songs, and tender hearts. One question: Where was the Xanadu theme? Through December 31 at Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, 810 W. Lake St, Mpls.; 825-8949.(Sullivan)