Holly is Hot!

It's so great to be in the presence of Holly Hughes again that the simple awareness that she has stepped into Dixon Place's darkened space gets some wolf whistles going even before we actually see those lemon-yellow, open-toed spike heels she's rocking. When the lights finally go up, there's our free speech hero, our culture warrior, sporting a multi-colored, feathery haircut that only underscores how much of a voluble, little tropical bird she is. A wound-up, high-pitched, smart-as-hell and very funny tropical bird and one who works her butt off over the hour-long course of her demanding monologue, The Dog and Pony Show (Bring Your Own Pony), directed by Dan Hurlin.

My best guess is that, just as last night's Hot! Festival performance took some moments to heat up and make sense, the entire multifaceted monologue took a while in development to shape into some semblance of direction and coherence. I've seen different blurbs forecasting the piece, and none of them exactly square with the others or seem to have much to do with what turned up at Dixon Place. But what turned up--a meditation, by way of barely-controlled chaos, on the close relationship between humans and dogs--is both entertaining and, in the end, touching. Go and see it, even if you're a cat dyke or if you're allergic or irritable or you think you don't give a damn one way or the other.

If you can still get a ticket, visit with Holly tonight, 7:30pm, at Dixon Place.

Hot! Festival at Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets), Manhattan
212-219-0736