The Slipper Room

The Slipper Room is a variety theatre and house of burlesque, comedy and vaudeville, located in the Lower East Side district of Manhattan, New York City.

The concept of performer, filmmaker and impresario James Habacker, the venue first opened in 1999 when the neo-burlesque scene of New York was in its infancy, becoming the first venue built specifically to showcase the work of a new collective and designed to nurture emerging talent. The shows consist of performance artists, dancers, drag queens, vaudeville, variety and sideshow acts, often performing outrageous, messy and lewd routines. Habacker encourages performers to push themselves to try out new work without fear of censorship.

The Village Voice describes the Slipper Room as "a glorious reinterpretation of classic mid-19th Century European opera houses, complete with fleur-de-lis wallpaper, sumptuous purple banquettes, and a soaring stage", while The New York Times advises the meek "to stay on the mezzanine", where "audience members on the stage level have been known to be licked, tickled and mocked". NYC observes the venue as being "instrumental in reviving—perhaps even creating—the burlesque community in New York City, for the first eleven years as the cozy, intimate cocktail lounge it once was, and now as the two-level burlesque theater and bar and it's become... a stunning paean to Jazz Age with a stage that vaults the full two stories up, where balcony visitors get a bird's eye view of the action."

The Slipper Room attracted controversy in March 2014 when sideshow performer Rush Aaron Hicks performed – without any pre-notification – in blackface, to the heavy condemnation of New York's performance community and appeared unrepentant afterwards. James Habacker responded with the following statement: “The Slipper Room has always been a place that has welcomed diversity. Over the years our stage has been graced by people of every ethnicity, sexual orientation, body type, and proclivity. We do not now, nor will we ever, have a policy of telling artists what they can and can’t do in their acts. Rush Aaron Hicks made a poor choice in doing Blackface. His unfortunate comments after the fact have only served to make things worse for him. We had a few bookings with him for this spring, which we have cancelled to give him time to reflect on his actions and their consequences.”

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Wikipedia