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RETURN OF THE ARTSY STRIPTEASE

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RETURN OF THE ARTSY STRIPTEASE

By MAXINE SHEN
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Art meets stripping at Le Scandal.
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January 3, 2004 -- You've heard about neo-burlesque. Check it out: One of the city's original high-brow erotic cabarets has returned to the stage after a month off.
Le Scandal, which used to be known as the Blue Angel Erotic Cabaret, is back in business tonight at Chris "Mr. Big" Noth's Flatiron District club, the Cutting Room.

The show mixes classic burlesque (stripping) and oddball vaudeville acts such as sword-swallower Natasha, "Queen of the Neon Sword."

This is not a declassé topless place by the highway, incidentally. Since Le Scandal began nine years ago, it has avoided the strip-club moniker (and legal trouble) by defining itself as performance art, not a peep show.

The shows typically attract a hip, artsy audience, including Hollywood types like Demi Moore, Goldie Hawn and Wesley Snipes. In 1996, Drew Barrymore did more than sit in the audience - she jumped on stage and did a striptease of her own.

"The show expresses women in a sexual and sensual way, beyond putting them in a box at a strip club, says producer Bonnie Dunn.

"We're redefining 'sexy.'"



10 p.m. every Saturday at the Cutting Room, 19 W. 24th Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue; (212) 338-2988. $20.




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