Return to Dreamgirls

I was in the Twin Cities for a long overdue vacation -- far, far too long -- and something I wanted to do was hit some of the old haunts, Dreamgirls being one of them. After just how ripped off I felt the last time I was there several years ago (I even wrote a review about it, look it up!), I was really hesitant about going back, but I'm glad I did.

The layout of the place really hasn't changed. It's upstairs from Sneaky Pete's, by stairs or (if I remember right) by elevator. Guy at the door'll take your money, a $10 cover (from what I understand, free if you've had a drink from the bar downstairs). Once inside, you have to stop by the bar to pick up your $13 bottomless drink. Don't get your hopes up; this is a juice bar. Tucked in a corner just past the bar is the DJ booth. Often you'll find some dancers hanging out around here. Down the next wall is the stage surrounded by perv row, neither of which really were seeing a whole lot of use. Along the far wall are booths for the $20 dances, and along the last wall are more booths, but these are for the bed dances. Something new to me were all the cameras over all of the booths. There could be no sense of privacy anymore. An odd thing I noticed in the bed booths were little signs dictating the "Customer Code of Conduct," which looked like it was issued by the state of Minnesota. Wish I had taken a minute to read them; nothing like a good little shared laugh to get things rolling.

I parked myself at one of the floor tables, and watched the empty stage and the two flatscreens hanging over it for a couple minutes. I saw two dancers, one seated with the one other customer, trying to smoothtalk him into a dance, the other just playing on her smartphone. Eventually, the first one gave up on the guy then wandered on over to me. She was tall, really cute, and had some nice, all-natural curves to her, and it really didn't take any effort to get me to say, "Okay" -- to an hour bed dance. (Yeah, I check the willpower at the door.) I felt a bit of sticker shock there at the bar, $600 plus taxes, fees, just-what-we-feel-like-charging, bringing the total up to $690. (A 30minute bed would've been exactly half of that, so there wasn't any bargain to be had, and ten years ago, if I remember right, a one-hour bed h. was a flat $500. My, how the times get more and more expensive.)