David Schmader presents Paul Verhoeven’s Notorious Masterwork Showgirls at Triple Door on Friday April 3, 2009.
Upon its 1995 release, Paul Verhoeven’s glitzy stripper drama SHOWGIRLS earned some of the most extravagantly awful reviews in cinema history. “A film of thunderous oafishness,” wrote Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, with critics around the globe unanimously damning Showgirls as a failure doomed to die in infamy.
Only it didn’t. Since its original release, SHOWGIRLS has grown into a full-fledged cult phenomenon, thanks in part to the cinematic missionary work undertaken by David Schmader, the critically acclaimed writer and performer who hosted his first annotated screenings of the film at Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum in 1999. Part art-appreciation lecture, part sit-down comedy routine, all against the backdrop of Verhoeven’s peerlessly offensive, flesh-drenched disaster, SHOWGIRLS with David Schmader was an instant hit, packing theaters in Seattle and touring to film festivals across the country, with Schmader reintroducing Verhoeven’s hideous folly to a generation of filmgoers as the most inadvertent, surreally hilarious comedy in film history.
David Schmader was invited by MGM to record commentary for a special-edition DVD box set back in 2003 and for this show he will reprise his live annotated screening.
Here are some of the reviews:
Schmader’s commentary is so good you can’t turn it off.
—Playboy
David Schmader contributes one of the best commentaries I’ve ever heard. In it he continually bashes the film, the script, the actors, the concepts and even the jokes, and it’s funny as hell. He truly makes this really bad film a horribly enjoyable mess.
—San Francisco Gate
I laughed so hard my ribs still ache.
— The Independent UK
Get tickets now as this will surely be a popular event. Movie at 7:30pm, doors at 5:30pm, 17+ w/ID. Tickets are $15 advance/$18 DOS. Triple Door is located at 216 Union St, Seattle.
Visit www.tripledoor.com for more info.
