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Red Hot and Cole was performed originally at Barksdale Theatre in Hanover, Virginia, and then at the Variety Arts Theatre in Los Angeles.
It is a two-act revue that blends Cole Porter's music with a biography of his life. The show is a party, one continuous evening that moves back and forth in time. It slips from the party NOW today, to parties of the past, in other places during the decades of Cole's' life.
The members of the company arrive as themselves for a Cole Porter party (the contemporary party) prepared to sing, to dance, to tell the stories they have come with. Then, rather than 'tell' stories, they
'embody' them, becoming the characters of the past. These are not meant to be impersonations, or caricatures. The performers are merely embodying the characters of the past that are portrayed here today.
The entire action takes place in one evening and in one room, though that room may suddenly be in Paris in 1920, or hold the elite of Venetian society at a masquerade ball. In addition, the present day party never stops, so people are always in the background, dancing, drinking and watching.
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