‘Empire Strips Back’ review: ‘Star Wars’ burlesque is a strange nerd fantasy

nypost.com:

The Empire Strips Back,” a funny sci-fi burlesque show in the East Village, has on offer: A gung-ho evening for ticket buyers who know what made the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs and/or would like to see women tantalizingly remove articles of clothing.

1 hour and 30 minutes with no intermission. At the Orpheum Theatre, 126 Second Avenue.Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of overlap between those two fan groups.That’s clearly evidenced early in the show by the howls of approval when a scantily clad dancer gives Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder a car wash onstage as Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” bares.“Turns out Luke wasn’t such an innocent farm boy after all!” says “Strips” emcee Eric Newton.

Later, when Princess Leia gyrates alongside a remote-controlled R2-D2 — its red-and-blue light blinking in electronic ecstasy — I had a disconcerting suspicion that the taboo dreams of many of those around me were finally coming true.Skin-baring “Star Wars” favorites abound in the extremely weird production created by Australian Russall S.

Beattie that’s toured around the world. It last played New York in 2019.Now, “Strips” is sitting down for an open-ended run at the Orpheum Theatre, which has been decked out with white panels to look like the inside of an Imperial Star Destroyer.