Salon Mika Conceived by and starring Mika At Switch Bar for Auckland Pride Wednesday 13 - Saturday 16 Wednesday 20 - Saturday 23 "Hard yet soft, gentle yet rrrrrough." With those words Mika sets up his audience with what to expect... and he hits the nail on the head. Salon Mika is by turns sultry, sad, driven, passionate, funny, beguiling and unexpected. Like an untrustworthy ringmaster on heat Mika guides and manipulates cast and audience alike through a series of brief stories - musical vignettes really - of the night, eye-catching noir gems of dubious lustre and deceptive motifs. It's a world of black widows, fading kuia, junkies, burlesque performers, of shadows and moods and letting go too soon or holding on too long. Cravings mix with defiance, orgasmic power mingles with searing loss. The unexpected turns can raise you up or abandon you to your fall. The cast are committed, professional and damned good at what they do. The direction is crisp and the mood they create is more than a little unsettling. Underscoring the knowing eroticism of the performers, including Leda Petit and Megan Alatini - the best thing in what was True Bliss - is the powerful original score written and performed live by Penny Dodds and her band. Riffs of jazz-rock surge and recede, driving the performers on or hovering in sensual anticipation, like waves crashing on a dark and stormy west coast beach. Salon Mika blends music, song, dance and raunch with stories of the alluring and beguiling big city night. Sexual passions collide with human failings in fleeting moments that are "hard yet soft, gentle yet rough." Salon Mika is an entertainment that should not be missed. - Jay Bennie Jay Bennie - 14th February 2013