From Page to Stage

Publishers love authors with innovative promotional ideas. And every author these days is working up some better means of getting the word out about his or her new book. Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai just sent me a note about one such scheme put forth by Jonny Porkpie, the self-proclaimed Burlesque Mayor of New York City:

The author of our December title (no, not A.C. Doyle--the other one) is a full-time burlesque performer and producer, and he’s debuting a new live stage show called “Lurid Pulp” at [New York’s] Bleecker Street Theatre to coincide with the publication of his Hard Case Crime novel, The Corpse Wore Pasties. (The book comes out on 11/24; the show will run for the two Saturday nights on either side, 11/21 and 11/28.)

It’s all very meta: The book’s a roman à clef set in the world of burlesque, starring a character also named Jonny Porkpie and filled with other characters based on real-life performers. The show, in turn, stars those very performers, and it tells the story of how Jonny Porkpie winds up murdered after the performers get wind of how they’ve been portrayed in his book. It’s part stage show (readers will get to see all the burlesque numbers described in the book performed live on stage) and part interactive whodunit (audience members will get to interact with the cast), and for people who don’t mind seeing half-dressed dames running around (including the book’s two gorgeous cover models), I think it’ll
be loads of fun.

For more information, click here.