The ‘Bad Girls’ once again take over Breakthrough Theatre

Who can resist a bad girl?

Breakthrough Theatre Company will revive “Redlight: The Bad Girls of Broadway,” one of its biggest hits and the show that put the theater on the map at the Orlando Fringe Festival back in the day. The musical revue of familiar Broadway hits, for adults only, opens Nov. 14.

Breakthough owner Wade Hair didn’t know what he was unleashing when he staged the first version of the show in his theater’s early years.

“It was a one-weekend cabaret-style show,” he says. “It was such a hit I thought, ‘Why don’t we take out the serious songs, keep all the fun and sexy songs and apply to Fringe?’”

The show was the talk of the 2012 Fringe festival.

“We were the only show that year that sold out every single performance,” Hair says. “I was so proud of that.”

From the Orlando Sentinel review that year: “As the opening ‘Big Spender’ says: ‘Do ya wanna have fun? How about a few laughs’” This dirty little revue will show you a good time.”

The 2025 version of “Redlight” will still open with “Big Spender” (from “Sweet Charity”) and include popular favorites such as “The Cell Block Tango” from “Chicago” and “Don’t Tell Mama” from “Cabaret” — “That’s always a crowd favorite,” Hair says.

But in other ways the show, which features a new cast of performers, will be quite different. To create a more immersive experience, Hair has turned his theater into the “Redlight Lounge,” with a chandelier, poles for dancing and tables and chairs throughout.

“We’ve never done that before,” he says. “The ladies will be all around you.”

For shyer audience members, there will be traditional seating farther back as well.

And keep in mind, it is a theater — not a sleazier type of venue. So the performers won’t touch the audience members and “each curtain speech will include the reminder ‘Do not touch the performers,’” Hair says.

Non-alcoholic drinks and snacks will be available to enjoy at the tables.

Another change from 2012: The song list has been updated with newer showtunes, like the catchy “Let’s Be Bad” from “Smash” and the dancey “La Dee Dah with You” from “The Great Gatsby.”

Angela Cotto is music director and choreographer. Mary Lee Stallings is handling the costumes, which are being designed with the performers’ comfort level in mind.

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“We’re not a strip club,” Hair says. “It’s a female-power show, I think. We’re saying, ‘What clothes make you feel beautiful? What do you feel comfortable in?”

A few guys are in the cast as well.

“They started as props,” Hair jokes. “But now they have their own songs.”

The men will feature in such gender-bending tunes as “Sweet Transvestite” from “The Rocky Horror Show” and “Two Ladies” from “Cabaret.”

Reviving the show is something of a full-circle moment for Hair.

“‘Redlight’ slipped into Fringe before there were so many burlesque shows,” he says. “We were just at the right time.”

The show led Jaimz Dillman, a last-minute addition to the production, to form the longrunning Corsets & Cuties troupe after Fringe ended. Risa Risque, whose first Fringe show was “Redlight,” also formed a burlesque troupe — the Blacklist Babes Cabaret — after the show, helping ignite a burlesque boom in Central Florida.

Corsets & Cuties performed its final Fringe show in May — and when Hair attended, it gave him the idea of a “Redlight: The Bad Girls of Broadway” revival.

“They were inspired by us, and now we were inspired by them,” he says.

Ultimately, Hair says, despite the titilation factor, the music is what sells the show.

“These songs are timeless,” he says. “People love them.”

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