We are The Flamingo Revue — an award-winning burlesque troupe and production based out of Charlotte, North Carolina! Since forming in 2019, The Flamingo Revue has been entertaining audiences across NC, and especially at home in Charlotte.
The Flamingo Revue has received several accolades, including Best Performing Artists from the Queen City Nerve’s Readers’ Picks, Best Performing Arts Group from Elevate Lifestyle Awards, Best Performing Arts Organization from the critics at Queen City Nerve, and the Natividad Community Award from the Ohio Burlesque Festival. Flamingo Revue’s troupe members have also earned several awards individually, both nationally and internationally.
The History of the Flamingo Revue
In 1949, a businessman named Frank Ratcliffe opened a nightclub in the heart of downtown Charlotte. Located at 110 W. 6th St., the site of present-day Discovery Place, his club played host to live entertainers from all across the country, including bands, lounge singers, acrobats, and even burlesque. The club was called The Flamingo Supper Club.
70 years later, his grandson, Franky Dynamite, needed a name for his first burlesque production. It had to be a name that captured the glamour of burlesque but also had ties to the Queen City.
The Flamingo Revue was born.
On April 6, 2019, the Flock held its very first show in Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood neighborhood. It followed that up with a series of critically acclaimed shows: UNDRESSED UNREST, a burlesque coup d’etit; FELLOWSHIP OF THE BLING, a Lord of the Rings burlesque show; and JULY IN CHRISTMAS. The Flamingo Revue’s wildly inventive approach to production and its dedication to spotlighting local talent while also introducing Charlotte audiences to performers from outside the city earned it the award for 2019’s Best New Thing from the readers of the Queen City Nerve.
A goth-themed show, THE DEAD OF WINTER, kicked off 2020 for The Flamingo Revue, but shortly after that, the world went into lockdown due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. While other live entertainment organizations in Charlotte came grinding to a halt, the Flamingo Revue pushed on. It set itself apart from other burlesque outfits by featuring a pair of online burlesque shows, ISOLATION TITILLATION and LOCKDOWN THROWDOWN, which featured members of the Flock and others throughout the country. But the Revue did so by only featuring local and regional musicians in its acts, as a means of both respecting the rights of musicians and sharing the spotlight with other independent artists. In October of 2020, the Flamingo Revue presented A NIGHT ON THE TOWN, an online benefit show for which 100% of its proceeds were donated to help four local venues which were hurting due to the COVID lockdown. After a final online show in March of 2021, DD20: A TABLETOPLESS ADVENTURE, the Flock was ready to return to the stage.
On June 26, 2021, the Flamingo Revue first took the stage at its new home, Charlotte’s legendary Visulite Theatre, with the highly praised RISING. From then, the Flock dedicated itself to getting better and better. The production quality and audience reception both proved that its efforts were working.
The fall of 2022 marked a new era for the Flock, with Franky Dynamite naming his dear friend and fellow founding member of the Flamingo Revue, Shirley Sweet, as his co-producer. Together, they upped the stakes even higher, with critically acclaimed shows like RUFFLED FEATHERS, SUMMER OF SIN, and THE RAZZLE DAZZLE REVIVAL.
2023 saw the creation of Charlotte’s first ever burlesque school, FLIGHT SCHOOL. With this five week course, The Flamingo Revue imparted to new performers the fundamentals of burlesque and introduced them to the process of creating an act. The Flock announced Charlotte’s first ever show especially for newer performers, TAKING OFF, introducing the Queen City to its first class of students. FLIGHT SCHOOL returned in the summer of 2024, even bigger and better than before.
With the retirement of Franky Dynamite from producing at 2024’s THE LINE BEGINS TO BURLESQUE, a burlesque tribute to Nine Inch Nails, Shirley Sweet took the reins as the Flamingo Revue’s Executive Producer. She’s maintained the same commitment to presenting the highest quality burlesque entertainment in all of North Carolina that she and Franky had cultivated but has also made great strides in introducing The Flamingo Revue, and burlesque as a whole, to new audiences throughout the state.