Photo courtesy of Capital Fringe.

Reminds us of: A snippet from VH1’s Behind the Music, only with way more burlesque.

Flop, Fine or Fringe-tasic? Fine with moments of Fringe-tasticness.

When burlesque dancer Che Monique says she wants to emerge from a huge cake during Chocolate City Burlesque and Cabaret’s sold-out Black Friday show, her considerable charm makes you want her to succeed. But Cake!, directed by Corin Andrade, is a true story about how the gambit fell apart. “A whole show, ruined because a fat chick wanted to jump out of a cake!” as one performer puts it. Told from perspectives that include other CCBC dancers, Black Friday audience members, and the cake’s designer, the performance weaves monologues with burlesque numbers to show what went wrong.

It starts with a sexy, fan-filled dance number and a litany of complaints from Brooke Jay, a performer who ultimately quit CCBC after the Black Friday debacle, embittered by what she saw as unfair treatment. It’s a testament to Monique that she not only includes but also starts the show with such pointed criticism. But Monique doesn’t take all the guff. Performer, builder, and baker Sindalicious calls herself the villain. She’s relatable in her belief that the big cake “just has to work” because she put so much time and sweat into it.

The best moments bridge the gulf that separates behind-the-scenes and center stage, like when Dainty Dandridge follows a breathy version of “L-O-V-E” with a biting speech about the treatment of black female creators. Cake! could be tightened up—we don’t need as much of the blow-by-blow about the cake’s construction. Sindalicious uses cue cards to remember her monologue at points, but a shorter speech would have done just fine. But when (spoiler alert) Monique successfully jumps out of the cake at the end, it is so satisfying. It may have taken the better part of a year, but she—and all the people who contributed—god damn did it.

Cake! is playing at Gallaudet University: Elstad Auditorium on Saturday July 16 at 9:45 p.m., Tuesday June 19 at 9:15 p.m., and Sunday July 24 at 2:45 p.m.

See here for more of DCist’s Capital Fringe 2016 reviews.