Malawi Dancers: No Mercy 4 Madge
The world’s largest arts festival, in Edinburgh, Scotland, is underway. Of the hundreds and hundreds of offerings on display, this low-budget musical, “Mercy Madonna of Malawi,” riveted my attention. Unlike Sascha Baron Cohen’s parody of the Madonna-adoption subject in “Bruno,” the musical isn’t tasteless — a condescending take-down by a Westerner. “Mercy Madonna of Malawi” is by all accounts witty and fun, and is performed by dancers from Malawi itself. The “Madonna†whose eye the musical’s characters are trying to catch is a strapping black man in a platinum blonde wig and pink negligee who sings “Last night I dreamed of Malawi†to the tune of the Material Girl’s early hit “La Isla Bonita.”
