Side Show
This is a bold statement, but I highly doubt you’ll find a live theatre experience like this anywhere else in New
By Andrew Andrews
Daisy and Violet Hilton, “Siamese twins,” are exhibited as part of a carnival side show by an abusive ringmaster in the early 1900s.
An aspiring musician named Buddy brings a talent scout for the vaudeville circuit named Terry to see their potential as serious performers, and the duo secretly train the sisters in voice and dance until their routine is worthy of a wider audience.
Noticing how Daisy and Violet respond to Terry and Buddy’s interest in them as more than just freaks, the men begin to lead the young ladies on, creating romantic tension that causes trouble for their business relationship down the road.
When the twins tell the side show Boss that they’re leaving, the Boss threatens them with a belt, and the rest of the entertainers (including the Geek, Bearded Lady, Three-Legged Man, Snake Lady and Jake the “Cannibal King”) threaten to quit if the Boss doesn’t clean up his act.
Dramatizing the biography of the real-life Hilton sisters, who were conjoined by a fused pelvis and a shared circulatory system, Side Show appeared on Broadway briefly in 1997 and again in 2014.
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Andrew Andrews attended Side Show at White Plains Performing Arts Center in White Plains on Saturday, April 23, 2022 @ 8:00pm to write this review.