“[T]here are a lot of different styles of burlesque, even in Boston,” says Mr. Scratch, the stage name for the manager of the Boston Babydolls. “Some of them are more nostalgic and some of them take classic burlesque as a jumping off point for a modern audience.”

And, as Professor Allen observed at the Burlesque Hall of Fame convention in Las Vegas last year, that modern message and that modern audience can take as many forms as the people composing it.

“[W]hat’s going on with burlesque today is really, really interesting... because it’s driven by women and it’s driven by performance and it’s going on on different levels in all kinds of different places,” he says. “Burlesque is tapping into a gay performance culture, it’s tapping into a male performance culture... a lesbian performance culture. It’s tapping into performance art... and pin-up culture. It’s going in a lot of different ways, but the anchor is that they revolve around the body, the performed body, and the sexuality around the performed body.”

But while it may seem as though an interest in burlesque suggests a degree of comfort with the exposed body, an ideological shift in attitude toward sex is unlikely.

“I think what is removed is an anxiety around a very specific presentation of sex,” says Eugene Tan, community engagement director of The Theater Offensive, which recently presented the 18th annual Queer Theater Festival, “Out on The Edge.” “I think a lot of burlesque is interested in a very polished version of sex and in that way it’s related to sex.”

The variety show format still allows, however, for a variety in reception, from the academic assessment of its cultural significance to the performative success; from the show’s intended political or social message to its raw entertainment value.

“What’s so cool about burlesque... is that you can take it anywhere,” Weiner says. “[Burlesque and variety shows] are just three minutes—like little poems—and you can interpret it however you want.”

—Staff writer Beryl C.D. Lipton can be reached at blipton@fas.harvard.edu.