BY GILLIAN G. GAAR

Though Dina Martina would swear she hails from Las Vegas, she's actually the creation of Grady West, who first unleashed his Dina alter-ego 20 years ago at a Seattle art gallery's cabaret. Since then, she's graced stages around the country (including a regular summer season in Provincetown) and abroad (making her London debut last year). Her recent stint at Seattle club Re-Bar (her primary Seattle venue) celebrated her 20^th anniversary, reprising select numbers from previous shows.

Dina's oeuvre consists of taking a good song and making it bad, or taking a bad song and making it worse, enhancing her act with a never-ending series of ill-fitting costumes and dialogue that consists of non sequiturs and continual mispronunciations ("Seattle" becomes "Seetle" in Dina-speak). Music from the cinematic classic Showgirls welcomed Dina to the stage, whereupon she burst into Janet Jackson's "Control," in front of a screen that featured donkey and pig hand puppets squawking the backing vocals, interspersed with close-ups of Dina's luridly over-painted lips. "Jack and Diane" was given a deeper meaning due to her heated delivery of the line "Sucking on chili dogs...at the Tastee Freeze!" She romped around the stage happily during "Rio," even as she paused to admit "Oh, this song is wonderful, but it goes on way too long!" "In the Ghetto" became "In the Jetto," while "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" featured some ace choreography during the instrumental break as Dina wielded a guitar like a violin. She chastised audience members who talked too much during her set, but rewarded others with "jifts" like Cheetos flavored lip balm.

Film clips from over the years were shown, such as a faux ad for a "Dina doll," and her hysterical cavortings on the streets of Las Vegas, where the tourists clearly assume she's just one of the many free acts you find in the city's casinos. The evening's most surreal moment was undoubtedly when Dina was going through her fan mail, and, on discovering a surprise "jift" from one Timothy Leary, ended up on an acid trip which saw some life-size Sea Monkeys making an appearance as Dina sang (what else?) "All Tomorrow's Parties." The show closed on a nostalgic note with another montage of film clips as Dina sat off to the side and trilled "Do You Know Where You're Going To."

Even after 20 years, Seattle can't get enough of Dina. Though originally scheduled to close in March, the show has been extended to April 25. Dina Martina: long may she reign!

[Photos Credit: David Belisle]