By Joe Maniscalco
I saw witches in bikinis flying through the air/Drinking black martinis/And throwing back their hair.
So, how do you like your witches – crooked nose and warts a la H.R. Pufnstuf's Witchiepoo, or long legs and deep cleavage somewhere along the lines of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark?
Well, what if you could combine the simple innocence of Saturday morning kid shows with the bawdiness of the Las Vegas strip, then while the cauldron was still hot, throw in an infectious mix of eye of newt, scorpion tails and straight ahead 4/4 rock n' roll?
If you had the diabolical talent of a modern day Dr. Frankenstein you might come up with something close to the coven of comely lovelies known as Witches In Bikinis rocking the Galapagos Art Space at 70 North 6th Street on February 16.
Love will be in the air all week long so why waste your time with that chubby dude with wings when you could spend the evening with seven voracious vampire vixens feasting on a black-hearted Valentine of audio and visual delights?
Bewitched by numbers like “Alien Surfer Babes,” “Subway Spooks” and “Goblin Gaboom,” the three singers and four dancers who comprise the WIBS have been known to cause unsuspecting mortal audiences to leap up out of their seats writhing with enough demonic delight to make Cotton Mather's head spin.
Another tasty cut called “Party Like a Chimpanzee,” has even brought out the beast in more than a few men and women of the purest heart.
The WIBS, as they are known this side of Transylvania, are the twisted creation of Bill and Julie Rozar, an unassuming domestic duo from Windsor Terrace who spend their daylight hours working as a data architect and a technical writer and raising their very ordinary brood of typical American teenagers.
“It's sexy but not offensive,” mastermind Bill Rozar promises.
It all started in March of last year when the WIBS assembled for the first time on stage to perform their signature song, “Witches In Bikinis” at a benefit for the Twenty Percent Theater held inside the Slipper Room on the Lower East Side.
Later, in October, just in time for Halloween, the WIBS released their first full length CD to the devilish delight of like-minded creatures of the night everywhere.
When choreographer Emir Levi introduced his “Poisonous Ladies” dance troupe to the lineup, the WIBS really got a chance to spread their silky bat wings playing hot spots around town like Arlene's Grocery, The Delancey and Galapagos.
“Bill was going to call the group “The Bizarre Czars,” but our 14-year-old son said that was too out there,” Julie Rozar explains.
Bill Rozar had been sitting on his growing collection of rock n' roll Halloween songs for almost two decades while he and Julie settled down to raise their family in Brooklyn – the two met aboard a New Jersey Transit car 20 years ago and soon after married and bought a co-op in Brooklyn Heights.
A music major at Livingston College, Bill Rozar studied jazz piano with Ken Barron and later had his own online music company.
After meeting singer Janelle Lannan at his Mindafloon arts group, Bill and Julie decided to resurrect all those fun and spooky songs that seemed to be waiting around for just the right time to be reborn.
“It's campy and it's fun,” says Julie Rozar. “Everybody loves Halloween, but there's not much Halloween music out there.”
Bill Rozar has kept on writing hook-laden Halloween hits and is currently crafting an off Broadway musical for the WIBS to star in.
“That's our ultimate goal,” says Julie Rozar.
In the show now being developed, a hapless school girl gets separated from her classmates after they all get lost in a dark and mysterious forest. The girl soon stumbles across the scantily-clad coven of broomsticked bombshells – each with their own special power – and the musical madness ensues.
Bill Rozar relates the poor lass' predicament in verse: They jabbered and they joked/And they called me awful names/They prodded and they poked/As they planned their evil games…
Despite the risque factor of the material, Julie Rozar insists that what the WIBS do is not at all burlesque.
“We had people from 7 to 70 at the CD release party,” Julie Rozar says. “There's something for everybody.”
The appeal of the WIBS is so broad in fact, that Bill and Julie Rozar want the gals to haunt more than just Halloween.
Beyond February 16's Vampire Vixen Valentine, the couple is also looking forward to April Ghoul's Day, a Sinister Summer Solstice and maybe even a Fiendish Fourth of July.
The WIBS will be playing Don't Tell Mama's every Friday night starting March 10 and are eyeing Southpaw in early May.
“It's all about being something that you're not,” Bill Rozar says. “Just dressing up and acting out your fantasies.”
Witches In Bikinis present their Vampire Vixen Valentine at the Galapagos Art Space on February 16 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 available at the door.Box office opens 30 minutes prior to the start of the show.
For more information Call Galapogos at 718-384-4586 or visit them online at www.galapagosartspace.com
