Watch the contestants in Ken Roht's 2008 99¢ Only Show find out who they will be sponsored by in the Calendar Girl Competition!

Bootleg is proud to announce the return of the 99¢ Only Show to the Bootleg stage.

This year’s show, Ken Roht's 99¢ Only Calendar Girl Competition, will be a beauty pageant for the ages, and the audience will pick the winner every night!

With R & B music by long-time musical collaborators Ken Roht and John Ballinger and costume designer extraordinaire Ann Closs-Farley returning, this year’s show will be a funky good time in plastic finery!

From Roht: "This year is a collage piece, using archetypal events from beauty pageant, commenting on contemporary musicals, and on the psychological ramifications of glamorizing vanity. Sounds heady, but its going to be a blast… an R&B dance party with infusions of vaudeville and Pinter. We have the mechanics of making these shows down to a science, now we can really play with an artful, progressive approach to presenting content."

Bootleg, and it’s founders, are long-time supporters of Ken Roht’s stage creations. The first official production of the renovated Bootleg space was Pageant of the 4 Seasons a 99¢ Only Modern Something, a celebration with singing insects and bunnies, wind dancers and giant plastic flowers, in December of 2006. The show was a success on many levels and Bootleg and Ken Roht are excited to bring together another exciting team of Los Angeles artists to create a surrealist music & dance extravaganza with costumes like no one has ever seen before.

Ken Roht's 99¢ Only Shows have been described as "a trademark mix of heady surrealism, marvelously inventive choreography, unabashed camp, and delightful whimsy..." Now in its SIXTH YEAR these large-scale music theater pieces (as many as 50 people in the cast) have delighted children of all ages. Designed and constructed primarily with products found at the 99c Only Stores, the wildly colorful pageantry of the costumes and sets is beautiful and unique. For pics and reviews of past shows see our show archive.

Ken Roht is the Producing Artistic Director of Orphean Circus, a Los Angeles-based music theater collective, that recently headlined all summer at Spiegeltent in New York. He was the recipient of the 2003 Audrey Skirball Kenis TIME Grant, awarded to only five other people in the country. His holiday series, the 99c shows, is now in its sixth year and performs to sold-out audiences. He has been granted and/or commissioned by A.S.K. Common Ground Festival, Dept. of Cultural Affairs (LA) L.A. Cultural Affairs Department, Rockefeller Foundation, Durfee, Dance Theater Workshop, Flintridge and California Arts Council. His one-act opera Last Resort opened REDCAT's first Workshop Festival and he directed/choreographed Offenbach!!! three operettas, for Bard Summerscape in 2006.

As a performer Ken has worked with Bill Viola, Paul McCarthy, Reza Abdoh, for whom he was also a choreographer for seven years, and most recently sang a principle tenor role in a micro-tonal opera at Symphony Space in NY. Other performance experiences include a rock opera with Grace Jones and Billy Zane; singing Ancient Egyptian solo and choral music at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, as part of the the Tut/Egyptian antiquities exhibit that is touring the world; performing at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilian; and soloing "God Bless America" to 5000 Masons at their national convention. Ken also choreographs for other directors, notably at the Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (now in his fourth season), Long Beach Opera (three times), South Coast Rep (twice), Kirk Douglas Theater, Great Lakes Theater Festival and Lookingglass in Chicago.

John Ballinger, musician and award winning composer, has placed songs and scores in TV, on film, in theatre and on CDs. Notable collaborations include Echo's Hammer and the 99c Store Holiday shows with Ken Roht, The Woman Who Forgot Her Sweater and Celebration of the Lizard with O-Lan Jones, Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress with Bart DeLorenzo at the Geffen, and playing the guitar with Chris Wells and the NoNo's. John has toured and/or recorded as a multi-instrumentalist and singer for Rufus Wainwright, Tracy Bonham, Pato Banton, the nat'l tour of Dancing With the Stars, and Moira Smiley's Voco.

Ann Closs-Farley is a Los Angeles Award Winning Designer. The 99 Cent Only shows are her Her recent credits include: Disney’s TOY STORY: THE MUSICAL, WINTER WONDERETTES, HEDWIG and THE ANGRY INCH, MENOPAUSE:THE MUSICAl, JEWTOPIA, 99 CENT ONLY SHOWS,THREE PENNY OPERA, TITIS THE CLOWNICUS, TEN THOUSAND YEARS, HARDTIMES, HURLY BURLY, GROWING WITH GHOSTS, STAGE DIRECTIONS, ORLANDO, MAYHEM and many more. She has earned multiple Ovation, LA Weekly and Garland Awards for her work in: BATBOY: THE MUSICAL, WHEN TIGERS SMOKED LONG PIPES, ECHOS HAMMER,MEPHISTO, THE SEAGULL, EXONERATED, EUPHORIA, PLASTICA FANTASTICA, BROADWAY, XXX LOVE ACT, CINDERELLA MEDEA MACBETH and UGLYS 1ST WORLD. She also won a LA Drama Critics Award for her work in SNEAUX and GOREY STORIES:THE MUSICAL,as well as, the LOCAL HERO AWARD from Backstage West. She designed the wigs and hair pieces for a Snapple Ad campaign, clothes for Disney Merchandise, sets for movie publicity, furniture/ Toy construction for MGA Entertainment (Bratz), and has led recycled-fashion workshops sponsored by C.A.R.S at the Santa Monica Arts Festival and GETTY museum.

Bootleg is a space for art. A place where Los Angeles artists of all mediums can come together and create new, exciting theatrical events. In this 1930’s warehouse (formerly a bra factory), we have been producing theater since 2000. We produce brave, boundary-pushing, artistically outstanding new work. Work that is exciting to many different kinds of people, serving as a reflection of the city we live in.