Taking pride in being low budget

“You go.”

“No,” I said. “You go.”

My friend was daring me to sample a glass from the wine bar at the opening of “Peace Squad Goes 99” -- in which the sponsor, the 99¢ Only Stores, supplied everything. The costumes. The sets. And the libations.

Inside the Evidence Room theater, the stage curtain was crafted from tablecloths. Dancers donned inflatable-toy pants, nylon knee-high skirts and bathmat corsets. But in the lobby, the drinks were suspect.

It was Andy Warhol who suggested that someday “all department stores will become museums and all museums will become department stores.” If he meant that consumers will decide what is art, that day has arrived.

Theatrical auteur and 99¢ Only shopper Ken Roht dreamed up his budget-extravaganza concept while browsing the store in Silver Lake three years ago.

“I somehow found it reassuring that you can buy so much for a dollar,” said Roht, who has written, directed and choreographed three 99¢ shows. The shelves stocked with housewares, canned closeouts and cheap toys were a fluorescent-lighted beacon of inspiration. “I’d go every morning to look at the possibilities, and I realized I wanted to do a holiday show.”

Roht, who describes his work as “whimsical surrealist,” pitched his idea to the 99¢ Only Stores corporation. In a conference call he sold it this way: a Christmas show, like “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” but decorated entirely with 99¢ products.

For the first show, plastic laundry baskets became light towers and feather dusters were helmets for palace guards. Last year’s “Splendor: A 99¢ Only Stores Wonderama” featured music composed for the Radio Shack Concertmate 9000 keyboard.

In the third installment of his sub-dollar series, “Peace Squad Goes 99,” a sexy superhero boy band clad in plastic-tablecloth uniforms comes to the aid of 99¢onlyvillage. The residents are being menaced by the Hollow Mirror Man, who is selling them flinty hand mirrors with no reflective surface.

The eight members of Peace Squad clash with their villain rock-opera style, battling through ‘70s-tinged Korean k-pop and rap numbers. At one point, after establishing peace on the Korean peninsula, our heroes, the members of the all-white Peace Squad, sing a perfectly harmonized “Arirang,” a song that tugs at every Korean’s heartstrings, in Korean.

At opening night Saturday, the crowd was “Nutcracker” meets Spaceland. Parents herded their elementary-age kids, who were bundled up in coats and hats against the blustery night. Hipsters -- hair dyed black, pants slung low -- wrapped their long, multicolor scarves around and around their necks.

Most in the sold-out house had been to last year’s show, and Roht’s confections were on their way to becoming an Eastside holiday tradition.

The 99¢ theme might suggest a shoestring community musical riding on kitsch appeal. But Roht draws upon a particularly creative community. He pulled together 25 designers and a cast of more than 40 professional singers and dancers, who donated their time and effort.

What’s it like wearing plastic-and-vinyl costumes for your art?

“You just have no idea how wet underclothes can get until you have done back-to-back perfs of a 99¢ show,” said Colleen Wainwright, who plays a stilt-walking mom in the village.

“Ken’s smart about showing people’s strengths and abilities and limitations -- he’s very intuitive,” said Raul Staggs, who plays the village mayor.

His 99¢onlyvillage is, of course rescued by the Peace Squad with their retro derring-do and some fairy-tale sparkle dust -- also courtesy of the 99¢ Stores.

Good overcomes evil. Creativity trumps cash.

Except, maybe, at the wine bar.

*

‘Peace Squad Goes 99’

Where: Evidence Room, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles

When: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Fridays; 6 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 5 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Ends: Dec. 19

Price: $15

Info: (213) 381-7118 or www.evidenceroom.com