The Christmas season is one particularly tied up in nostalgia. So it makes sense that Verlaine & McCann’s Land of the Sweets has been a PNW holiday tradition for the last 18 years. From the lush velvet curtain of the Triple Door dinner theater, to the vintage Hollywood-style costumes and jazzy live band, everything feels steeped in a 1940/50s aesthetic that will charm any fan of the classic film White Christmas…but of course, with quite a bit more ass cheek.
Unkle Ritzy as Drosselmeyer. Photo by Angela Sterling.This not to say it’s old fashioned in a bad way. Quite the opposite. The production has had many years to fine tune this production into a pitch perfect piece of entertainment. When Unkle Ritzy warms up the crowd, it’s not with any tired how-we-doin’-tonight script, but silently conducting us with a candy-cane conductor’s wand. Within a few minutes the audience is whooping with the highs and lows of Ritzy’s conducting, perfectly primed to be a lively crowd for the rest of the two hour show.
Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker plays on the themes of the well-worn ballet, but doesn’t follow the plot or sequence. Instead the nine piece band seated onstage just behind the dancing plays original jazz arrangements of the familiar Tchaikovsky score (by Jasper McCann, Kate Olson, and Michael Owcharuk) to tell a story completely sans Clara. The premise of the show is that Drosselmeyer (Ritzy) is hosting one of his annual Christmas parties, and the burlesque numbers showcase the fantastical anthropomorphized treats in attendance, or other riffs on Nutcracker personas. Between each number, Ritzy performs an original song, monologue, or dance with a few puckish snowflakes or his maid (Red Delicious) that loosely ties it all together.
The dancing is like-wise well-tuned. Exceptional dancers execute Lily Verlaine’s mostly ballet-based choreography, but Verlaine’s choreographic skill is really in understanding how and when to reveal. A quick peek at a tasseled titty, a drawn out glove removal, a jaw-dropping tear-away pant moment. The build of tension and the use of contrast—couching naughty moments in plenty of nice—keep the sometimes formulaic art of burlesque fresh and unexpected throughout. The talented cast is a huge part of this too of course, each one understanding how to perfectly deliver their reveals with a moment of lusty lip licking or with feigned coy surprise. I find myself watching their animated faces as much as the dancing, each individual a bastion of animation and entertainment.
Daisy Dot, Lily Verlaine, Cha Cha Von Couch. Photo by Angela Sterling.A few stand-out numbers include a tap-dancing group piece with oversized glitter-pinstripe zoot suits and a take on “chocolate” where Hannah Simmons and Kit Sprudzs not only demonstrate serious dancing chops (hello split drag and shoulder sit spin) but do it with off-the-charts chemistry. Also physically impressive, Lilette Blanc’s almost contortionist arches and splits as she’s lifted and passed between two attendants in resplendent peacock costumes for the show’s “coffee” number.
The dancing and music is splendid, but pulling equal weight is the elaborate costuming. Along with main costume designer Stephanie Seymour, there’s a costume and wig crew almost as big as the ensemble, and it shows. Dripping with pearls, beading, fur cuffs, and coiffed wigs, each number displays a completely new set of lovingly crafted wearable art that exceeds any Las Vegas show girl fantasy. The “tea” variation is a particular triumph, with asymmetrical body suits painted like blue china, with teacup-shaped shoulder pieces that transform to pour out a silken veil. Each piece works effortlessly with the choreography as it’s torn and peeled off in ways you’d never guess, a marriage of form and function that makes the choreography possible.
Of course, it is not just Verlaine’s choreography that stars in the show, but Verlaine herself, who takes on several major roles throughout the performance, showing her mastery of the strip and tease. We first meet her as a sassy snow queen, then as a sparkling sugar plum emerging from a sea of lilies, then as the cigarette smoking, sultry Baroness of Bon-Bons, who makes an equally sexy affair of putting her clothes on.
Mixing up the format is part of what keeps the show so watchable. Mood and genre continually rotate, while staying true to the classic burlesque aesthetic. There’s a playful shadow dance performed in silhouette by Babette LaFave, a gorgeous aerial number performed by Vivian Tam, and a dance where giant feather fans create a continually shifting world of snow flurries and angel wings. Moments of comedy and surprise keep audiences guessing, with a couple of especially hard hitting laughs from lusty Rat King Jett Adore.
Land of Sweets is pure confection, with a little naughty fun, but still classy enough to take your parents. If you’re looking for diverse representation, this show probably isn’t it (“that’s a lot of white butts” remarked my seat-mate), but otherwise it’s hard to find a fault. The big band music is delightful, the performance titillating, and the costumes dazzling. A holiday show that’s a Seattle classic for a reason, The Burlesque Nutcracker runs at the Triple Door through December 29.
Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker is conceived, developed, directed, and produced by Lily Verlaine & Jasper McCann. More about Verlaine & McCann productions at www.verlaineandmccann.com. Tickets are available through thetripledoor.net.
Header image Cha Cha Von Couch and Trojan Original. Photo by Angela Sterling.
