Nuts!

Editorial
A crafty mix of slick nightclub acts, sleazy cabaret, and surreal Fellini-esque shenanigans, Ballet of the Dolls’ Nutcracker: The Lost Act! probes the underside—and the funny side—of Holiday traditions. BOD’s director Myron Johnson can always be counted on to subvert a sacred cow like the ubiquitous Nutcracker ballet, but this time he’s teamed up with Le Cirque Rouge, a classic burlesque troupe, conspiring with LCR’s director Amy Buchanan to produce one heck of an over-the-top evening of song and dance. The jazzy music is rendered by a game live combo (Eric Edwalds, John Etzell, Tom Lyseng and Robert Russell), interspersed with a taped collage of snippets from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and weirder, wilder contemporary stuff. There is plenty of torchy vocalizing by the lovely ladies of Le Cirque Rouge, complemented by the growly syncopations of singer Eight Ball Jones. Most of the music, however, is so over amplified that my seat was literally vibrating, and I had difficulty hearing the lyrics. The program notes tell us that these are the “lost” acts of the famous Nutcracker ballet, discovered by the grandchildren of a Russian ballerina after her death in 2010. So, in this rendition, Act Three takes place after nubile Clara (Valerie Torres-Comvalius) wakes up with the broken Nutcracker toy cradled in her arms. She finds herself in a cityscape where bustling pedestrians in black sashay with Broadway honky-tonk verve. They shimmy and shake, strut and preen, quickly morphing into Fellini grotesques straight out of 8 ½—ladies of the night with distorted, sequined anatomies, transvestites, and your run-of-the-mill urban weirdos. As a woman sings “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” three gigolettes pump and grind in boilerplate vamp moves. One number references “primitive” nightclub acts from Josephine Baker and 1930’s films (like the “Hot Voodoo” number in Blond Venus), complete with lurid flaming backdrops, steel drums, and fantastical “savages” costumed as animal hybrids. Clara views all this with wide-eyed innocence, especially when a mob of Sybarites strip her to her underwear. Never mind—pretty soon someone in a gold cape gives her a new dress, and she’s off to new adventures with Mr. Wonderful (Garron Haubner), a mysterious guy in a suit who seems more nice than naughty, and who quickly wins Clara’s heart. Witty homages to the Nutcracker include Susie Snowflake, played by Queenie von Curves, and a bunch of white-turbaned snowflakes/icicles. In a deliciously silly ballet bouffe, they usher Clara from a cold and desolate Minnesota winter to the much hotter Land of Club Clara. In Act Four, Club Clara materializes in all its seedy splendor, with Mr. Wonderful as the Emcee who introduces various acts, mostly striptease numbers, for Clara’s entertainment. In this Land of the Politically Incorrect, Queenie is a wayward dreidel in a medley of Hanukkah songs, while Tomahawk Tassels bounces through a faux Native American dance in which she delicately demolishes a great big bunny rabbit. The “acts" go beyond gotta-have-a-gimmick burlesque to cleverly send up the ballet tradition of character dance variations that are performed in the Nutcracker and other 19th century classical ballets. The original Arabian Variation, for instance, becomes a torrid Dance of the Seven Veils by Katrin “Miss Fanny May” Snider, while the stirring Russian Dance becomes a duet between two vodka soused, heavily sequined ladies. And in a nod to patriotic zeal, Ashley “Buttercup Flowers” Swenson delivers a stirring rendition of “God Bless America,” modestly draped in red, white and blue, before stripping down to a baroque bra and panties while a chorus line kicks up a storm to “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Eventually there are even fiery tassels twirling in the dark. After Clara has been convinced to go Gypsy Rose Lee and dance a sweetly sexy duet with Mister Wonderful, she wakes up to realize it was all just a dream. And what an imagination that girl has! So has Johnson, who had the wisdom to see how perfect the pairing of Ballet of the Dolls and Le Cirque Rouge could be. Pairing this terrifically entertaining show with a glass of red wine or other cocktail (available in the Ritz Theater’s lobby) could be the perfect blue antidote to the Holiday blahs. Ballet of the Dolls ”Nutcracker: The Lost Act” Ritz Theater, Minneapolis Through Dec. 31st Tickets: $23-$27 612-436-1129 or www.ritzdolls.com/tickets
Headshot of Linda Shapiro
Linda Shapiro
Linda Shapiro writes about dance and performance for local and national publications. She was a founder and artistic codirector of New Dance Ensemble. She has received numerous grants and awards for choreography, including a Bush and several NEA, McKnight, and Jerome Foundation fellowships.