Nutcracker Rouge

photo by jeffulya

https://www.instagram.com/jeffulya/

Another brilliant show by Company XIV, Nutcracker Rouge is probably the perfect way to spend a night out with your friends. Get lost in a sexy candy land where songs, dances and circus numbers will take your breath away. It’s a truly unique theater blend where burlesque meets musical, circus and ballet. The level of professionalism of the performers is truly impressive and the erotic aesthetic is tasteful and simply beautiful. Though the plot differs from the original, the difference is easily forgotten during the stunning performance.   

I love coming to the Minetta Lane Theater; the auditorium is dim and filled with smoke, audience is sipping wine from little jars, and some of the actors are hanging out in the dark corners of the stage in short silk robes. The atmosphere resembles the cabaret and director Austin McCormic plays with it through the character of Shelly Watson. This fantastic singer and performer is the only one who communicates with us directly introducing different numbers and making little playful jokes with the audience. She passingly hugs the bald head of a guy sitting in the audience and exclaims: “Look, your head is a size of my boob!” in the middle of her song while leading the crowd to the bar during the intermission.

Every time Shelly Watson appears on stage in a new spectacular dress, the audience gasps excitedly. She gets undressed by other dancers while singing and a few moments later we see her atop a tent-like skirt, from which dancers wearing puddle masks and pink strap-ons come out. Prepare for all kinds of surprises: from a tap dance set to the tune of Chinese Dance from the original Nutcracker ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsy, to the song “Chandelier” by Sia performed in French by Marcy Richardson while doing a circus routine on a hoop suspended in midair.

The signature set and costume design by Zane Pihlstrom as well as lighting design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew truly make the show shine. Nutcracker Rouge is festively exciting, and not just because of the nudity.