First performed in 1892 in Russia, Tchaikovsky’s score for “The Nutcracker,” especially the charming selections featured in the suite, have become a Christmas holiday mainstay in the United States. According to New York Times reporter Daniel J. Wakin, major American ballet companies generate approximately 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of “The Nutcracker.” This makes sense because family entertainment, onscreen or live, is usually a box office bonanza.
But Brooklyn’s Company XIV, a contemporary, yet Baroque inspired mixed media dance/theater company, is fearless when it comes to re-imagining a classic created for children and twerking it into an audacious adult eye-popper featuring nudity, drag queens, S&M, a stripper’s pole, and a swinging penis, which impart a decadent bohemian visual vibe, all bordello grandeur with red lights and smoky haze.
The night I saw it, the house had a roof-raising share of Company XIV fans, steadfast supporters who have seen their work before, as well as a gaggle of gay males who applauded the drag queens as vigorously as if cross-dressers had not been sighted in Greenwich Village since the annual Gay Pride parade last June. Many viewers came to cheer and encourage, predisposed toward unconditional love.
This version of “The Nutcracker” is a big buffet seductively spread over a skinny storyline but long on thongs: innocent Marie has a close encounter with naughty temptations set to the music of Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Madonna, Grace Jones, and others.
Garbed like Maria Antoinette and about to lose her head to lustful fantasies, Laura Careless is Marie Claire, a ballerina who will (eventually) shed her inhibitions and her clothing. Jeff Takacs is Mr. Drosselmeyer, who undertakes the mis-education of Marie by introducing her to X-rated “candy”
— — sugar plums, Turkish delight, peppermint candy canes, black licorice, macaroons, and more.
“Nutcracker Rouge” presents licorice as an all-male S&M nearly-nude rumble — — gay bondage meets The Sharks and The Jets.
The peppermint themed dance is a stand-out. Holding a hoop, Courtney Giannone wove herself into a gravity-defying routine with such panache and perfection that she made it seem easy (which it couldn’t be).
Acts that combine Olympian athletics with dance or grand jetes are marvelous to behold. Costumes are a lush impasto of sequins, glitter, tutus, rhinestones, netting, and Tinseltown frills over trim, toned, muscled bodies.
The piece is not without its yawns. As the narrative wandered along, too much was middling — — so unmemorable that I had to rely on my scribblings to reconstruct whole sections. Perhaps it’s fitting that the heart of “Nutcracker Rouge” has as much substance as a marshmallow. Nevertheless, if you like sweet nothings, you will enjoy it.
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* * Runtime for Company XIV’s New York Premiere of “Nutcracker Rouge” is 1 hour and 45 minutes (including intermission).
* * Where: Performances run Off-Broadway until January 5, 2014 at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane) in the Greenwich Village section of NYC. Visit http://www.NutcrackerRouge.com
