Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Heady alternative holiday fare in Brooklyn: A VERY MEOW MEOW HOLIDAY SHOW & NUTCRACKER ROUGE

• By drediman
• December 14, 2019
• No Comments

This past week in Brooklyn, I got in the holiday spirit by catching two alternative – and very adult – holiday shows.

The company of Company XIV’s “Nutcracker Rouge” at Théâtre XIV. Photo by Mark Shelby Perry.

First up in Bushwick was Company XIV’s holiday show Nutcracker Rouge, (RECOMMENDED) a very naughty and definitely non-traditional interpretation of “The Nutcracker”. The only other time I’ve seen the annual presentation was six years ago, and it’s morphed into a different experience. Then, the production played Greenwich Village’s Minetta Lane Theatre and had a running time of ninety minutes (sans intermission). Now, at the company’s immersive, specially-designed permanent home in Brooklyn, the show luxuriously stretches out across two-and-a-half hours, including two libation-driven intermissions. Despite the enhancements, the slinky spirit of the show remains the same, and its barebones plot still jarringly jumps to the “land of the sweets” almost immediately. It’s an ideal approach for Company XIV, whose strengths lie in its distinctively heady melding of circus arts, burlesque, cabaret dance, opera, pop, Baroque, and S&M (got all that?), a visionary aesthetic that’s been chiseled perfection by founder and artistic director Austin McCormick over the years. Theatrical storytelling has always been secondary to the company’s sensibility, and that’s just fine. Indeed, with acts – including many old favorites (like opera singer cum circus artist Marcy Richardson), as well as some welcome new talent – as seductive, stylish, and immaculately performed (and gorgeously lit) as these, who needs subtext.

Meow Meow in “A Very Meow Meow Holiday Show” at the Harvey Theater. Photo by Richard Termine.

Then in downtown Brooklyn – to help close out Brooklyn Academy of Music’s successful 2019 Next Wave Festival – I caught the fabulous and outrageous Meow Meow, who is in the midst of a weeklong residence at the Harvey Theater at the newly-christened BAM Strong. In lieu of more elaborate holiday offerings (like Mark Morris’s The Hard Nut), BAM this year has instead opted for more intimate fare in the form of the aforementioned international cabaret artist’s A Very Meow Meow Holiday Show (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). The Harvey is the largest venue I’ve seen her perform in, and the big-voiced diva easily dials up her act and commands the space (complete with some show-capping body surfing!). In the show, Meow Meow takes on a character that appears to be inspired by a female version of Scrooge from A Christmas Carol (or Dr. Seuss’s the Grinch), a cynical, closed-off woman with an aversion to sweet-natured children. As formulaic as this may sound, the voluptuous and multi-talented Meow Meow stamps the show with her singular self-effacing dominatrix persona and some uncommonly smart and theatrical banter. Over the course of 90 minutes, she takes the audience on a wild ride – with a few surprises along the way – that’s delectably entertaining, even stirring. By the end of it all, Meow Meow had us all but eating out of her hand.

NUTCRACKER ROUGE
Cabaret/Dance
Company XIV / Théâtre XIV
2 hours, 25 minutes (with two intermissions)
Through January 26

A VERY MEOW MEOW HOLIDAY SHOW
Cabaret
BAM’s Next Wave Festival / Harvey Theater
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through December 14