Holiday audiences are getting bowled over by CHRIS MARCH’S BUTT-CRACKER SUITE! A TRAILER PARK BALLET
CHRIS MARCH’S BUTT-CRACKER SUITE: A TRAILER PARK BALLET
Here Arts Center
145 Sixth Ave. (enter at Dominick south of Spring)
Tuesday – Sunday through December 30, $50
212-352-3101
www.here.org
www.butt-crackersuite.com
One hundred and twenty years ago, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Since then, myriad versions of the story, based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s family tale about Marie and Fritz Stahlbaum, Godfather Drosselmeier, a doll that cracks nuts, a mouse queen, and a Christmas wonderland, pop up every holiday season, from movies and plays to contemporary dance and unusual variations. The latter is the case with Chris March’s Butt-Cracker Suite!, a campy production set in a trailer park. March, the Project Runway finalist and star of Mad Fashion, wrote, produced, directed, designed, and appears in the show (he plays Clara in drag), which is laced with tacky pop-culture references but includes no Sugar Plum Fairies. This is not your grandparents’ Nutcracker, in case the title didn’t already give that away.
TICKET GIVEAWAY: Chris March’s Butt-Cracker Suite: A Trailer Park Ballet is currently running through December 30 at Here, and twi-ny has four pairs of tickets to give away for free, good through December 16. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and all-time favorite version of The Nutcracker to contest@twi-ny.com by Thursday, December 6, at 3:00 to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; four winners will be selected at random.