Elevator Thoughts (aka Tweet): Land Of The Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker by Lily Verlaine & Jasper McCann @ The Triple Door. Stunning costumes (that came off). Impressive dance skill/choreography. Titillating risque glamorous alternative to the same tired old family friendly traditional Christmas shows. Swinging jazz band alone is worth the admission.#ballet #xmas
Synopsis from the Theatre: Seattle’s “Most Glamorous Holiday Tradition” returns to the Triple Door for its sixteenth astounding season! Lily Verlaine and Jasper McCann are elated to announce the return of their award-winning wintertime spectacle, Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker. Voted “The Best Burlesque In Western Washington” (King 5), Land Of The Sweets has delighted tens of thousands of holiday revelers since 2006. All your favorite characters will be back, including Lily Verlaine’s Sugar Plum Fairy, the light-juggling magic of Babette La Fave, the ever-lovable Snowflakes… and of course the swinginest band in the Land, The Nutcracker Nonette! Not content to rest on their laurels, Verlaine & McCann have been working tirelessly to make 2022’s season memorable and electrifying for our new and returning guests. The cast will feature a number of fresh new faces this year (some from the most recent production of Verlaine & McCann’s Through The Looking Glass) to kick up their heels with superstar veterans like Paris Original and Viola Vector. And who knows… you might be in the audience to see a surprise appearance by a Seattle ballet star in a rotating cavalcade of Rat Kings! Lots of other surprises await… so prepare to be enchanted by Land Of The Sweets like never before! We can’t wait to see all our family, fans, and friends this holiday season for the production that Seattle Metropolitan Magazine calls “December’s best date night”! With 29 performances, tickets will go fast… Come “Swing in the Season” and celebrate the holidays with us!
Reviewed Performance: 12/7 Opening Night
Type: Burlesque Show
World Premiere: No
Live Band/Orchestra: Yes, with a big band feel of the big city!
Recommendation: See it if either 1) you like burlesque 2) you’re tired of the same old basic traditional family friendly boring Christmas shows like The Nutcracker or A Christmas Carol 3) or you want to see a spectacle to accompany your food/drinks and live music.
Rating Compared to Other Shows with the Same Production Value:
4.75 Stars (Out of 5 Stars)
Equity Actors: N/A but they were all very good. I don’t think they typically track this for non-plays or non-musicals.
Length: 2 hours
Intermission: Yes
Other Rave(s) Not Mentioned in Elevator Thoughts
- Reverse Burlesque: Usually you see clothes come off in burlesque. There was a neat act (maybe “The Baroness of Bon-Bons?”) that performed the opposite where they started with a woman in only pasties and dressed her up.
- Favorite Line: Something like “Rats, mice, shoes, oh my! Sounds like a Disney movie with a fetish.”
- Nutcracker Ballet Influence: The live band songs were derived from melodies in the traditional Tchaikovsky Nutcracker ballet suite. They should really sell a recording of their songs. The music in my video below is similar to what you’ll hear in this show. Additionally, the choreographer Lily Verlaine incorporated ballet heavily into this performance to still maintain that Nutcracker feel.
- Bullfighter Act: Very cute segment of the show
- Emcee: Joel Domenico occasionally sang throughout the show with his golden voice.
- Inclusivity: In true Seattle fashion, the show also included a man in drag and a woman who wasn’t pencil thin.
Rant(s)
- Mask: Was it really necessary for the emcee to wear a mask when he walked throughout the audience to sing? He wasn’t really protecting himself if he didn’t wear an N95. And it wasn’t worth protecting the audience since most of the waiters were already unmasked. Plus, I’d venture to say 90% of the audience was already unmasked since they were drinking and eating. For the record, I’m not an anti-masker and I actually still wear an N95 in most performances that don’t require the audience to mask up since getting sick would mess up by busy theatre schedule, which has lately been 4-5 shows per week.
- Tap Dance Shoes: I’m always ecstatic when I see a tap dance number like this show had. But I was a little disappointed to discover the dancers in the tap dance act weren’t wearing tap shoes. If the dancers were wearing tap shoes, they need to figure out a way to make them louder. A part of me thinks a tap dance segment isn’t worth performing if the audience can’t hear the clickety clack.
- Triple Door Service and Food: My vegan pad thai arrived a little cold and a bit too wet. It’s also a hard to get a waiter’s attention during the show. I suggest Triple Door invest in call buttons like those installed on airplanes or dine-in movie theatres.
Other Thought(s)
- Snow Stage Magic:
How did the 3 snowflake dancers continue to create snow from their hands? I think they pulled it from the frills of their dresses but doesn’t that destroy the dress? Leave a comment in my social media links below if you have any ideas!Someone on Instagram told me that there are actually pockets in the backsides of their dresses that they pull snow out of. Someone in the stage crew gets the glamorous job of stuffing snow back into the dancers’ butt pockets before the dancers go on stage! - Seattle Tradition: Since this show has been produced since 2006, I imagine it could be Seattle’s answer to the NYC tradition of seeing Radio City Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular during the holiday season.
- Seatmate: I thought it was hilarious that the guy who sat next to me assumed he was attending the traditional Nutcracker Ballet. Imagine his surprise when he saw pasties and thongs! But he still enjoyed the show.
Theatre Company : Verlaine and McCann
Venue: Triple Door
Venue Physical Address: 216 Union St, Seattle, WA 98101
Price: Expensive
Dates: December 7th – 30th, 2022
Seating: Assigned Seating
Parking: I usually walk or transit here. The Benaroya (University Street) lightrail station is only a block away. Other than that, there’s obviously paid garage/street parking since this venue is in downtown. I think the cheapest garage lot is generally the Russell Investments Center garage (1301 2nd Ave #1950, Seattle, WA 98101).
Social Media Posts About this Performance from Shows I’ve Seen:
Instagram |
TikTok |
Facebook |
Twitter |
YouTube
Buy a Ticket or Learn More:
- https://www.landofthesweets.com/
- https://tickets.thetripledoor.net/eventperformances.asp?evt=606
- https://www.verlaineandmccann.com/
Other Video +/- Pictures: See pictures in video and under below video.
@showsiveseen “Land of the Sweets: The #Burlesque #Nutcracker” by Lily Verlaine & Jasper McCann @ The Triple Door. Stunning costumes (that came off). Impressive #dance skill/choreography/athleticism. #Titillating #risque #sexy #glamorous alternative to the same tired old family-friendly traditional #Christmas shows. Swinging jazz band alone is worth the admission. Review: showsiveseen.com/2648 #ballet #xmas ♬ The Nutcracker Swing – OKTAVA. VU Pučiamųjų Orkestras / VU Wind Orchestra & Albinas Kučinskas
