By Marian Daniells, News Correspondent
As the holidays approach, one girl is sure to be on Santa’s naughty list:’ Vanessa White. She’s the director, choreographer and producer behind ‘The Slutcracker,’ a burlesque parody of the less-vulgar holiday classic, incorporating strip teases, pole dancing and some skin. It’s is a scene-by-scene retelling of ‘The Nutcracker,’ but instead of focusing on mice and nutcrackers, White’s version revolves around adult toys. The News sat down with White to find out more about how the burlesque show came to be.
Huntington News:’ Can you give a little background about yourself?
Vanessa White:’ Well, I’m Massachusetts-born and raised and I’ve been dancing since I was a toddler until about 2000, when I blew out my knee. I thought it was going to end my dancing career, but apparently it didn’t because I found burlesque a few years later. I have a very strong dance background and I decided to bring that background in creating ‘The Slutcracker.’
HN:’ How did you come up with the idea?
VW:’ I was actually lying on my couch. I was sick and I was watching a ballet on TV, feeling nostalgic for the ballet I used to study, you know, every day of my life [laughs]. I was just brainstorming, thinking about how I could marry these two parts of my life:’ the technique and discipline of ballet and then the freedom of burlesque. So I just started thinking about the shows I could do and ‘The Slutcracker,’ I mean the name came first.
HN:’ Are you allowed to give away any of the storyline? How is it different from ‘The Nutcracker?’
VW:’ I can give you the basic storyline, but I don’t want to give any of the big surprises away. But basically it’s about Clara and Fritz, a pretty vanilla, suburban, yuppie couple. You know, the kind that’s trying too hard [to meet social expectations]. And when Fritz proposes to Clara, Clara’s aunt, Drosselmeier, doesn’t approve partly because she doesn’t like Fritz, but partly because it’s evident that there’s really no passion in the relationship. And [Drosselmeier]’s like, ‘No, you need to find excitement, you need to find passion.’ And so instead of giving Clara a nutcracker toy, she gives her another kind of toy’hellip;
Eventually, Clara is won over by our Slutcracker Prince and taken to the Land of Sexual Fantasy, where [audiences] will see belly dancing, they’ll see bondage, they’ll see dominatrixes, just a complete bacchanal, orgiastic performance. And we have men, we have women, we have gays and straights, we have transgender people and people in drag, and so we’re really trying to cover all our bases, sexually, in the show. And if there were a message we had in the show, it’s just that sex is OK and you should enjoy it.
HN:’ How long did it take you to write?
VW:’ It took me from when I thought of the name, which was April [2008] to opening night in December [2008]. It went through a lot of different versions. Like I said, I came up with the name first ‘hellip; but there was a real collaborative effort where the [cast and crew] wanted to be involved in the show as well. When my cast and crew have suggestions, I am so totally open, because I can’t think of everything. So with the final product, things are still changing, even now. Little things are changing just to make the show better.
HN:’ Have you ever done anything like this before?
VW:’ I wrote a few plays in college, one of which got produced at the college. I’ve done some playwriting, I’ve done some screenwriting; I’ve directed dance productions that weren’t set to story lines, where I’ve done the bulk of the choreography, the lighting design, the stage direction. I even produced a very small show for my staff when I was running a coffeehouse. I just got really frustrated one day [with the way customers treated the staff] and to my staff was like, ‘We’re going to showcase all of your talents. You ready? We’re putting on a variety show!’ [Laughs] And we did. And it was great, we had a great time, acting and singing and tap dancing and puppetry and painting and movies. We just showcased everyone’s talents. So that was a lot of fun.
HN:’ How would you describe burlesque?
VW:’ Burlesque means a lot of different things to different people. I feel that ‘The Slutcracker’ is aiming for as true a burlesque as there is. Historically, burlesque was more a sketch comedy and parodying larger works, taking something that’s high society entertainment and bringing it in a funny, lighthearted kind of way, a way that kind of makes fun of high society to the lower classes. And I feel like that’s what ‘The Slutcracker’ does. It takes the ballet and it makes fun of it, it puts a new twist on it, makes it sexy.
There is, of course, the association that people have with burlesque that is, you know, the sexy dancing and the strip tease, which wasn’t originally part of the burlesque theatre genre. That was added later as a way to get people in seats. And then burlesque evolved into what we have now, which is club stripping.
What I try to do is take the concepts of burlesque strip tease, a lot of tease, a lot of character, a lot of theatricality, but I like to keep it contemporary. But still keep it lighthearted. That’s how I feel burlesque should be:’ contemporary, socially relevant, even sometimes political.
HN:’ ‘The Slutcracker’ certainly sounds controversial. What were people’s initial reactions?
VW: In terms of audience, I don’t think anyone knew what to expect. So I think most of the people were very surprised, and delighted, and I’m going to go as far as to say aroused. I hear a lot of accounts of people in the audience just making out, fondling each other. So, hey, if you can put on a show that makes people want to get busy, what’s wrong with that?
And it’s funny; I think a lot of the controversy comes from the fact that Boston is a pretty prudish town, rooted in all these Puritanical values that we just can’t seem to shake. I think that’s where a lot of the controversy came from. People aren’t prepared to see that in Boston.
HN:’ Do you have any future aspirations for the production? Do you think it will get bigger in the coming years?
VW:’ I would love it to. I truly feel that the Somerville Theatre will always be the home of ‘The Slutcracker’ because they were instrumental in making this happen for us. They were just very supportive and really wanted to get some theatre back in their theater. The manager there, Ian [Judge], is really excited about turning it back into a performance space for theatre [rather than movies]. So because of the Somerville Theatre and how wonderful they were, taking us in, we will always have a home there, we will always do performances there.
But I would love to bring it to New York, I want to bring it to Montreal. If I can tour with it, if that’s something that becomes possible, absolutely.
‘The Slutcracker’ is showing at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Dec. 10 to 13 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 17 to 20 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets cost $20 in advance and $25 at the door; ages 18+. For more information, go to Somervilletheatreonline.org.
