The dominatrix whip kittens are my new favorite part

[teenybuffalo]

From my FB post at intermission:

I'm at The Slutcracker and having an awesome time. Am I comically missing the point if I say that was a beautiful sex scene? The title character has the face of Dionysus himself. Pink sparkly Dionysus.

Comments

[teenybuffalo]

After the show, the performers appeared around the back of the auditorium to meet up with friends and family members. (It was opening night. The director's mother was in the audience. I didn't see more of her than the back of her head, so I couldn't gauge her reaction, but I hope she enjoyed herself too.) I found myself face to face with the dancer who played Fritz, and gushed at him, and he got emotional and we hugged. I'll never wash my shirt again.

Two years ago, you wrote this excellent comment on my post about my first viewing of "The Slutcracker." I churlishly didn't acknowledge it at the time, and I'd like to fix that now. You were 100% right that Fritz isn't the villain; conformist heteronormativity is. (I thought about various tumblr posts that are like, "[reports on obnoxious heteronormative thing] This just in: the straights are unappealing and weird.")

Clara's journey of Sexual Awakening was better this year, because of one thing I don't remember from my first viewing. The pole dance was performed by Clara herself, with some initial hesitancy and then with carefree mannerisms and great pride, while the Slutcracker Prince lay underneath her making submissive gestures, spreading his legs, writhing, etc. The first time I saw this show, the pole dance was just one more performance that Clara got to watch, so that moment of character didn't happen.

BTW, the dancer who played Clara was both a very funny person (she and Fritz did a great job throwing toddler temper tantrums at different times) and a skilled performer who pretended not to care when one of her pasties flew off in the final number. (She didn't look uncomfortable, but the audience got uneasy. I was relieved that no one hooted at her or made a joke out of it. I mean, the whole audience had been leering at the other performers nonstop, but real, unintentional nudity was too real. Someone found her a mismatched pasty very quickly for her curtain call.)

Drosselmeyer was similar to or the same performer I saw my first year: a curvy, bleached-white-haired woman with the physical presence of Ursula the Sea Witch. She was very funny -- they did the gag "Did we just switch this vibrator on? Nah, it's Drosselmeyer's phone buzzing," which I remember from years past. I think it was a new feature that she got brought back a lot in the second half to shoo performers around and hassle the cleanup person who valiantly swept up all the debris.