Beyond Wicked: Arts Off The Beaten Path, 11/20/07

The following is a re-print of a monthly column for The Examiner of Pleasantville and Mount Kisco. The column appears on the third Tuesday of each month. The paper is available weekly, free of charge, throughout these two towns.

BEYOND WICKED
Exploring the Arts Off the Beaten Path
By Anna Becker

EXORCISING THE SUGAR PLUMS

Going NUTS? Feel like you’re going to CRACK if you have to live through one more season of holiday extravaganzas? Hey, you live in New York, do you really think there isn’t an alternative? Here are a few suggestions for a festive, yet non-traditional holiday season…

500 Clown Christmas

Beginning on an upbeat note, there’s Suicide Christmas at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn from December 13-15. The Tiger Lillies, a London band characterized as an “anarchic Brechtian street opera trio” celebrates the end of the year by premiering a characteristically wicked set of holiday songs. The Tiger Lillies are nothing short of an international cult phenomenon, with a decades-long career spent fusing the spirit of punk with the passion of Left Bank Paris and the savagery of Dickensian underculture. St. Ann’s Warehouse is located in the DUMBO (down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass) section of Brooklyn, which is now an ultra-hip neighb - thanks in large part to St. Ann’s itself.

C'est Duckie!

In downtown Manhattan there are several alternatives to shows of Christmas past, including The Baby Janes Holiday Kisses at LaMama Experimental Theatre Club from December 14-23. Go party with the babes that TimeOut Magazine calls the "VaVaVoom Girls.” Anything goes in Holiday Kisses – from the Quadruple trapeze, to sexy dancers, funky live music and singing to Burlesque and Ballroom. A few blocks north at P.S. 122, you can take in two holiday treats: 500 Clown Christmas (from December 21-30) and C’est Duckie! from December 20 - January 19 at an off-site location on Suffolk Street. 500 Clown is an award-winning company that wields circus arts, improvisation, and action-based performance to create a clown-rock-pop-jazz-theatre-concert-party. Diving into the dark and light sides of the all consuming consumer-driven yet still surprisingly touching Christmas season, three clowns and a three-piece band throw a celebration, complete with a holiday toast, gift-giving, and original live music. C’est Duckie, described by Time Out London as "Delicious bite sized burlesque" is a London-based, Olivier Award-winning, interactive nightclub performance experience. Armed with Duckie dollars upon entering, guests at each table can order from a show menu of craftily titled "acts" at will. Shows include a variety of theatrical fare - vaudeville, ventriloquism, balloon modeling, broken down burlesque - from the suggestive to the transgressive to the downright offensive. At last, whether they've been naughty or nice, New Yorkers can experience this swanky showbiz spectacular for themselves.

500 Clown Christmas

And you don’t always have to leave the kids at home to experience the offbeat, outrageous, or unusual. On the Upper West Side from December 7-9, Symphony Space will welcome the NY Revels Scandinavian Christmas where you can travel to Finland and Scandinavia in the wintry land of forests, lakes and villages; hear the lyrical cadence of the Kalevala, Finland's epic poem, telling of the birth of the world and the grand theft of the moon and the sun. Enchanting music is brought to life by the Karelian Folk Music Ensemble, and Norway's championship dancers, along with the Revels adult and children's choruses. Also on the Upper West from December 2-30, there’s Folksbiene Playhouse’s Kids & Yiddish: Ode to Oy! This multi-media musical satire gleefully mixes Jewish folk traditions with popular culture in its 9th annual holiday symphony of shtick.

So, once again, I entice you to walk out your front door and experience the passion, humanity, and outrageous artistry that lie behind your backyard and just a little Beyond Wicked.