November 4, 2011

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Tickets go on sale today (November 4) for Cabaret Red Light’s NUTCRACKER, a holiday show for adults that revives and expands on E.T.A. Ho�mann’s original story.

WHATCabaret Red Light’s NUTCRACKER, a ballet-and-burlesque retelling of the original gothic Christmas story, created by Anna Frangiosa and Peter Ga�ney. Includes original orchestral score by Rolf Lakaemper, choreogra-phy by Christine Fisler, script by Peter Ga�ney, and costumes by Anna Frangiosa.

WHEREPainted Bride Art Center | Main Stage230 Vine St., Old City Philadelphia

WHENDecember 8–11, 2011• Thursday, December 8 at 7:30pm• Friday, December 9 at 7:30pm• Friday, December 9 at 10pm• Saturday, December 10 at 7:30pm• Saturday, December 10 at 10pm• Sunday, December 11 at 7:30pm• Sunday, December 11 at 10pmOpening night: 7:30pm Thursday, December 8Reviewing members of the press are invited to attend opening night and may reserve tickets by contacting peter@cabaretredlight.com.

TICKETS$25 online, $30 at the door (opens at 6pm) Go to http://cabaretredlight.com/nutcrackerGroup discounts available (online only).

CONTACTPeter Ga�ney, Co-Directorpeter@cabaretredlight.com

CAST*Marie: Lady de WinterNutcracker: Luismi HidalgoRatman: Nick GilletteSugarplum Fairy: Christine Fisler Drosselmeyer/E.T.A. Hoffmann: Peter GaffneyPrincess Pirlipat: Melissa ForgioneCorps Dancers: Lindsay Ouellette, Erin Aweau, Gina Apuzzo, Pretty Nell Velvet

MUSICIANS*Piano: Ben KeimSaxophone, Flute: Jay DavidsonTrumpet: Chris AschmanViolin: Sarah LarsenViolin: Kaveh SaidiBass: Andrew MorrisAccordion, Vocals: Peter GaffneyPercussion: Rolf Lakaemper

ARTISTIC STAFF*Choreography: Christine FislerMusic Director: Rolf LakaemperMusic: R. Lakaemper, P. GaffneyScript: Peter Gaffney Costumes: Anna FrangiosaLighting Designer: Andrew CowlesSound Engineer: Gaetan SpurginSet Design: Gina Pickton, P. Ga�ney*All cast, musicians and artistic sta�are residents of Philadelphia, PA

ABOUT CABARET RED LIGHTSee page 2.

Mixing highbrow concepts with lowbrow

entertainment is something the troupe has

gotten very good at throughout its cabaret

performances!

– Holly OtterbeinCity Paper

Cabaret Red Light arouses the senses and stimulates the mind!

– Molly EichelCity Paper

http://cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker 1

SUMMARYFollowing last year’s series of sold-out perfor-mances at Painted Bride Art Center, Cabaret Red Light returns to tell the story of Marie’s troubling visions on Christmas Eve, using narrative dance, burlesque, shadow puppets, kinetic sculpture, and original live music.

BACKSTORYThe holiday classic that everybody knows today as Balanchine’s Nutcracker has its inauspicious beginnings as an 1816 story by E.T.A. Hoffman – a macabre, unsettling and anti-traditional adult fairytale called “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” Its conflation of fantasy and reality, as seen through the eyes of its heroine Marie, was intended as an a�ront to the pretensions of class society and a provocation to Enlightenment reason. Cabaret Red Light’s NUTCRACKER restores many of the elements not included in the Balanchine adaptation (based on Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 reworking of the tale) and even features several musical pieces composed by Ho�mann himself. It also tells the back story of the Ratman, a bogeyman of Cabaret Red Light’s own invention.

PRESS RELEASE

A ballet-and-burlesque retelling of the original gothic Christmas story.With original orchestral score by Rolf Lakaemper and choreography by Christine Fisler.

On the Main Stage at the Painted Bride Art Center, December 8 – 11, 2011.

NUTCRACKERCABARET RED LIGHT’S

LAVISH COSTUMESCabaret Red Light’s look and feel is the creation of co-director Anna Frangiosa. A ten-year burlesque veteran from Philadelphia and producer of Revival Burlesque, a monthly variety show at the Walking Fish �eater, she is also Head Mistress at the Philadelphia School of Burlesque, and has worked as a costume designer for Philadelphia’s Pig Iron �eater Company and Lantern �eater Company.

EXPERIMENTAL MUSICCreated by headman Peter Ga�ney, �e Blazing Cherrries Gypsy-Funk Orchestra is Cabaret Red Light’s “anarchist collective” of jazzmen, chamber musicians, carpetbaggers and Eurotrash. �ey play a range of musical styles, frequently layering traditional gypsy ballads over funk rhythms, glam rock and technoculture, and are currently working on their third studio album... and a gyroscopic Midi-glove.

AGITPROP AND BURLESQUEBoasting of a vast arsenal of props – including a giant mechanical owl, to-scale replica of the Atom Bomb, and 100-foot snake, to name a few – Cabaret Red Light has also come to be known for its original agitprop style musical theater and burlesque. Combining Brecht’s alienation techniques with traditional vaudeville, Red Light goes a little farther than your average cabaret, frisking down its audience at times or subjecting them to strip searches in the coat-check room.

VAUDEVILLE THEATER Cabaret Red Light’s theatrical performances feature members of Sidetracked �eater, Philly Improv, �e Waitsta� and other Philadelphia area groups. �e Red Light cast of stock characters and archetypes directly address the audience, in order to persuade them, with sweetest seductions (and sometimes pamphlets), to take part in their perversions.

Cabaret Red Light is a 30+ member troupe of Philadelphia’s most talented vaudeville performers, mixing original live music, dark comedy, puppet theatre and burlesque in the spirit of the 1920s. Since first forming in 2008, they have performed to sold out audiences at Painted Bride Art Center, Adrienne �eater, Plays and Players �eater, L’Etage, Chaplin’s Music Café, the Palace of Wonders in D.C. and PortSide New York. �ey were listed by TimeOut New York as a “must-see” and have been chosen three times by Philadelphia’s City Paper as “Agenda Pick of the Week.”

HOW IT STARTEDCabaret Red Light is the invention of Philadelphia burlesque star Annie A-Bomb (Anna Frangiosa) and Philadelphia area writer and philosophy professor, Peter Ga�ney. Since 2008, they have brought together the most talented names in the Philadelphia cabaret scene to create 23 original musicals.

http://cabaretredlight.com/CRL_about.pdf (20MB)

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PRESS { click on a link below }

NTUCRACKER 2010

Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane (WHYY )“E.T.A Ho�mann’s �e Nutcracker and �e Mouse King as Burlesque Cabaret”Interview with co-directors Ga�ney and Frangiosa by Marty Moss-Coane | December 17, 2010http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2010/12/17/e-t-a-ho�mans-the-nutcracker-and-the-mouse-king-as-burlesque-cabaret

Philadelphia Daily News“Cabaret Red Light stages burlesque 'Nutcracker' at the Painted Bride in Philadelphia”By Molly Eichel | December 16, 2010http://articles.philly.com/2010-12-16/entertainment/25292618_1_mouse-king-tchaikovsky-thongs

Philadelphia Weekly“Cabaret Red Light Nutcracker”http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/events/Cabaret-Red-Light-Nutcracker-111681809.html

RECENT PRODUCTIONS

Philadelphia Weekly“Looking Pretty and Saying Cute �ings”http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/events/Looking-Pretty-and-Saying-Cute-�ings-131145323.htmlBy Tara Murtha | October 5, 2011

Baltimore City Paper"�e Seven Deadly Seas: At Rope’s End Cabaret Red Light cruises into town aboard its seafaring theater"http://citypaper.com/the-seven-deadly-seas-at-rope-8217-s-end-1.1161673By Andrea Appleton | June 15, 2011

�e New York Times“A Veteran of the Seas, With a Crew Full of Actors”By Cate Doty | August 17, 2010http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/a-veteran-of-the-seas-with-a-crew-full-of-actors

ONLINE { click on a link below }

• Official Website: http://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker• Tickets/Homepage: http://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/home.html• Promotional Video: http://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/video

• The Nutcracker Story: http://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/story• The Company: http://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/company• Painted Bride Art Center: http://www.paintedbride.org

ABOUT CABARET RED LIGHT

�e Ratman bows to the Sugarplum Fairyhttp://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/press/images/01.jpg

�e Nutcracker consoles Mariehttp://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/press/images/03.jpg

Drosselmeyer presents the story of �e Nutcrackerhttp://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/press/images/04.jpg

Drosselmeyer’s clock strikes midnight, coming to lifehttp://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/press/images/02.jpg

O�cial promotional image for 2011 production of NUTCRACKER http://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/press/images/promo.jpg

Please click on the links below for high resolution versions of these images. Please note that these images are from the 2010 production of Cabaret Red Light’s NUTCRACKER. Some members of the cast have changed. Please contact peter@cabaretredlight.com for more information. Photo credit: David Palumbo.

�e snow begins to fallhttp://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/press/images/05.jpg

Candy girlhttp://www.cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker/press/images/06.jpg

http://cabaretredlight.com/nutcracker 3

OFFICIAL PRESS IMAGES