‘A Bur-Less-Q Nutcracker’ returns to deliver holiday laughs
RICH LOPEZ | Staff Writer
rich@dallasvoice.com
It’s easy to lose count of the different Nutcracker shows in the Dallas Fort Worth area, but one truly stands out from the rest — and on its own terms. Actor, director and playwright Mark-Brian Sonna returns to the stage with his own irreverent Nutcracker at the Studio Theater in Addison. But this time, he’s updated the show with the hottest topic of the moment.
“Every year the show gets a rewrite to update it with the current hot topics,” Sonna said. “This year’s version could be nicknamed the ‘COVID edition,’ as the show references and pokes fun at some of the cultural insanity surrounding the disease.”
The Beulaville Baptist Book Club Presents A Bur-Less-Q Nutcracker runs through Dec. 26.
In the show, the Beulaville Baptist Book Club needs to save their club from financial hardship, so they do a fundraiser show of The Nutcracker with the Beaumont Ballet. The company gets sick from some bad casserole, but a burlesque troupe is there to save the day.
Clearly, this ain’t your traditional Tchaikovsky.
“The most original, unusual, and comical Nutcracker you have ever seen,” Sonna declared. “We are proud that, over the last decade, we have ruined the ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ for thousands of people in North Texas with much glee.”
Sonna’s got the accolades to back that up, too. His MBS Productions won the Goldstar National Nutcracker award, aka “The Nutty,” in 2014, beating out companies such as the Joffrey, San Francisco Ballet and Atlanta Ballet. That lead to being featured in ABC Nightline and Despierta America on Univision, as well as coverage as far out as London and Sydney.
It was nominated by BroadwayWorld.com for best play of the year in 2014, and by the local Column awards in 2007 for best new play.
Through his tenacity, Sonna has created a tradition with merit.
“I think part of the fun of it is [that] it’s like revisiting an old friend,” he said. “We’ve become holiday staples for our audiences who have made it a tradition. And then for newcomers, they think that they have stepped into insanity.”
Like other theater companies, MBS Productions was shut down last year due to the coronavirus.
So, while this year would have been the show’s 15th staging, Sonna’s fine with 14. He’s just glad to be back.
“I’ve missed theater so much,” he said. “And with my regular job as an interpreter and also working with hospitals, I’ve been so involved with COVID these past years. I think this is why it’s the COVID edition of the show. All the characters are vaxxed like eight times with each type of shot.”
It’s not surprising the show includes the pandemic in its story. Sonna often mixes current events into his Nutcracker.
“There are parts of the script when I did my first rewrite that I noted I could pop in whatever commentary I could,” he said. “We have a #metoo joke and the Southlake school board makes an appearance. In the script, it’s literally ‘insert topic.’
“Plus, Ted Cruz is the gift that keeps on giving, so if we can get him in there, great.”
What he didn’t expect is how some of his original writing that was topical in the beginning is still so today. This may be good for a writer, but not so good for a society.
“Firstly, I’m just trying to make a funny show, which it is. But some of the lines I wrote then about banned books and questions of race have taken relevance again,” he said. “I wrote those jokes a decade and a half ago, and they still work. The topics are fodder but little did I know they’d still be relevant. I guess the world hasn’t changed much.”
But the laughs and irreverent take on the story all come first. With its adult humor, F-bombs and the audience getting mooned, Sonna thinks its about time to bring these back to the stage.
“If it were a film, it would be rated R,” he mentioned. “But our shows are already filling up. I think people are hungry for that right now.”
The Beulaville Baptist Book Club presents A Bur-Less-Q Nutcracker runs through Dec. 26 at the Studio Theatre, 15650 Addison Road. MBSProductions.info.
