Cracked Nuts: Camper Than Christmas – Drama Studio, Sheffield

Directors: Joseph Mercier, Imogen Reeve, Matthew Robinson

Choreographers: Joseph Mercier, Imogen Reeve, Matthew Robinson and the Cast

Right, let’s get one thing sorted right up top – this show is not what the marketing makes it out to be.Cracked Nuts: Camper Than Christmas describes itself as “a camp, cabaret remake [of The Nutcracker] with a drag comedy twist”. It fulfils that promise in only the barest terms. There IS a a Drag King, and the ARE dances; but a cabaret implies a range of performances – of which there is very little – and having someone dressed as the other gender come on and occasionally recite some poetry does not equal a “drag comedy twist”. Having two men dance together and a lot of sequins does not make something camp either. It should more correctly be advertised as a contemporary dance show with the odd narrative interlude. Don’t expect a RuPaul style production, because you’ll be very disappointed.

With that out of the way, isCracked Nuts worth the ticket price? Thankfully, yes, mostly. It’s an enjoyable night out and there is an immense amount of talent on show. Drag King Johnny the Biblical Rapper (Tessa Parr) is a genuinely funny character ably leading the audience through the story ofThe Nutcracker, in which the titular tool (Jack Warren) comes to life one Christmas Eve, much to the joy and amusement of the household children. Johnny acts as a narrator, speaking in slang filled, sometimes expletive laden verse and trying their best to get to the audience to play along. Unfortunately, as happy as this audience were to whoop and clap, they really did not want to be interacted with, which was a shame as Parr didn’t get the chance to fully show off their humour. They also didn’t help themselves by having their lines on a scrappy bit of paper – it would have been better to either learn them or at least have a well crafted prop notebook to make Johnny not look like a last minute addition or replacement.

The dancing is fabulous, with a heavy early 00s MTV vibe. The music is a mix of pop and dance by way of RnB and hiphop (Sound Editor Dinah Mullen has done an excellent job with the mixes, especially the Britney Spears and Lady Gaga portions, although they do not need to played so loudly that the audience members seats vibrate). The stage is full of glitter and mesh. The dancers are hot young men, women and non-binary folk writhing around like they walked straight out of a TV advert for Shein or Boohoo, who must have ended up with the majority of the costume budget (although considering this is dance company Glitterbomb’s first major production, that can be excused). It’s all very beautiful. Unfortunately, like a sugarplum itself, it does start to feel a little insubstantial after a while. There is a lot of choreography that relies on bum wiggling and pretend spanking, or that jerky torso movement so popular with the Backstreet Boys and K-Pop artists. While well executed, it all gets a bit samey. Every scene can clearly be seen to be telling The Nutcracker story, but not every scene needs to be repeatedly over sexualised while somehow managing to have little passion in it. This is not to say there should be no sexiness – it’s what the audience are promised after all – it just would be nice to have some variation on the theme. It might also help if the dancers looked to be enjoying themselves, but aside from one or two of them they all stick rigidly to faces of blow up doll neutrality. A smile would do wonders in many cases.

There are three notable exceptions to the bland music video blackholes. The first is a really interesting use of Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy juxtaposed with street dance movement. The second is an old school tap duet. And finally the battle between the Rat King (Amelia Long) and the Nutcracker is a Michael Jackson tribute dance off worthy of West Side Story, which just goes to show that Glitterbomb do have the talent in the company to pull off an actual cabaret. Throw in a couple more of these different styles and add a couple more drag acts and that marketing would have rung true. It can be hoped that their next show lives up to this expectation. Because, even with the issues outlined here, Glitterbomb are a company that the audience want to see more from. This show was exciting. It had a clever concept for bringing people into dance who might not usually have been bothered. And it was fun. This show has been a good dress rehearsal, and it can only be hoped that the next one ends up a knockout.

Reviewed on Tuesday 20th December 2022.