Acclaimed burlesque-infused adaptation of A Christmas Carol returns with all-star cast.
December 4 - 22, 2023 at Lips
“If you like your spiritual redemption stories perked up with pasties and tassels, this is the Carol for you.” -- Time Out NY
"[The] nudest Scrooge in history... Perhaps this “Christmas Carol” isn’t the best choice for the kiddies." -- Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times
Charles Dickens immortal classic drops its knickers and gets down to business in FILTHY LUCRE: A Burlesque Christmas Carol, presented by Porkpie Productions in association with Spin Cycle. Adapted, written and directed by Jonny Porkpie ("Dead Sexy" "Pretençión" and "The Corpse Wore Pasties" from Hard Case Crime), this unique blend of theater and burlesque returns December 4 - 22 at Lips (227 E 56th St, New York, NY 10022).
Welcome to The Filthy Lucre, where the cover charge is exorbitant, the drinks are watered down, and management steals the performers' tips. What sort of money-grubbing miser would would run a "Gentleman's Club" like this? Who else but Scrooge? And so she does, in FILTHY LUCRE: A Burlesque Christmas Carol, a stripteasing twist on Dickens' classic holiday tale. When the scantily-clad spirit of her former business partner returns from the grave, the "nudest Scrooge in history" (NY Times) goes on a tassel-twirling journey with the Ghosts of Burlesque Past, Present, and Future. Will this haunting bump-and-grind-through-time help bitter Ebeneza see the error of her exploitative ways? Of course it will. You know the story, but you've never seen it quite like this.
Performance are:
• Wednesday, December 4 at 7pm
• Friday, December 6 at 9:30pm
• Friday, December 13 at 9:30pm
• Friday, December 20 at 9:30pm
• Sunday, December 22 at 9:30pm
Tickets are $24 for general admission or $38 for VIP tickets that include reserved seating and a post-show photo op, available at www.SpinCycleNYC.com. IMPORTANT: There is also a $25 food minimum at 7pm performance -- drinks do not count toward that minimum; There is a $25 food or drink minimum at 9:30pm performances.
This year, FILTHY LUCRE takes over legendary drag club LIPS (“exactly the sort of glam, camp, gloriously over-the-top venue Scrooge would have stolen,” according to writer Jonny Porkpie) for five redemptive yet raucous nights. New to the cast for 2024 are multi-talented actor/singer/director/burlesquer Scout Durwood (currently starring in Speigelworld’s The Hook in Atlantic City, last seen on NY stages as Chico in Porkpie’s Marx Brothers homage A Day on the Boardwalk, A Night at the Stripshow) as Scrooge and Fancy Feast, former Miss Coney Island and celebrated author, as Scrooge’s past paramour Belle and Mrs. Cratchit, and as The Ghost of Neo Burlesque Cheeky Lane (12/13 & 12/22) and Tiger Bay (12/4 & 12/6). They join returning cast members “Godfather of Boylesque” Tigger! as Jacob Marley, Cashlee Banks as Goldie, Jonny Porkpie as Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, fetish icon Miscallaneous DomTop as The Ghost of Burlesque Yet to Come, and Headmistress of the NY School of Burlesque and author of The Burlesque Handbook Jo Weldon as the Ghost of Classic Burlesque.
Jonny Porkpie is a burlesque performer, writer, producer and emcee, and both the the self-appointed "Burlesque Mayor of New York City" and an occasional candidate for "actual" mayor of NYC. He is a frequent emcee at the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender, and a producer there for the past decade. Productions include burlesque gameshow The Naked Truth, which toured to over 30 cities in 5 countries on 3 continents; BQNY Theatrical (formerly Pinchbottom Burlesque), the "Best Burlesque" in NYC (New York Magazine, The Village Voice) which produced the Off-Broadway shows "The Pinch Brothers in The Bawdy House," (currently slated to return for Marxfest 2024) “Pretençión: un cirque de burlesque, un burlesque de cirque," and "Dead Sexy: The Off-Broadway Play"; as well as productions at venues across the country and around the world. His MFA in Creative Writing for Children has been of no help in the revision of this show.