Nutcracker in Wonderland- Digital Holiday Show!

The Nutcracker in Wonderland is a crazy holiday show I’m participating in this year.  It’s a virtual show with live elements that is being produced and brainchilded by Bay Area variety wunderkind Frank Olivier.  It opens this Saturday evening, and has tickets available here:  https://tinyurl.com/nutcrackerinwonderland

Nutcracker In Wonderland

Nutcracker in wonderland

Me as the Mad Hatter. More Happy than Mad, if you know what I mean!

The show is a mashup of The Nutcracker, Alice in Wonderland, circus, magic, and variety.  It has some stellar participants, including famous actor Malcolm McDowell as The Cheshire Cat, talk show host Conan O’Brien (!) as The Wizard, singing ventriloquist Terry Fator, (America’s Got Talent winner from season 2), bubble genius Tom Noddy, Bay Area master magicians Paul Nathan and Paul Dabek, physical comedy savant Peter Pitofsky, and of course Frank Olivier.

Oh yeah, and I’m in it too!  I play two different roles– one as the talkative part of the wonder twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Peter Pitofsky is my other half!) and then I introduce some of the acts as the Mad Hatter (cast partially because I have a very cool mad hat!)

And whatever you do, do not expect any textual fidelity.  This show veers off in all kinds of crazy directions, but towards the text is not one of them!

BEHIND THE SCENES OF
NUTCRACKER IN WONDERLAND

I participate in a mastermind group with Frank, where a group of artists meet once a week to discuss our plans, plots, and crazy ideas and encourage each other to think big.  A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, Frank announced to the group his idea, and said “I think I can get Malcolm McDowell to play the Cheshire Cat.”  He had big plans for filming in a friend’s theatre, and borrowing props from some high end productions.  It sounded great, and everybody was super excited for him.

About two weeks later, he asked me if I wouldn’t mind being one of the Tweedles along with Peter Pitofsky, and I jumped at the chance.  Things seemed to be going swimmingly.

nutcracker in wonderland

Me as TweedleDee. We couldn’t find matching beanies in time, so we went without.

And then the Covid count worsened, and California bumped up its restrictions, and suddenly a lot of the plans to use the theatre to film evaporated.  A couple of people dropped out.

Our mastermind group buoyed Frank who seemed like he was thinking about letting Covid cancel it.  But Frank didn’t waver.   And now it’s on track.  Of course there’s lots of last minute details, and changes, but all of the artists are pulling together, and I’m so excited to be part of it.   I shot my parts over the last couple of days, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun!


Conan O’Brien In Nutcracker in Wonderland.

And did I mention Conan O’Brien?  He’s in it too.
Here’s a little video he shot to help promote the show.
(Nothing shabby about that!)

As Frank says in his promo– this glorious mess is shot entirely in the artists homes with love and iphones.  (And put together costumes, props, and green screens based on what was in our houses)

Another thing I love about Frank is that he has a great guarantee– Moneyback if not delighted!

But I think you will be delighted, because what is better than artists working together to entertain?  Even if the technical elements aren’t perfect?

To support this project you can buy tickets here:
https://tinyurl.com/nutcrackerinwonderland

You can also support Frank’s Patreon page, which will help him to pull off projects like this.

https://www.patreon.com/Funnyfrank

Hope you can see (and support) the show!

 

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