Zombie Joe's Cabaret Macabre Christmas: 2021 Review

Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre, North Hollywood, CA

We’re back with another Yuletide update after a short time off, and this one hails from one of our theatrical favorites—Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre—featuring a show that just finished an all-too-short three weekend run to celebrate the season in Zombie’s typical twisted fashion. We’re referring to Cabaret Macabre Christmas, a festive winter iteration of this past August’s sensational horror burlesque performance that thrilled and chilled and conjured sensuous feels for those who were able to make it up to North Hollywood to witness this steamy, sensational sight!

(Image courtesy of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre.)

To take the easy joke and say that Cabaret Macabre Christmas puts the “ho ho ho” in the holidays would be a slight to the show. This devlishly delightful theatrical dance production features twisted and perverse humor, demented and disturbing moments, and amazing athletic artistry from a cast of talented performers. Returning the same troupe as the original show from a few months ago—Brittany DeWeese, Alyssa Burton, Cailey Christ, Darian Stranix, Michael Baker, and Laura Van Yck—and incorporating an additional performer—Daisy Donohue—into the mix as a not-as-wholesome-as-she-seems Mrs. Claus, this hour-long suggestive and salacious spectacle provides an arguably even more delectable treat than the first play, making sure to reward the naughty rather than the nice!

Brittany DeWeese, director, choreographer, and part of the cast of Cabaret Macabre Christmas.
(Image courtesy of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre.)

The show follows the same format as the “regular” Cabaret Macabre, even going so far as to spoof it by introducing Laura Van Yck’s sultry ringmaster emcee character before quickly interjecting with Mrs. Claus incapacitating her from behind, dragging her off-stage, and taking over. Although she is easily the most modestly dressed character in the show, Mrs. Claus is no stranger to the risque, sprinkling double entendres and perverted puns through her monologue as she takes over the host character presiding over the oncoming show of dancing elves and little helpers who might be the type to prefer alternative toys.

Darian Stranix, part of the cast of Cabaret Macabre Christmas.
(Image courtesy of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre.)

What ensues is a mix of familiar Cabaret Macabre skits whisked in with Christmas toppings and new segments that turn traditional noel tropes and connotations upside with dark humor and inserts of holiday horror.

An opening burlesque dance set to “Santa Baby” establishes the sexy and voluptuous tone, with Brittany, Alyssa, Cailey, and Darian showing off their strong figures and curvaceous flexibility. A passive-aggressive tap dance receives a Christmas tinge featuring competing and increasingly violent elves named “Naughty” (Alyssa) and “Nice” (Darian). The ridiculously absurd jittery cane vibrator contest between Brittany and Cailey includes, logically, a very large candy cane. The risque Russian roulette dance between Brittany and Michael is framed as a fatalistic game orchestrated by Mrs. Claus for her elves to play. A Christmas string light version of the ropes performance found at this past fall’s Urban Death: Tour of Terror is executed artfully and amazingly by Alyssa and racks up impressive performance art points.

The new additions to mix up the variety and keep some wintry freshness are also enticing and electrifying. Frolicking reindeer bound to each other by leather straps and kept in formation by the crack of a whip—all to the instrumental tune of the classic Christmas carol, “Sleigh Ride”—evoke a subtly erotic environ. A jack-in-the-box surprise reveals a horrific and hideous creature who stalks through the audience, complete with reappearances in different parts of the black box space after false finishes to the segment. The horror turns downright disturbing when a group of Rockettes (featuring just about the entire cast) are picked off by an unseen sniper one by one after each minor misstep, piling upon each other in a preposterously disconcerting mound of newly minted corpses. Perhaps the most haunting segment of the evening features Amazon.com’s Alexa summoning control over an increasingly panicking Darian Stranix, who is forced to adhere to Alexa’s goading commands for more and more deranged acts of self harm—culminating in a presumably fatal infliction of a conveniently placed nearby knife.

Laura Van Yck and Brittany DeWeese, part of the cast of Cabaret Macabre Christmas.
(Image courtesy of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre.)

If all of that doesn’t shock and repulse enough, the entire show features interludes of a most heinously bad elf, played by Laura Van Yck, appearing in positions and vignettes that start off as lewdly debaucherous and end off as horrifyingly appalling. Laura is no innocent Elf on a Shelf when she begins by showing off her cocaine snorting habit. It quickly grows worse when she’s shown enjoying a meal of literal babyback ribs (and baby body… basically she’s eat a baby). And maybe there’s a reprieve when this debased elf is lecherously satisfying Santa’s desires. But when she’s revealed as the hidden gunwoman behind the Rockettes massacre, that’s when the audience realizes that this show is not going to pull any punches.

All of this comes together as an rowdy and hysterical show that does more than enough justice to the Zombie Joe tradition of Grand Guignol and Butoh horror. This production crafts a legitimately sensual and robust display of dance choreography—all while maintaining the dark and sometimes ludicrous comedic relief that has come to characterize the licentious entertainment that is ZJU. There’s even a moment when Zombie Joe himself is satirized in hilarious and spot-on fashion. And on top of all of that, Cabaret Macabre Christ also manages to incorporate the Yuletide spirit into the fray. The cast of Cabaret Macabre Christmas should be well commended for their captivating dance orchestrations, and Brittany DeWeese should be lauded for her sublime writing and directing.

Cailey Christ, part of the cast of Cabaret Macabre Christmas.
(Image courtesy of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre.)

We said in August that we would be shocked if this show doesn’t come back in the future. And lo and behold, it did—also coincidentally around the time of another Midsummer Scream event, Season’s Screamings. But Cabaret Macabre Christmas shows that it has very well earned the ability to be an annually recurring part of the ZJU line-up. And if this year’s pattern holds, we’ll hopefully be seeing a return of this prurient production next August again, just in time for the return of the full-fledged Midsummer Scream convention!

In the meantime, kudos go out to a most sensational Christmas present to everyone who loves the theatrical sensibilities of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre!

Brittany DeWeese.
(Image courtesy of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre.)