Dixie’s Tupperware PARTY – and I’m Buying – July 2014
“Dixie’s Tupperware Party” is billed as “not your grandmother’s Tupperware party.” Yet it still has all the love and camaraderie and sideshow salesmanship to entrance you from minute one. Actually from before minute one because the hostess, Dixie, works the aisles before the show passing out candy and making sure you feel welcome.
And it really is an actual Tupperware party – audience members receive a catalog and pen and can purchase items in the lobby after the show. Every time an item is introduced, the lights go up and you can find the item to purchase in your catalog. And I’m buying. (Actually I “bought” – in a Westlake garage but I’m still using the dark blue plastic tray every day!)
And just as at a real Tupperware party where everyone shares their stories in the comfort of a real home, so Dixie shares her rags to riches American story. Only this trailer-trash housewife from Mobile (get it?), Alabama includes surviving a stint in prison and three husbands, Dixie is the sometimes-proud parent of 3 children; Wynona, Dwayne, and Absorbine, Jr. But that doesn’t mean she’s not familiar with L.A. and all its quirky residents, as she rolls her eyes and rattles off all the diet drinks that require measuring containers, including the “Lindsay Lohan and Brentwood Gluten-Free.”
Because of her extensive experience and sense of merriment as a hostess, Dixie has many alternative uses she has discovered for her Tupperware plastic products – such as jello shots for the cupcake holder tray. Yes, there is Dixie’s tongue-tied slurring of the drunk and the sexual innuendo that must surely come from demonstrating drinking from these products.
But it is all in such good fun – and the descriptions and instructions for the Tupperware are earnest and informative. Who knew that Tupperware was guaranteed for the life of the owner? The most hilarious moments came when Dixie imagines the reading of the will and the Tupperware comes up on the list. (and this L.A. audience in the Q. and A. camp up with so many technical and detailed questions on this subject that it dazzled Dixie)
Do I sound out of breath? Well, hey, y’all, I just have so many good things to say. And I’m not alone. Turns out is the longest running off-broadway show since it opened in 2006. There is so much care in it. As audience members we got a survey request from Dixie the morning after — lovingly addressed to “hey hookers.”
The writer, Kris Andersson, apparently took on this project on as a dare, and never looked back. Kris righteously earns over $25,000 a month from real Tupperware sales, and the show has brought in almost 3M in ticket sales to date.
Kris’ alter ego, Dixie Longate (get it?), is a delight. If Gilda Radner and Dame Edna Everage had a kid this would be it – not only in looks but the feeling that this character enfolds every single person in the audience and the message of the show is that we all matter. Hey, if Dixie was at the bottom of the pack of humanity and made it, so can everyone else.
Dixie’s timing and use of repetition is Jackie Mason perfection. By the end of the line, you are mesmerized and Dixie will have you laughing your head off.
The other message is endurance. Just look at the party concept that was created by Brownie Wise at Tupperware 60 years ago – by a woman! A woman in a corporate world! That Bonnie was also kicked aside by this same corporation, is equally important and not to be repeated by us.
The show is inter-active. And God help the hapless souls who are at the other end of Dixie’s tongue. Cabaret style, Dixie also talks to people from the audience and has a raffle prize drawing – this was one show where I was happy I did not win! On stage are four intentionally unsuspecting Tupperware party guests on couches. The added fun for me was that one of them onstage- was my verrrry shy, unsuspecting local librarian — watching her was a hoot.
The Geffen Playhouse currently presents Dixie’s Tupperware Party, in the intimate Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater. Written by Kris Andersson, the show is Produced by Down South LLC and directed by Patrick Richwood, Dixie’s Tupperware Party will feature costumes designed by Miss Longate and lighting designed by Richard Winkler.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Tuesday – Friday 8 pm
Saturday at 3pm and 7 pm
Sunday at 2pm and 7 pm
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets priced from ($55 – $60) are available in-person at the Geffen Playhouse box office, via phone at 310.208.5454 or online at www.geffenplayhouse.com. For groups of 10 or more please inquire at [email protected]
For more information please visit www.dixiestupperwareparty.com and www.geffenplayhouse.com. Audrey Skirball Kenis TheaterGeffen Playhouse10886 Le Conte Ave. Los Angeles, 9002
BIOGRAPHIES
Dixie Longate (Actor)
Dixie Longate, America’s #1 Personal Seller of Tupperware, hails from Mobile, Alabama. She got her start with the fantastic Plastic bowls in 2001 when her parole officer mandated that she get a job in order to get her children returned to her custody. Within a year, she was in among the top sellers in the nation because of her unique perspective on those plastic bowls that have been around since 1948.
Patrick Richwood (Director)
Patrick Richwood has been associated with Dixie Longate since her earliest days in the world of food storage and is delighted to be collaborating on her quest to save the world, one collapsible bowl at a time (item # 503!).
Kris Andersson (Playwright)
Kris Andersson is a Los Angeles-based writer who debuted Dixie’s Tupperware Party at the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival. Following that run, he teamed up with playwright Elizabeth Meriwether and director Alex Timbers to create the Off-Broadway version of the show at Ars Nova. The show received the 2007/08 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance.