Kris Andersson, as Dixie Longate the quick-witted Tupperware lady, in “Dixie’s Tupperware Party.” The hit comedy will be at the Bushnell’s Autorino Great Hall on November 13, 14, and 15.
by Tony Schillaci & Don Church
Have you never been to a Tupperware Party? Didn’t even know they still make Tupperware?
Well, all that’s going to change on November 13, 14, and 15 when Kris Andersson, aka Dixie Longate, the quick-witted Tupperware lady, takes his/hers successful Off-Broadway laugh riot to the Bushnell’s Autorino Great Hall.
Don’t miss Dixie’s new and naughty uses for her plastic products! To quote NBC’s Today show, “This isn’t your grandmother’s Tupperware party!”
The Resident’s Critics On The Aisle were fortunate to interview Dixie herself before a performance in Cleveland. She said “a friend convinced me in 2004 – while I was out in Los Angeles – to try and make some money by selling Tupperware at parties while in drag!
“I quickly became a sales success hosting parties for straight Republican white women from Orange County,” she said in her Alabama drawl. “Those gals were having so much fun letting loose while I showed them fun and creative uses for Tupperware! Now my audiences consist of anyone who just wants to have a really good time!”
Dixie has been on a national tour with her “party” which is going on its second year. She originally took her party to the New York Fringe Festival to find a wider audience for her wares. The show then played Off-Broadway for a limited four-month run. It got rave reviews and Dixie received a nomination as Best Actress from the Drama Desk.
Her Alabama roots helped in her character development she explained, “My mama always told me ‘you can take the girl out of the trailer, but you can’t have sex at the same time with two different people and a monkey’ – no, that’s not it, but you get the idea, mama said something like that.”
She allows Dixie to be “just me – free and crazy and outspoken. People are loving it. The audience wants to have a good time or they wouldn’t come up onto the stage and be raucous and wild. They are always ready to go. I have raffles and giveaways, and we sing the Tupperware song, and just have a sweet and smiling time!”
Fans of the show have varied reactions to Dixie’s antics. “One little old lady – she was 80 if she was a day – came up to me afterward and grabbed my hand and said ‘I’ve never had so much fun at a Tupperware party – I was sitting in the front row and I was hysterical through the entire show!’ ”
Dixie continued, “You know, I’m a pretty gal, and I’ve had lots and lots of sex! And I use that at my parties. I’ll always remember a couple, Lana and Murray, who came up on stage. Later on, they told me that I had made them get downright frisky – something that hadn’t happened to them in a long time. They had to go right home and get down to business! Isn’t that sweet?”
Dixie does her own hair, makeup and costumes. “Mama taught me how to sew back in the Mobile trailer. I made the top of my costume out of a Fourth of July picnic table cloth – grease spots and all. Well, it was a perfectly good table cloth and I couldn’t see not re-using it!”
The current national tour version of “Dixie’s Tupperware Party” opened in Tucson in 2008. Every show, although cut from the same pattern, is different, depending on the audience and those who volunteer to go up on stage. It’s from this energy that Dixie keeps the show fresh and outrageously funny. “We have more fun than you can shake a cat at – it’s an uplifting little show.
“And after the show I’m out in the theater lobby with my catalogues and order forms and I’m selling Tupperware like crazy! The Tupperware company executives have been to my show and are amazed at the audience reaction and the sales. They’re happy that I am getting the word out, and letting people know that there are new and exciting uses for this versatile product.” Jell-O shot in a Tupperware cup anyone?
And when you buy a set of (suggestive) Tupperware “ribbed” tumblers or whatever after the show, be sure to tell Dixie that The Resident sent you!
To have a riotous time at Dixie’s outrageous party, save the date, and order your ticket now online at www.bushnell.org or call (860) 987-5900.
