Tinsel and Tassels

Nothing enlivens family holiday gatherings quite like a burlesque routine. My favorite Thanksgiving ever was at the home of my mother-in-law two years ago, shortly after my wife’s cousin, Kelly Ball, completed her latest straight-to-video acting endeavor. Still high on the excitement of a finished project, she gathered an audience of family members to watch her scenes in Naughty Pilates, which combines burlesque, Pilates and atrocious jokes with a neo-rockabilly soundtrack. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I relished the horrified face of an octogenarian woman of uncertain relation after Kelly appeared onscreen in a slick vinyl nurse-fetish outfit wielding a prop syringe. Local theatergoers can cherish burlesque holiday memories too, as writer Mark-Brian Sonna’s The Beulaville Baptist Book Club Presents: A Bur-Less-Q Nutcracker premieres this week. A fund-raising ballet is threatened when the troupe is stricken with food poisoning. Fortunately, the va-va-voom Velvet Kittens just happen to be stranded in town. Shows are 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays through December 22 at the Stone Cottage Theatre at the Addison Conference and Theatre Center, 15650 Addison Road. Tickets are $16 to $21. Call 214-477-4942 or visit burlesquenutcracker.com.

Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Starts: Nov. 29. Continues through Dec. 22, 2007