Review: “Dixie’s Tupperware Party” at Mason Street Warehouse

It’s a play, but not your conventional play.

It’s a drag show, but not your typical one.

It’s a Tupperware party, but one unlike any you have ever been to before—unless, of course, you’ve been to one of Dixie Longate’s parties before.

Mason Street Warehouse in Saugutuck, Michigan is hosting “Dixie’s Tupperware Party.” It’s a wild night that manages to slip in a message amid the uproarious Tupperware demonstrations and audience participation.

The show started as a dare. Drag performer and comedian Kris Andersson was dared by a friend in 2004 to sell Tupperware while in drag. What happened next defied expectations. Andersson created Dixie Longate, a Southern woman who began selling Tupperware while on parole. She would become Tupperware’s top sales representative in the United States and Canada. She took the solo act on tour and has performed in in five countries. The show was even nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance in 2008.

Dixie has made multiple appearances at Mason Street Warehouse, a popular offering that fills their seats with enthusiastic audiences willing to be picked on and brought into the show.

There is nothing tame about this one-woman show. Dixie has a huge personality, one that is expressed both vocally and physically.  She is completely over the top and constantly breaks barriers of conventionality with stories of having sex in trailers, drinking martinis while driving, using a child’s toy as a sobriety test or bringing dishes to church to get it on with the pastor.

Before the show, Dixie wanders the audience, interacting with them, priming the pump. She even interrupts the curtain speech with her own commentary on it. As she pours herself beverage out of a bottle of whiskey (into a seal-tight Tupperware cup), her intentionally slurred speech delivered prestissimo immediately informs the audience they are in for a wild ride.

Dixie speaks so fast she sometimes overtakes herself and she commands the attention of the audience who quickly learn they must focus if they don’t want to miss any of the outrageous anecdotes that come tumbling out of Dixie’s brightly red painted lips.

No matter how fast she speaks, her body language manages to keep up. From repeated hand gestures to the way she paces the stage to exaggerated pantomimes, Dixie’s physicality contributes to the comedy and has people laughing non-stop throughout the show.

One of the delights of the show is that it truly is a Tupperware party and Dixie turns all the conventions on their heads, exploding expectations into peals of laughter. Like a typical Tupperware party, she distributes catalogs, explains how to purchase, gives product demonstrations and conducts raffles and games. She just does it in a way that no one else does.

Audience participation is essential to this show. Upon entering, everyone is given a name tag with their name and a number on it. The number is used for raffle drawings and the name is so Dixie can call on people and address them by name.

Her style is to impose characters upon people, to call upon them and then tell their story made up out of whole cloth. Often her “victims” can do nothing but laugh as she narrates a biography that is completely over the top. Yet, somehow these tall tales manage to create a connection and familiarity amongst Dixie and her audience, as if the fantastical ties people together because the stories could be given to anyone.

There are a few serious moments in the show as well, particularly when Dixie is talking about Brownie Wise, the woman who came up with the idea of Tupperware parties and would go on to be a company vice president. Dixie shares parts of her story and turns the message to her audience—that each and every one of them matter no matter what their status in life is.  

It is this lining that takes the show to a new level. Yes, you can buy Tupperware and learn of uses you likely never thought of, but ultimately, the show invites its audience to believe in themselves and to strongly defy anyone who tries to put them down.