REVIEW: Sex Dalmatian’s Hot Holiday Spectacular is a peppermint-coated acid trip
iPhoto caption: Connor Mitton and members of the company of 'Sex Dalmatian’s Hot Holiday Spectacular.' Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh.
In my review of director-choreographer Alyssa Martin’s Sex Dalmatian, the Rock Bottom Movement dance-theatre romp that dominated at the 2023 Dora Awards, I employed the word “hallucinatory.” But Sex Dalmatian’s Hot Holiday Spectacular, a new spinoff produced by Citadel + Compagnie at the Ada Slaight Hall, is such an acid trip that it makes the original look almost straightforward.
Rock Bottom Movement’s surrealist mandate is on full display in this 15-dancer fantasia, which begins with an invitation to let go: “The only thing you need to know is not to know anything at all,” pronounces the Mayor of Sex Dalmatian (Brayden Cairns), the evening’s narrator and the mayor of the titular canine’s mind.
In the original, Sex is a girlboss wellness influencer (and dog) who faces off against a dirty-minded rat named Mr. Meeks. Hot Holiday Spectacular tells the origin story of Sex’s hatred for Meeks, with the cast trading around both key roles. The plot is essentially that Sex falls in love with a hunky Human Boy (Connor Mitton), but Meeks tries to steal him.
This conflict serves as an excuse for a winding journey through an array of vibrantly ridiculous visual and choreographic worlds. A party at the mayor’s house features a swarm of dancers gyrating in candy-cane jumpsuits (no costume designer credited). Sex and Meeks each sing a ballad. A character named Butter scurries around in all-yellow garb. A cowgirl shows up and speaks in a drawl that’d make Blanche DuBois proud. Penises with orbed feet trap Meeks in jail. Marine life gets a showcase. A character dies via substance transmutation. And Citadel + Compagnie artistic director Laurence Lemieux makes a lovely cameo-on-wheels.
Hot Holiday Spectacular’s dialogue and choreography are more fully integrated than Sex Dalmatian’s, which is a good thing. As in the original, the performers deliver their lines in an ironic, so-bad-it’s-good register. In a vacuum, I’m not sure this choice would be especially interesting — but in both Sex Dalmatian productions the virtuosity of Martin’s jazzy, chameleonic choreography counterpoints the broadness of the script and acting: a contrast that’s all the more evident (and generative) when these two elements are constantly chafing.
Still, many of the funniest moments are movement-only. My favourite scene depicts a battle raging inside Meeks between his inner businessman (a group of silver-jumpsuited dancers) and his lust for Human Boy (another group in all-red). Although dialogue introduces the showdown, the riotous final sequence is wordless, video-game-esque, and brilliantly clear: Out of nowhere, chintzy electronic victory music plays, and all the performers in red start robotically waving their arms back and forth above their heads as the silver dancers lie on the ground and cover their faces in despair.
Beyond being trippier and larger in scale (the original had a six-person cast), the spinoff is also sillier and more frivolous, which it’s hard to be miffed about, considering this is a show entitled Sex Dalmatian’s Hot Holiday Spectacular. Even the script’s stance on Christmas — sorry, “Mizzmas” — is proudly nonsensical. Nearly every time a character references the fact that it’s the holidays, they seem to be firmly against Mizzmas… but then when the mayor delivers a speech wrapping up the evening, he implies the production has demonstrated Mizzmas’ wholesomeness.
If we’re going to analyze Hot Holiday Spectacular (and we shouldn’t), the show’s topic is irrationality itself. Through the aforementioned stylistic disjunction between movement and text, Martin riffs on the fact that an increasing percentage of the words we hear every day — in the mouths of politicians, chatbots, and, yes, influencer CEOs — don’t correspond with reality. This extends to the very notion that the show is “hot”: though Human Boy is the shirtless object of Sex’s and Meeks’ affections, both animals’ chemistry with him feels entirely superficial, because Martin’s pelvic-thrust-littered renderings of sex don’t read as erotic but (intentionally) satiric.
Hot Holiday Spectacular does luxuriate in one type of attraction: self-obsession. How else are we to take the fact that Sex’s and Meeks’ minds house several clones dancing in matching outfits (spotted leotards and chiseled rodent suits, respectively)? I interpret the show as a roast of our truth-poor, image-obsessed culture.
But, wait, when did I start ignoring the mayor’s advice? Perhaps all you really need to know are these prophetic words from the paws-on-bowler-hats closing number: “Sex Dalmatian is here, and she’s not going any-woof.” Merry Mizzmas!
Sex Dalmatian’s Hot Holiday Spectacular runs at the Ada Slaight Hall until December 21. More information is available here.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
iPhoto caption: Members of the 'Ophis' company. Photo courtesy of Transcen|Dance Project.
REVIEW: Ophis dunks viewers into a gothic experience of Medusa’s psychic landscape
Transcen|Dance Project’s Ophis is a woozy tragedy that courts both playfulness and eroticism, deliberately dissolving the boundaries of stage and audience with an immersive format that’s sometimes thrilling, sometimes terrifying, and sometimes — if you’re a people-pleaser like me — both simultaneously.
iPhoto caption: L to R, top to bottom: 'The 39 Steps' (photo by Raph Nogal), 'Benevolence' (photo by Jae Yang), 'The Born-Again Crow' (photo by Jeremy Mimnagh), 'Dimanche' (photo by Thomas Müller), 'Last Landscape' (photo by Fran Chudnoff), 'The Merchant of Venice' (photo by Kyle Purcell), 'Slave Play' (photo by Dahlia Katz), 'Waiting for Godot' (photo by Elana Emer), 'The Welkin' (photo by Dahlia Katz).
Twelve indelible moments of performance from 2025
With the lights fading on another year of fleeting thrills in dark rooms, we asked 12 Ontario performing arts writers to reflect on a moment that stayed with them. The results mainly stem from Toronto theatre productions, but there are a few surprises weaved in.
iPhoto caption: Vanessa Sears as Juliet, Julia McLellan as Anne, Matt Raffy as May, and Sarah Nairne as Angelique in '& Juliet.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Mirvish’s & Juliet sparkles on the surface despite narrative stumbles
The technical elements of & Juliet are rightfully excessive, fabulous, and gauche, solidifying the camp grounding upon which I came to appreciate the show as a whole.
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Ruby and the Reindeer.' Photo by Ann Baggley.
REVIEW: Ruby and the Reindeer conjures a very Ontario Christmas at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre
A festive addition to Mark Crawford’s catalogue of Canadian comedies, Ruby and the Reindeer isn’t shy about its local roots.
iPhoto caption: Ben Porter in 'The Woman in Black.' Photo courtesy of Mirvish.
REVIEW: Mirvish’s The Woman in Black conjures chills in the shadows
If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and let your imagination run loose, The Woman in Black will reward you with a genuine jolt or two.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Lin Yu Huan.
REVIEW: The Storyville Mosquito buzzes brilliantly at NAC English Theatre
Although The Storyville Mosquito is about being happy with what you’ve got, I left the theatre itching to see it again.
iPhoto caption: L to R, top to bottom: 'The 39 Steps' (photo by Raph Nogal), 'Benevolence' (photo by Jae Yang), 'The Born-Again Crow' (photo by Jeremy Mimnagh), 'Dimanche' (photo by Thomas Müller), 'Last Landscape' (photo by Fran Chudnoff), 'The Merchant of Venice' (photo by Kyle Purcell), 'Slave Play' (photo by Dahlia Katz), 'Waiting for Godot' (photo by Elana Emer), 'The Welkin' (photo by Dahlia Katz).
Twelve indelible moments of performance from 2025
With the lights fading on another year of fleeting thrills in dark rooms, we asked 12 Ontario performing arts writers to reflect on a moment that stayed with them. The results mainly stem from Toronto theatre productions, but there are a few surprises weaved in.
iPhoto caption: Tom Rooney in 'Rogers v. Rogers' at Crow's Theatre. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Tom Rooney dazzles in world premiere of Michael Healey’s Rogers v. Rogers
Rooney and Healey skewer the Rogers family with a disarmingly relaxed virtuosity that the surrounding Crow's Theatre production sometimes supports, and sometimes lets down.
iPhoto caption: Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton in 'Public Consumption.' Photo by Eden Graham.
REVIEW: Lester Trips’ stylish Public Consumption captures the internet’s profound emptiness
Rather than directly representing online life, Public Consumption speculates — with virtuosity — about how the digital world affects our bodies. And the show's findings are by no means comfortable.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Elana Emer.
REVIEW: Icarus Theatre’s DNA paints a disturbing mural of teenage rebellion
While director Erik Richards’ tendency toward snappy, thriller-esque pacing doesn’t suit all of DNA’s more intimate moments, it adds electricity to the drama’s group scenes, bringing playwright Dennis Kelly’s reflections on groupthink and collective grief into clear view.
iPhoto caption: Olivier Normand in 'The Far Side of the Moon.' Photo by Li Wang.
REVIEW: Lepage’s ethereal The Far Side of the Moon is insomniac theatre
The Far Side of the Moon begins and ends with a large mirror on stage, and the show extracts enigmatic power from the tantalizing question of whether its protagonist is losing himself in his reflection, or moving toward self-discovery.
iPhoto caption: 'Kokuho' still courtesy of TIFF.
REVIEW: During this year’s TIFF, two films depicted theatre as a vessel for transcendence
Of the several performing arts-adjacent selections I took in, most affecting were two dramas: Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. In both period pieces, theatre creation serves as an emotional outlet for an artist navigating devastating loss.
Comments