After the successful run of performances based on The Nutcracker last Christmas season, The Triple Door is again hosting a series of burlesque nights based on another beloved children's classic: Alice in Wonderland.

My copy of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass includes an introduction by the controversial writer and academic Camille Paglia, who wrote:

On her travels over the meadows and through the woods, Alice never turns into Huck Finn, a vagabond scamp. She remains the well-bred young lady, her crisp apron and pinafore undisheveled even when she falls into a pool of tears or rockets up an down, bizarrely changing size. After Bloomsbury, we have been too ready to see male oppression in the nineteenth century. Alice's resilient feminity shows the power of Victorian womanhood. Rarely fearful and never frail or hysterical, Alice reflect's Carroll's real-life adulation of little girls as superior to boys, whom he loathed and avoided.

With that in mind, Alice in Wonderland was begging for a burlesque adaptation and local burlesque VIPs Lily Verliane and Jasper McCann were happy to oblige. The act is described as:

Another exploration of divergent art influences, “Through The Looking Glass” mixes jazz with classical, Indian and exotic music to set the mood as dancers from around the region mix ballet, tap, contemporary, and jazz dance into a whirlwind of whimsy and bawdy beauty. The superstars of Seattle’s Burlesque A-List, including Lily Verlaine, Kitten La Rue, Miss Indigo Blue, Waxie Moon, The Swedish Housewife, Babette La Fave and Jasper McCann take on the roles of Carroll’s famous characters, and joined by Miss Inga Ingénue and Lou Henry Hoover as Alice, they turn Wonderland’s topsy-turvy world into an ecdysiastic tour-de-force filled with glamour, comedy, dance and song.

It runs for three nights, starting tonight and going through Thursday, with two performances each night (at 7 and 10pm). Tickets are $25 and the 7pm performances are 17+. Check out thetripledoor.net for more info.

What else are you doing tonight?

• Madeline Peyroux/William Fitzsimmons, Moore Theatre*
• The Nightwatchman/Steve Earle/Wayne Kramer/Boots Riley, Crocodile !
• Queen Amina/The Crills/Nehan, High Dive
• When Giants Fall/Parade Of Storms, Funhouse