1/4/2024
Performances and Artists
At every performance of one-woman comedy show Dixie’s Tupperware Party, the surprises keep the star laughing as much as the audience.
That’s because the side-splitting show – which became one of the longest-running Off-Broadway hits in theater history – emphasizes audience participation and improvisation, so much that even the performer doesn’t know what to expect.
“People are crazy; that’s what keeps me going,” says the comedy’s fictional star, Tupperware saleswoman Dixie Longate (played by actor Kris Andersson, who remains in character when interviewed about the show). “You can have a better day knowing there’s always someone crazier than you.”
Enthusiastic audience involvement accounts for one of the show’s greatest appeals, Longate says: No two performances are ever the same.
“I never know who will be in the audience; I never know what to expect,” says Longate, who has performed the show around the world and earned a prestigious Drama Desk Award nomination. “Every show is new for me, as well as the audience.”
This unscripted approach, on top of Longate’s rapid-fire wit and the show’s heartfelt theme, has made a roaring success of this comedy about a spirited Tupperware party full of games, stories and sage advice.
“Some people look at the words ‘Tupperware Party’ and think, ‘Oh, this is for little old ladies,’ but nuh-uh. It’s a story that speaks to everybody.”
Tupperware Burials and ER Oddities
The star never pulls audience members onstage with the intent of humiliating them, Longate assures. And most audience members are eager to participate.
“It’s always good natured and a moment of giggling, and that’s why people rise to the challenge,” Longate says. “They get excited, ‘Maybe she’s going to pick me,’ and it elevates their experience.”
Longate has heard some surprising revelations from audience members through the years. An ER nurse listed the many places Tupperware has been removed from patients’ bodies. And one woman described helping exhume her mother’s dead cat from the front yard, still contained in its Tupperware coffin.
“She had clearly decomposed, but she was fresher than she would’ve been otherwise,” Longate says. “I’ve heard so many (funny stories).”
An Empowering Message
Longate attributes the show’s longevity to its inspiring themes of self-love and finding confidence. “There’s a nice message of empowerment and doing something amazing with your life and treating yourself well,” Longate says.
Longate says audiences always need to hear this to help overcome personal challenges and heal from events like the pandemic.
“You need a push to look in your mirror and be grateful for who you are and rise up a little bit,” Longate says. “I’m hoping I lift everybody up and make them go back out into the world a little bit smiley-er than when they went in.”
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