The Surfcracker by Jerungdu played in 1999 at Intermedia Arts and 2000 at the Loring Playhouse. There is also a cast album. You can purchase the album on the Stucco site. It is a musical and comedic melting pot featuring Tchaikovsksy's masterpiece the Nutcracker mixed with Beach Blanket Bingo, Elvis and the Surfaris. Hear all the familiar melodies of the Christmas classic as Clara goes on a marvelous adventure through a dream inspired by a doll, and of course she will watch the characters dance... well, watch the characters dance the monkey and the twist. Hear Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker without all the filler and played to a surf beat! What can be more accessible then that?

Clara is from a small California town in 1976. Although she is notably pregnant, she drinks whiskey and pops pills at a roller Disco/bowling alley after breaking the news to the baby's father; a truck driving roadie who she only slept with to meet the members of a rock and roll band. With a Christmas disco party raging in the background (more warped Tchaikovsky) the whiskey and Quaaludes hits her and she passes out. When she wakes up she's the star of a 60's surf movie. The trucker is now a handsome lifeguard who chases the Rat Fink hot rod gang off the beach. Since the lifeguard is not paying enough attention to her, Clara pretends to drown so he'll have to save her. The coda from the March rings out as a surf tune to which the lifeguard sings: "You can't learn to love any one else until you learn to love yourself". By the time he finds the right rescuing outfit, Clara has already been saved by Surfdude who she falls instantly in love with. However, Surfdude is in love with a mysterious beach babe known only as the Duchess of Surf who only surfs the most gnarly waves in the smallest bikini anyone's ever seen and then disappears without a trace.

A movie director walks into the middle of the sound stage with a megaphone and yells "cut!" Clara is being played in the movie within the dream by Annette Funnacello and the lifeguard by Elvis and they develop an off screen romance. Elvis complains to his agent that his movie persona is not getting the girl so he offers a few script revisions that turn the whole production on it's ear. The Surfcracker ends in 1976 with Clara waking up from her coma just in time to give birth to a black baby (the roadie is white) while the band she always wanted to meet is visiting her in the hospital. They cheer her up by playing a "Heavy Medley of Christmas Classics" which contains highly recognizable classic hard rock songs with Christmas lyrics.

Read the script.

TRACKS:

Song to Myself
This is an example of a Surf Tchaikovsky song.

Discocracker
This is an example of a Disco Tchaikovsky song.

Heavy Medley of Christmas Classics
This is an earlier recording that I like better. Special thanks to Deep Purple, Heart, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Ted Nugent, Cream and Led Zeppelin for not suing us (yet).

Promotional photo: 2000 production.

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