A Foreign
Affair
with Green
Mountain
Cabaret
by Stacy Garrison
F
or most people, images of pasties, body glitter,
and strip teases don’t conjure up ideas of community, acceptance or family, but for this talented group of dancers, singers, comedians, performers, and the stage techs who support them, Green
Mountain Cabaret has provided this and more.
Started in 2012, Green Mountain Cabaret (or
GMnC) is a local Burlington cabaret company that
performs once a month at Club Metronome. Each
performance is centered on a particular theme. Past
themes include “Leave it to Peepers” (a tribute to
the 1950’s), “Cult Classics”, and “Leif Peeper’s Bogus Journey” (a flashback to the 1980’s). The theme
for May’s show was “A Foreign Affair”, and members of the Cabaret dressed in costumes that called
to mind everything from classic Bond films, to Lara
Croft: Tomb Raider.
GMnC is the labor of love of Alexa Luthor and
Leif Peepers, two alums of St. Michael’s College who
both moved out to Chicago after college to pursue
their artistic passions. Having trained with the Vermont Ballet Theatre for twenty years, Luthor discovered burlesque while at a friend’s bachelorette
party. The dancers she met there encouraged her
to train with Michelle L’Amour, and she later performed with Gorilla Tango Burlesque and Kiss Kiss
Cabaret. Luthor and Peepers met during this time,
married, and in 2012, their homesickness brought
them back to Vermont.
“There was nothing like Kiss Kiss Cabaret in
Vermont at the time, and I missed performing with
my friends in Chicago,” Luthor explained, “so in an
homage to KKC, and in the hopes of helping burgeon
the burlesque scene in VT, [we] started GMnC.”
GMnC has been growing and amassing a loyal au-
10 • CIDER MAG • cidermag.com
dience ever since. They usually perform at Club Metronome in Downtown Burlington, though the troupe
occasionally performs with other local groups, or
travels farther afield to share their show with new
audiences.
The audience for “A Foreign Affair” was equal
parts men and women, with a wide age range in attendance. Some attendees turned up dressed in costume for the costume contest that takes place at the
beginning of the second act of each show. The front
three tables had been reserved for a bachelorette
\