Photo by Michael von Redlich. Ryan Landry as Mrs. Leaveit and Thain Bertin as Sweeney

Presented by the Gold Dust Orphans
Written by Ryan Landry
Directed by Kiki Samko
Choreography by Hallie Nowicki
Music Direction and Arrangement by Tad McKitterick
Sets & Costumes by Scott Martino
Lights by Matthew Brian Cost
Props by Ryan Landry and Gina Carmela
Sound by Ryan Landry & Tad McKitterick
Spotlight Operation by Keith DeSutter
Wigs by Shaun O’Connor
Production Assistance by Clare Strickland and Clare Newman
Featuring: Ryan Landry, Thain Bertin, T Perry, Mary Mahoney, Tim Lawton, Kiki Samko, Scott Martino, Gina Carmela, Sarah Jones, Tad McKitterick, Lizette Morris, Dominika Zawada, Joey Pelletier, Hallie Nowicki, Marilyn Wilson, Simon Huynh, James Brooks Jr., Phaedra Ferrini, Lara Williams.

November 29 – December 21, 2025
The Iron Wolf Theatre
South Boston Lithuanian Citizens Association
368 West Broadway, 3rd Floor
South Boston, MA 02127

Critique by Kitty Drexel

UPDATE 12/02/2025:  Ensemble member Lara Williams was improperly credited in a previous draft. Her name is now correct. 

SOUTH BOSTON — December has arrived and so has this year’s Gold Dust Orphans Christmas panto parody, Sweeney Claus: The Demon Father of Sleet Street by Ryan Landry. It’s a rollicking good time! Get your tickets before they sell out. 

Sweeney Claus marries the Sondheim and Wheeler musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street to Christmas capitalism via the Gold Dust Orphan panto tradition. It follows the essential plotlines of the Sondheim classic with some deviations. Dasher (Thain Bertin) is a disillusioned sea captain who lands in Scituate, Massachusetts, to set up his barber shop and search for his lost wife and daughter. Dasher finds himself in the spare room at Mrs. Leaveit’s (Landry, giving the people what they want by occasionally showing some leg) bakery. They concoct a plot with an aptly named sailor, Semen (T Perry), to rescue Dasher’s daughter, Johanna (Mary Mahoney).

Alas! Johanna is kept captive by no other than Santa Claus (Tim Lawton)! Santa is aided and abetted by his beadle, Ringo (Sarah Jones), and none other than Donatella Versace herself (Scott Martino). Meanwhile, a beggarwoman (Kiki Samko) interrupts all their goings on. To find out if Dasher, Mrs. Leaveit, Santa, and the townsfolk of Scituate survive this Penny Dreadful parody, you’ll have to brave the weather of Southie to attend Sweeney Claus: The Demon Father of Sleet Street. The ensemble includes Hallie Nowicki, James Brooks, Jr., Simon Huynh, and Marilyn Wilson as the Little Dickens Dancers. Tad McKitterick, Lizette Morris, and Dominka Zawada are the singing Scituate Sisters. Gina Carmela, Joey C. Pelletier, Phaedra Ferrini, and Lara Williams complete the cast. 

Like all quality queer Christmas content, Sweeney Claus: The Demon Father of Sleet Street contains lewd and lascivious behavior such as flagrant nudity, graphic sexual situations, foul language, filthy puns, flying excretions, AI slop, and a tasteful soupçon of Sondheimic murder. It’s the B-side Christmas content your grandmammy warned you about and that your grandpappy kept locked in a cage in the basement. But, alas, this show is not for children (despite the elements suggesting otherwise). Please leave them at home in a linen drawer, or wherever it is people keep kids these days.   

The Gold Dust Orphans’ work is not for everyone. That’s fine. Haters can see any number of cookie-cutter productions of A Christmas Carol for the umpteenth year in a row. Manheim Steamroll yourselves in the direction of overdone productions across New England. Sweeney Claus, like all Gold Dust Orphan content, will appeal to the many folks seeking something horny and different. This is a show that puts the gay in “gay apparel” and asks her to strip it off again. It’s riddled with pop and musical theatre parodies while edging its audience with traditional holiday carols. Every ten minutes, there’s a musical number with costumed backup singers and twerking dancers. Plus, there’s a cash bar in the back and an ATM on the first floor. We think that’s nice.     

On a personal note: Many years ago, before I was the Queen Geek, I had the great fortune to perform with two dearly departed Boston fringe theatres: Happy Medium Theatre Co. and Heart & Dagger Productions. Some of the actors who made those companies live found themselves with the Gold Dust Orphans. Friends, I am sincerely happy that y’all are still creating enthusiastically obscene art that jiggles the wooden pike thrust up Boston’s collective uptight ass. This is what resistance looks like. Cheers to you and the entire Sweeney Claus cast for doing the Lord’s* work! 

*That Lord is Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance.

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