Interview: Dixie Longate and Kris Andersson of DIXIE'S TUPPERWARE PARTY at Stages Houston

Dixie Longate has been selling Tupperware at her theatrical party since 2007. This has become a sensation, and believe it or not, you can actually order Tupperware at this theater show. She actually sells this stuff! It's hilarious, empowering, and just a great time. And all of it is the genius move of Kris Andersson, who had a film and a drag career even before this madness started. Now, Dixie is at Stages Houston for a 2-week run. Tickets are already selling fast, about as fast as plastic containers. Broadway World writer Brett Cullum got a chance to talk to Kris and “Kris as Dixie” in an unusual sitdown where we all three suss out the scuttlebutt.

Brett Cullum: I've heard about this for years. I mean, everybody always talks about this show and how wonderful it is. Please tell me how all of this got started with this Tupperware party!

Kris Andersson: It's interesting. I went to a Tupperware party years ago, in 2001, with a couple of friends. And a friend of mine said, “Oh, my God!” because the woman that was doing the party was trying to recruit everybody at the party basically, and another friend of mine that was there said, “Oh, you should do it, you'd be great. You can do it in character. That would be so funny,” and he kind of dared me to do it in drag. And so I created this character, this Southern housewife from the wrong side of the tracks, and just did a couple of Tupperware parties, and it caught on. More and more people were inviting me to do parties, and I was going up the ranks of the Tupperware Corporation as a consultant and selling more and more Tupperware. I was living in Los Angeles then, and I would do many of my parties in Orange County, which is just south of L.A.. Obviously, the Orange County housewives dominate that area. This was before that TV show was on. But the same women were there, and I would go to the parties, and they would be fascinated with me. They would always ask me, “Oh, tell me about you.” I'm in full character. I'm setting up my Tupperware table before the party, and I would say, “Oh, I'm Dixie, and this is my party. You know I'm from Alabama, and I've been doing this…” Then I turn it on them. And I say, “Well, tell me about you!” And they would say, “Oh, well, you know my husband does this. Well, I've got two kids. One's in soccer, one's in ballet!” I kept noticing how these women would talk as if their identity was completely linked to other people. 

When I told a friend of mine who's a director in New York. “Oh, I'm doing this thing now. I'm doing these Tupper parties,” and he's the one who said, “Oh, this should be a show. You need to turn this into something,” and so I wrote it as a love letter to the unsung women that don't see their own strength, and I put it together. We took it to New York as part of the New York International Fringe Festival back in 2004, and a number of people saw that. That had some influence. They moved it up the food chain, and I ended up having an off-broadway developmental run in 2007, which led to the tour. It was a very different show at that time because there was a lot of hands-on that show when it went into New York. It wasn't exactly the show I wanted to do. But the tour was going to end up being too expensive the way they wanted to do it, so I rewrote it and stripped it all down to what it needed to be, which is a love letter to women. And so that's how it ended up going on the road in 2008, and the booker at the time thought we'd maybe get a year out of it, maybe 18 months. Seventeen years later, this show is still going, and this is my final year. I'm wrapping everything up in the fall as far as the road is concerned, I'm wrapping up. I've got bigger designs past that, but that's how it all came to be. 

People underestimate what the show is. They think it's going to be a silly little show about a Tupperware party, and it ends up having this message about resilience, finding your own courage and your own strength, and lifting yourself up. And people are always sucker punched by that, and it inspires people to walk away from the show valuing themselves a little bit more.

Brett Cullum: WOW! That's amazing! If you want to, you can answer this as Dixie. I would just like to know who is Dixie. Where did you come from? 

Dixie Longate: I have had a couple of run-ins. I've been married three times. I have three kids that I know of. I was doing things and never thought I would be a Tupperware lady. I was doing things that normally weren't panning out from where I was from. My mama said, “I'm not pretty enough to work at this strip club!” But I was bendy enough! I've come from a place that didn't throw dollars but hit me with quarters, and I went through my twenties getting these little bruises all over me. So I said, “No, I'm going to do something better.” 

It was part of the conditions of my parole; my parole officer said, “You know you need a job in order to get your kids back! I was like, “Who wants that?” I didn't mind the job so much, but getting the kids back? That's a law that needs to be changed, obviously.

So I started. She's the one who suggested I start selling Tupperware, and I did it. I became the top-selling Tupperware lady in the entire United States and Canada, which is so crazy. But I would go to these Jubilees, the Big Tupper Convention, and that's what inspired me. I would watch all these women get celebrated for what they were doing, you know, selling Tupperware and having their own business. And I was like, “Oh, I want to be like that. I want to get up on stage and be recognized like all these other great ladies are being.” And that's what really got me going in the Tupperware thing. To be able to go into people's homes and share some quality, creative food storage solutions with them and be able to laugh and drink. You know this is the bottom line: I get to drink for free at work, and that's really why you do any job. If you don't get to do that, you need to really reconsider what you're doing for a living.

When I went to my first party, the host said, “Would you like a cocktail?” I said, “Oh, no, I'm working!” She's like, “But it's a party,” and I said, “I'm staying in this job forever.”

Brett Cullum: Are you related to Reba Mcintire at all? Because you look a lot like Reba.

Dixie Longate: Oh, my God! That is the nicest compliment anyone's ever given me all the time. No, I'm not. I'm not related to anybody that I'm aware of. I'm just a Southern redhead. That's what happens. You know, you get in the South, and everybody's kind of related to everybody else, whether they know it or not, because you know. The population down there is longing for something of meaning. And so sometimes, mama, you kiss behind the dumpster and find something on a Friday night. You never know what you're going to be doing. You know how it is nine months later, mistakes are made.

Brett Cullum: You are at Stages Houston until April 20th. How did you connect with them? How did they get Dixie Longate?

Dixie Longate: I had been in Houston a couple of times before. The first time I came through Theatre Under the Stars at the Hobby Center presented me, and then I was brought back two different times there and then. I've also played Galveston at the Opera House three times, and then I think it was just Mitchell Greco, who's one of the directors that runs the whole thing [Stages Houston]. He reached out, and he said, “Hi! You're pretty!” I was like, “It's true. I can't help it because of Jesus or whatever.” And then he said, “You want to come to do your program here?” And I said, “I love that. That would be so fun.” 

So it was just about people knowing me from being here before, and they were looking for some fun programming for their season, and they said, “Well, we'd like to try this because we had seen the show over at the Hobby Center. We really got a giggle, and we thought our audiences over here would enjoy the show!” 

I'm here, and I'm having a good time. I mean, everything in Houston is fantastic. Everybody's so neighborly. It's very interesting because the audiences that go to the performing arts center are somewhat different than the audiences that go to Stages. I'm sort of having to rebuild an audience. There are a lot of people coming over who have seen me before, but there are a lot of people who don't know my show at all! So it's kind of like building the reputation from scratch, which is always an interesting thing starting over, you know.

Brett Cullum: Now, the scuttlebutt on this one is that this is Dixie's last tour for this Tupperware party. And why? Why end a good thing? Why?

Dixie Longate: You know I've been on the road for 17 years. My team and I never thought it would be this long, and save for Covid when I was off the road for a bit, because everything was shut down. I've been hoofing it for a long time, and I figured it was time to wind the tour down on the road. We're looking at taking the show to New York in the fall and sitting down off Broadway and doing a long run there. Take me off the road! I'm not going nowhere. I'm still going to be around. But I thought, you know, I want to wrap it up where I started but be able to take the show that I've been doing on the road for the last 17 years. I want to take that and put it down in New York and do it that way to kind of bookend the whole thing. So that's where I'm going. Every chapter of your life ends, and a new one begins, and I think it's time to write a new story.

Brett Cullum: Let's get serious here for just a second. The Kennedy Center! You have performed there, right?

Dixie Longate: I did. I was very, very grateful. They invited me to do a month of shows last summer, and it was great to be able to perform at such a legendary venue. It was an honor to step foot in those hallowed halls and be amongst the performers that have gotten to be there.

Brett Cullum: Now you're not invited back, are you?

Dixie Longate: Well, I don't know if you're aware there's a little bit bit of a scuttlebutt, and the President has decided that he wants a very specific program, and of which I am not counting myself among because they have decided that they are going to curate exactly what he wants to see, and not what the patrons want to see necessarily, or what people are used to. I mean, the thing about art centers is it's going to be a diverse program, and not everybody's going to like everything that's in there. You're going to have opera and ballet, and you're going to have poetry jams, and you're going to have musicals and plays, and not everything is going to be your cup of tea. But the whole point is that everybody has different artistic visions, and that should be possible. An art center should be able to share all kinds of different points of view and perspectives. And the President doesn't seem to think that that's a good idea.

Brett Cullum: I seriously think this is iconic, and it is the biggest reason I want to come see you on this run at Stages to support you. It is just amazing that they're trying to even target this kind of production. 

Dixie Longate: It was very interesting to be kind of called out basically personally by the President. I had done my show there, and there are six theaters in the building, and the name of the theater that I performed in was called “the Family Theater,” He was like, “We don't want drag shows for families,” and I was like, “Well, that's not what was happening. It was my show, and it's a show about empowerment, and it's also a show you never bothered to step foot into the theater to see. So, I don't know where you're talking from. It's an inspiring, empowering show that makes people feel good and makes people giggle. And so I'm not sure what's wrong with that. I'm grateful to have been there. The people who brought me in are sticking to the guns and saying, “Thank you so much for being part of our programming and our legacy.” And I'm very happy about that.

Brett Cullum: Well, I'm happy that you're gonna be at Stages through April 20th because that gives us a chance to see you here. I don't have to travel all the way to DC.  

Dixie Longate: It's funny. Actually, I was doing the show last night, and somebody came out after the show and said, “I got to see you in DC. And that's why I came.” She was in DC traveling for work, and the show popped up there. Because she had so much fun there, she came to see it last night, because I mean now it’s in her neck of the woods.

Brett Cullum: You know, I have to ask because I don't have a lot of it. If you have to buy one item of Tupperware, what should it be? What do I need?

Dixie Longate: You know it's all dependent on who you are and what you do. I love. See my tumblers. You'll see at the program. I have tumblers that are with me all the time, and they have a seal that you stick a straw in, and so, like, if you're drinking and driving, and you hit a baby, or whatever. You're not going to spill your drink because the lid on it is going to keep anything from spilling, which is so nice, and you can drink right through the lid, which is great. That's something I couldn't be without.

I put like, you know, my morning vodka right on my bedside table, and then with that. So if the cat walks on it, it won't get hair in it, and it won't spill over. There's my wine opener, and you'd be amazed at what Tupperware has. Everybody thinks it's just plastic bowls, but there's so much different stuff. I have a wine opener that I love because I take it with me in my glove box when I'm driving places and get thirsty and parched. There is a jello shot container for when I take my jello shots to church to serve Jesus and everything. And there are so many good things! You're going to see the program; you're gonna be like, “I didn't even believe they had other stuff that I didn't know!”

Brett Cullum: Well, I am going to see Dixie's Tupperware Party at stages through April 20th! Two weeks, TWO whole weeks with lots of shows. I even saw there's some on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I mean they fill the week up! 

Dixie Longate: Every day of the week, we have shows. Monday is my day off, but we have every day of the week, and we've got a matinee on Saturday and a matinee on Thursday, which is so interesting.

Brett Cullum: You're doing matinees on Thursday?

Dixie Longate: Yeah, yeah. And Thursday audiences are interesting. They wanted to be able to give people as many opportunities to be able to see the show as possible. So they just like to do shows all the time. So I'm doing a Thursday matinee, too.

Brett Cullum: Okay. According to Kris Andersson's IMDB page, you have been in some of my favorite movies like Scream 2 and Hellbent. And the iconic Girls Will Be Girls with all of my favorite drag artists. So I'm wondering, when all of this wraps up, if Dixie ever decides that it's time to go, what's next for you? Are you gonna pursue more films or different shows? You're a dancer, right?

Kris Andersson: Yeah. Well, I was back when my body moved that way. I'm getting older! One of the things I'm looking forward to about taking the show to New York is to be with people. New York obviously has a lot of theater, and a lot of film and TV, but it also has a lot of resources because I like to create stuff. So, I mean, I created Dixie. I created all the tours that I've done. I've done four different shows now under the Dixie character. Three of them live, and then one of them during the pandemic; I did a show called Dixie's Happy Hour, during which I went into a small theater near where I lived and filmed it. We got it streaming to 26 different art centers around the country to bring income in. I've done all this stuff as Dixie. But I like to create things, and I want to be in a city where I have access to more people, more resources, more ability, and opportunities to create other things. So I have some things I'm working on that are in the early and medium stages, and when I get there, I'm hoping to throw out some wide nets and meet some people and collaborate on some things. New York is a city that really inspires me, so I don't see myself sitting down for too long and just kind of being lazy, so I'll be doing the show every night there while I'm there. But also, during the day, I'll be taking that time to reach out and create a wider sandbox with bigger toys to play with.

Brett Cullum: Well, I look forward to seeing whatever comes next for you because Dixie is obviously just a beloved character, and you've had an amazing run. It's gonna be amazing to see what's next. But I don't ever want Dixie to go away. I definitely want her around. We need someone to push this Tupperware! 

Kris Andersson: You know, even though I'm going to be off the road, I'm still going to be very active on social media. I'll still be doing a lot of stuff and sharing smiles. You talk to any actor, and any actor will say how grateful they are if they get to do a long run of a show. But to be a character that I got to create that has inhabited my body now for twenty-four years! It's great, it's great. And the fact that people like her probably more than they like me. She's great. I like her. I'm very lucky to have created something that's left kind of an indelible mark on so many people's hearts, and so I don't. I don't necessarily foresee her leaving anytime soon. She's just going to be off the road for a while.

Brett Cullum: Thank you both for being here.