“Attention, performers: It’s 6 p.m. The house opens in one hour.”
It’s a Friday afternoon in late August and I’m watching the pre-show action from my perch on a tufted leather couch in the audience. The bar to my right is divided into two sections by a full-size carousel horse. There are chairs dangling from the ceiling, and crystal chandeliers are further adorned with giant feathers, now resembling an ostrich’s backside. I’ve been to Company XIV’s Brooklyn theater several times, but today I’m experiencing the intimate space like never before: virtually empty.
As some performers hoist kettlebells and slide into splits on stage, others take their place among the rows of seats, microphone in hand, for soundcheck. After belting out portions of their number, they walk by my seat and welcome me to their home. Welcome me back, I should say.
Company XIV may be celebrating its 20th year in 2026, but the troupe’s dazzling shows, which have been dubbed “baroque burlesque,” feel as fresh as ever. When Juilliard-trained dancer and choreographer Austin McCormick, who still serves as artistic director, founded the company two decades ago, he wanted to merge performance types that don’t usually share a stage. Think ballet, opera, circus, burlesque, cabaret and magic, seamlessly melded together into one dazzling, debaucherous spectacle.
The company moved into its Bushwick home, dubbed Théâtre XIV, in 2017. Looking at the graffiti-covered walls surrounding its industrial location on 383 Troutman Street, you’d never guess that what lies behind the unassuming door is a Versailles-meets-Moulin-Rouge theater, filled with eccentric characters who can serenade, high kick and literally jump through hoops suspended from the ceiling.
The time is 6:15 p.m. and producer Josh Rowe shuttles me to stage left. The performers are rehearsing a few numbers, and I want to see everything up close. Choreographer Nicholas Katen is on hand to offer notes and direction.
Suddenly, a woman dressed in a satin and rhinestone corset with a neck dripping in jewels appears with what ends up being my favorite prop of the show. “Cake for one?” she asks with a laugh as she carries a five-tier foam cake up the stairs. Once on stage, Syrena — a singer and bellydancer in Company XIV’s current show, Petite Rouge — places the trifle on her head and proceeds to drop into a full split.
“I like to do my hardest stunts during warm-up to get my body prepared,” she tells me as she sits down at a vanity to apply her makeup.
Syrena, who plays “The Rose” in Petite Rouge — a sensual reimagining of Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood — sang a sultry rendition of Britney Spears’s “Toxic” during soundcheck. Her father helped her translate the song from English into Arabic for the production.
“When our show Cocktail Magique was running across the street, we did a rendition of ‘Love Potion No. 9’ half in Arabic,” she says. “Austin liked it so much that we keep that idea rolling with every new song I sing.”
I’ve performed on a lot of stages, like the Met Opera, where it looks like you’re dancing in a black fishbowl — you can’t see anyone’s face. Here, we get to interact with people. The audience is … on our side already.
— Cara Seymour, who plays Little Red in PEtite Rouge
By 6:45 p.m., most of the performers have disappeared backstage. I saunter over to the bar, where Phillip Evans (aka “Phill von Awesome”) is setting up his station, readying cocktail garnishes and putting bottles within arm’s reach. “You’re wearing the magic wristband,” he says, pointing to my apparent ticket to an open bar. “We’re gonna have fun tonight!”
Just like all the other hosts and bartenders at Company XIV, Phill is a part of Petite Rouge. I ask if he has any pre-show rituals.
“I have a pretty physical track, so I make sure I can do all the big skills to see how they feel in my body and adjust if needed,” he says. “And I always share a cinnamon Altoid with the dressing-room manager. We call it dinner.”
Altoids aside, “[people eat] almost constantly,” Phill adds. “Everyone’s super fit, and people think it’s a diet, but it’s a lifestyle. We’re eating constantly during the intermission.”
The house opens at 7 p.m., and I’m first in line to get a lipstick reading from Madame Rosebud, one of Company XIV’s resident clairvoyants. They hand me a tube of hot-pink lipstick, then tell me to apply it and kiss a napkin. Based on all manner of factors — from which mirror I choose for application to where I kiss the napkin — they tell me my fortune. It’s actually pretty damn eerie.
I ascend a spiral staircase to the dressing room, where Cara Seymour, who plays Little Red in Petite Rouge, is putting the finishing touches on her eyeshadow and ruby lipstick. She started dancing at the age of six, trained at Juilliard, counts the Met Opera on her résumé and even had a stint in Vegas. I ask if she still gets nervous before a performance.
“Before every show,” Cara says. “I think it’s useful because nerves are a way of our body getting ready to go. They remind us that although we’ve been doing this for a long time, there’s still something to gain and lose — because it’s something like our 106th show, but it’s the audience’s first.”
That audience, which tonight runs the gamut from tourists still wearing their daytime clothes to zoomers dressed the part in fur and fishnets, is drawn into the world of Company XIV from the second they enter the door on Troutman Street. Incense is burning. Every detail is gilded or feathered or enveloped in plush velvet. Cast members in full costume — leather, lace and glittering getups that flaunt as much skin as possible — greet and lead you to your seat. Turns out, this intimacy is just as important to the performers.
“I really love how close we are to the audience,” Cara says. “We really feel them. I’ve performed on a lot of stages, like the Met Opera, where it looks like you’re dancing in a black fishbowl — you can’t see anyone’s face. Here, we get to interact with people. The audience is set up to be bought in from the moment they step in the door, so they’re on our side already.”
I leave Cara to finish getting ready and head downstairs to the bar to chat with my new friend Phill. I start the night with a McCormick Martini, a zippy, highly photogenic rendition of the classic cocktail, thanks in part to its purple gin. Throughout the evening, I also sip the Lady in Red (a Kir Royale garnished with edible glitter and a cranberry lollipop) and Gaston Chiquet Rosé Champagne.
During intermission of Petite Rouge, a man waiting in line for the bar turns to me and says, “Isn’t this just amazing?!” He’s visiting from India on a solo trip and read about Company XIV in Time Out. Standing in the red glow of the theater, waiting to be served by a burly actor in a corset and bedazzled choker, he’s absolutely buzzing. “This is just unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”
I still feel that way, too. Even 20 years after they debuted, Company XIV’s signature seductions are as potent as ever.
All photos by Max Schwartz
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