Mary Tutwiler

Get in nutria gear

by Mary Tutwiler

Tonight’s the night to strut your nutria fur coat, if you have one. Funky on down to the “Righteous Fur Fashion Show: A Nutria-palooza!” at the Marigny Theatre and Allways Lounge in New Orleans for an evening of fashion, video, music and other nutria-related mayhem.

The show is the brainchild of Cree McCree, who launched a line of nutria pelt fashion last fall called Righteous Fur. Tonight’s show is anything but righteous, however, here’s the line-up, from the Times-Picayune:
The Mystic Herd of Nutria, will form a drum corps and “ukulele brigade” for the event.
Puppeteer and visual artist Miss Pussycat will screen part of her short film “North Pole Nutrias,” in which nutria puppet characters are sent to the north pole for a surreal epic involving a dance party and a destructive virus, voiced by a rapping Harry Lee, the late Jefferson Parish sheriff and nutria hunter.

Other screenings include Ted Gesing’s documentary “Nutria,” which tracks the erstwhile campaign to re-brand nutria meat as a palatable protein, and the episode of Comedy Central’s late-night reality show “Insomniac,” in which host Dave Atell joins Sheriff Harry Lee and his deputies on a Jefferson Parish nutria hunt.

A group of young New Orleans transplants calling themselves the Jurassic Parish Folk Ensemble stepped forward with a song they had written about the state’s nutria-control program called “$5 a Tail,” which will be performed at the event, accompanied by a dancing nutria.
 
The grand finale is a performance by cellist Helen Gillet, who will don a nutria fur bikini and, with the Mystic Herd of Nutria drum corps, provide the soundtrack for the fashion show.