Interview: Jasmine Jean Sim and Returning to Wonderland
With 2022 almost at its end, we all anticipate another holiday season not quite fully shaken from the abnormalcy left lingering by global strife. Time-old traditions have evolved and new ones have been born from an unwavering need for connection, whether through blue-lit screens or shoulder-to-shoulder in an intimate theatre. Wonderland, a wintry tradition of our very own, has grown to become our favorite way to remind ourselves, each other, and our beloved audiences how good it feels to be together, wherever that may be.
“I think after the last few years we've all had, we all really deserve to remember joy,” says Jasmine Jean Sim, a Can Can performer and Wonderland veteran who has witnessed our theatre change in more ways than one since her start in 2018.
Year after year, there’s something even more special about the show, and Sim shares her favorites from teary-eyed memories, holding in laughter, and the never-ending journey of joy around the holidays.
Read on to learn more about Sim as she pulls back the curtain on Wonderland.
Jasmine Jean Sim in Wonderland (2022) | Photo by Nate Watters
THECANCAN.COM: What was your journey in the performing arts before you found yourself in the wintry whimsy that is Wonderland? Our readers would love to know more about your background.
Jasmine Jean Sim: I've been a professional actor in Seattle since I graduated in 2015. I was very lucky to get professional work right out of school and have been incredibly lucky to have had continual work since. It's rare when I get even a little bit of time off. I just have that continual performer brain of like, “Oh, it's evening time! I should be somewhere doing something at this moment.”
Since 2016, I’ve been a Core Company member with Act Theatre Company. I was in the founding group, and we just rotate throughout the seasons doing shows together. In the last few years, we've gotten to do more and more interesting work, where we're reconfiguring what it means to be a theatre, especially post-pandemic and in a modern age where we want to be more friendly to all kinds of groups and all kinds of people. It's not just about performing, but it's about making sure that the theatre scene is accepting of all.
I've gotten to work with a lot of regional theatres doing Shakespeare, straight plays, and musical theatre. My personal favorite has always been Shakespeare. I'm a huge Shakespeare fan. That's one of the things I love about Wonderland is that we've actually added in some Shakespeare for me! I'm like, “Yes! I'm ready to stretch that muscle!”
I found the Can Can about a year and a half before the pandemic and have just been crazy about it since.
Jasmine Jean Sim in Wonderland (2019) | Photo by Nate Watters
THECANCAN.COM: How have you seen Wonderland evolve over the years? How different is the show now compared to what it was upon its initial conception?
Jasmine Jean Sim: My first year at Can Can, I did Wonderland. So, this is my third Wonderland now. I've gotten to see every iteration since then, and it's always a joy because it's Christmas time! There's something uniquely special about the fact that the audience is very happy to be there. I think the audience is always happy to be there for a Can Can performance, but, especially around Christmas time, there is such a different feeling. So, regardless of what the show is, you're going to have a good time.
But, something that’s really great and unique about the Can Can is that it creates around its performers. Each year, we've had slight evolutions of the same group. In my first year, we had a particular group. The second year, we added a performer to the show, and we also had understudies. This year, we now have two people who haven't done Wonderland before. So each year, there's a core group that has performed the show with new performers added each time. The show ends up becoming really fun because of that. We try to use each person's skills or what they're good at to make the show shine.
But even so, Wonderland is always the same story of someone who's lost their holiday spirit. Their internal spirits are represented by us performers, and so it's about all of us trying to get their holiday spirit back. Now, it's just a little bit different. What's interesting is, in past years, we had one main spirit. This year, it's really fun because we're more of an ensemble. We're all one being trying to help that one person be cheerful.
Overall, the show has a similar energy and feeling, but we’re always trying to give the audience something new. In my first year, we were still in the old space. So, it was very interesting going from the first year to the second year and being in a completely new space. The new environment changes how you interact with the audience, who you are on stage, and even the choreography, as well. It's been really fun to watch it grow.
THECANCAN.COM: Where do you find the most creativity when performing the same show year after year?
Jasmine Jean Sim: I would say that performing at Can Can is unlike any other performing. If you work on Broadway, or in regular regional theatre, and you do the same show over and over again, it can get very monotonous. The real beauty of the Can Can, in my opinion, and the really special, challenging quality that I wish every performer could experience is the fact that the audience is the largest character in a show.
The show that you do at 7:00 pm is so different than the show you do at 9:30 pm. I've really appreciated seeing the performers I work with being so consistent in their performance, but the way that they interact and respond with the audience is the thing that changes and adapts. I never tire of the performances because each one, and each audience, is so uniquely different. You're almost always surprised because you can never really understand the group dynamic between the performers and the audience until you're in the room with them. So, for me, it's really the joy of discovering what the audience is going to discover throughout the night.
Jasmine Jean Sim and Tori Gresham in Wonderland (2022) | Photo by Nate Watters
THECANCAN.COM: What is it about Wonderland that warms people's hearts? As a performer, what do you hope folks take home with them after the curtain closes?
Jasmine Jean Sim: The quality of this show is the same reason we love stories like Christmas Carol – because it tells the story of forgetting joy and coming back to joy. I think after the last few years we've all had, we all really deserve to remember joy. That can be very, very hard when you've hardened yourself because of how much we've all been beaten down, how much the last few years have all gotten to us, and how much that can feel overwhelming at times.
The reason that I think Wonderland hits people so particularly is, even if it is just a silly show and we're all dancing around in our skivvies, the general message is that you've forgotten what it means to be joyful around the holiday, and we are all here to remind you. That's the reason it's joyful. Even though it can sometimes be wonderful to do a fun, cabaret-style show where there's no story, especially around the holidays, it's even more wonderful to have that grounding experience, where we all look around and are like, “I'm with the people I love. I'm hearing this beautiful music. I'm grateful for my life and those that I love.” It really gets me!
Interviewer: It's getting me, too. I think it’s something everybody can relate to.
Jasmine Jean Sim: Even now, even if we've been open for over a year, we still have people mention that this is the first time they’ve been out to a theatre or to a performance since the pandemic. There are still people experiencing that for the first time. There's nothing like live theatre to make them feel at home again. Just being in the same room with people experiencing the same emotions, whether it be silly, heartfelt, or impressive. We're all back in the same room together, and I think that’s also a huge part of it, as well.
THECANCAN.COM: Is there a specific Wonderland performance you’re especially fond of looking back on?
Jasmine Jean Sim: There have been many. It's hard because, again, every performance is so unique. Part of the joy of performing is the people you're with.
I remember very specifically there was a moment in the first Wonderland I did during the very heartfelt song at the end. Normally, it's very emotional. But, this one time, one of the performers banged his knee really hard on a chair right beforehand, and we all heard it in his voice. For the rest of the number, we were all trying to be very serious, but we were all laughing and the audience was also laughing along with us.
Also during that first year, there was a moment when one of our performers was leaving, and we had this whole huge send-off for him at the end. We sang this heartfelt song, we were weeping the whole time, and hugging each other. Then, they played a Bruno Mars song and he did this whole impromptu strip for the audience. I was crying the whole time. That's the kind of camaraderie you build in the Can Can. Last year's Wonderland, we had the equally interesting experience of welcoming people back. Especially around Christmas, that was really special. I can’t count how many times we had people coming up at the end of the show and saying,, “My loved one passed away this last holiday season, and it was so wonderful to be in the room with you.”
It's just so different around Christmas time, and it's hard to pinpoint a particular thing that really stands out, but it's always something that's joyful and ridiculous. And because it's joyful and ridiculous, you look back and you like cry a little bit. You're like, “Wow, that was a really beautiful thing that we went through.”
The cast of Wonderland (2022) | Photo by Nate Watters
THECANCAN.COM: What makes the Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve performances of Wonderland extra special?
Jasmine Jean Sim: As a performer, those days really don't feel like work. Even though one might say, “Oh my God, you have to work on New Year's Eve! Oh my God, you have to work on Christmas Eve!” But those days really don't feel that way. It feels almost like when you're a kid, and you get to Friday, and you're like, “School doesn't even count today! It's a Friday!” That's how those days feel as a performer because you're holding in the fact that you're like, “Tomorrow's Christmas! And everybody's here!”
There is an extra level of joy and ridiculousness that happens on those days. The audience is so much more engaged on those days, because they're like, “I came here for Christmas!” I think that they really end up feeling like those Fridays as a kid, where it's almost the weekend, but even on Friday it already feels that way.
Interviewer: That childlike, Friday feeling is something we all chase!
Jasmine Jean Sim: That’s something I love so much about the Can Can and about performing in general – I call it “big dumb face energy.” [Laughs] “Big dumb face” just means when you can see that someone is just so joyful, open, and feels like they're playing on stage. There's not that seriousness or look of meanness that we can all have as performers because, at times, it can be a selfish art. I think one of the really brilliant things about the Can Can is that, despite the fact that we're up there trying to convey this sexy and mysterious quality, both the audience and the performers can agree that it never feels exclusionary. The performers are all just so joyful and so childlike in their performance. I’m always like, “I can't believe you pay me to do this!” I just like dressing up, sparkly things, and singing. It’s crazy.
Jonathan Betchtel and Shadou Mintrone in Wonderland (2022) | Photo by Nate Watters
THECANCAN.COM: And, finally, what is your favorite number or moment in the show that you’re always excited to perform?
Jasmine Jean Sim: This is such a hard question. There are two of them!
The first one is “Hallelujah,” the Rufus Wainwright, Leonard Cohen song. Jonny and Shadou, who do a lot of beautiful duets together, do this absolutely stunning duet to that number. Every time I watch it, it makes me cry. It's just so, so beautiful. I think it's really stunning because they combine brute strength and impressive moves with delicacy and intimacy. I always feel like that number is the heart of the show.
The second number is the song we all do at the end, which we created almost as a running joke the first year that I was there because one of the performers always loved this silly, sweet song. It came to be this cute acapella moment with all of the performers back on stage without all the booming mics and huge lights. We sit and stand together and very genuinely look at the audience and sing this sweet song to send them off. It's always really wonderful to take a moment to look at each other and, then, at the audience and send them on their way.
Don’t miss out on making an unforgettable holiday tradition of your own! Join us for the Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, or New Year’s Day Wonderland celebrations at thecancan.com.