The jewel-box-small, down-at-the-heels Minetta Lane Theater is the perfect setting for this opulently burlesque and deliciously Freudian retelling of "The Nutcracker," which has shades of Cirque du Soleil, "Sleep No More" and "Fanny and Alexander" (with a dash of "Satyricon"). It's the work of the Brooklyn-based, largely Juilliard-trained dance-and-acrobatics ensemble Company XIV. On a proscenium framed by heavy red curtains, with candelabra where the footlights would usually be, Tchaikovsky's darling little Clara (a radiant Laura Careless) is a mini-Marie Antoinette with a comeuppance in store, to be delivered by Drosselmeyer, her godfather, played like a smarmy satyr pimp by Jeff Takacs. The genius of this production, which includes eye-dazzling physical feats performed on giant hula hoops and from silken swings, is its transformation of traditional ballet into louche vaudeville: the famous Spanish dance becomes a foot-stomping, castanet-clicking striptease; in the storied Kingdom of the Sweets, Clara wields a fat black whip to play gleeful dominatrix over a troupe of bare-bottomed, harnessed Licorice Boys. Nudity abounds, along with numerous beautiful bodies, some of whose contortions would look downright pornographic if they weren't executed so flawlessly. After an intermission that feels more like 2 a.m. in a 1940s jazz club, Act II morphs from something resembling traditional burlesque into a strange landscape of sexual fear and discovery. Drosselmeyer suddenly appears with both a sinister black hood and gigantic genitalia that is reminiscent of a Bread and Puppet production. Even corseted Clara is liberated into the Sugar Plum Fairy, turning in a performance that would best Gypsy Rose Lee. Her final, nearly naked pas de deux with the Prince, who himself is clad in nothing but low heels, a waistcoat and a glittering jockstrap, mixes erotica, romance and virtuosity. Their dance alone makes this bawdy Christmas delight worth a visit. "Nutcracker Rouge" continues through Jan. 5 at the Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village; (800) 745-3000, ticketmaster.com.