NextStop Theatre packs ‘Every Christmas Story’ into hysterical remix
To endure the holiday seasons, multitasking and time management are musts. In deciding on holiday getaway entertainment, then, how effective to invest a mere 90 minutes wrapped up in a mash-up of #BHCs (Beloved Holiday break Classics).
NextStop Theatre Company’s refreshing buffet, Each individual Christmas Story At any time Told (And Then Some!), offers screwball comedy with cocktail-party trivia. Ever speculate how folks celebrate in Sweden, Australia, Wales, or Easter Island? Audiences are in for a whirlwind worldwide tour — whipping past as quick as Santa’s 650-mile-for every-second dash (as calculated by the show’s most grounded participant, Rikki Howie). Fun information equilibrium the farce and fulfill in a way that’s both equally hysterical and cerebral.
Simply because honestly, like many theater critics, I have appear to dread the phrases “madcap romp” in marketing elements. Practically nothing like environment the bar much too significant. But happy tidings below! The 3 sensible-person gals populating this piece — the dignified Rikki, polished comic Rebecca “Becca” Ballinger, and a perky, rapid-witted Brittany Martz — are bearing sturdy items of golden pranks, nonsense, and mirth.
While scripted, the enjoy established by Michael Carleton, James FitzGerald, and John K. Alvarez in 2007 has an improvisational feel. It opens with Rikki, ever the grownup in the room, earnestly launching into A Xmas Carol. But sidekicks Becca and Brittany stage a insurrection. It is been “done to loss of life,” they whine. “Nice ghost, furry ghost, terrifying ghost …” they chime. Demanding to flip the script on traditionalism, they wind up flipping their lids — practically. Lots of hats traveling around. In truth, the slap-sprint set design and style is cumulative, with props and costumes in shape for a quality-schooler’s participate in piling up like a messy playroom.
With cheerleaders’ spirit, Becca and Brittany twist Rikki’s will and recruit the audience as co-conspirators in uncovering the true spirit of Christmas. A enthusiasm perform it’s not, even though. Jesus is scarcely talked about. (Even all through a brainstorming phase with the audience on opening night time, he obtained handed in excess of — geddit?) But these passionate players will wring out any gloom from the place. Becca is a learn of cartoonish impersonations and timing. Rikki, the “straight person,” sparkles vocally and measures up the choreography, primarily in her solo switch in the course of a Nutcracker spoof. And Brittany enthralls with an elasticity of expression and enviable expertise of spitting out vocab and punchlines that land like tickling pearls.
At a time when the theater planet is mourning one particular of its patron saints, Stephen Sondheim, this work is reminiscent of his fairy-tale remix, Into the Woods. In Just about every Xmas Tale, figures from several pageants invade 1 another’s storyscapes. Sort-hearted banker George Bailey from It’s a Superb Existence continuously commingles with cold-hearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge. The Grinch commiserates alongside fellow outcast Rudolph, who picks up some green in his look. You commence to surprise if each individual Xmas tale is not just a variation of the exact same old tale. Scrooge and the Grinch aren’t by yourself in their occur-to-Jesus times, following all.
As outdated hat as seasonal rites can be, this sketch-comedy blueprint permits ample space for shock. Frosty the Snowman gets to be a cold circumstance in a chilling riff on Law & Purchase — possibly the very best-acted scene all close to, with Becca’s Frosty the icing on the cake. But brace your self: Audience-participation segments practically steal the show — largely thanks to Brittany’s comic cadenzas. A quiz display that seeks to response regardless of whether Santa Claus is true could be showcased on Saturday Evening Dwell (on a good week). The macarena gets resurrected — 2 times. A generally lackluster medley of carols at the close is the only disappointment, but Becca’s interpretations and Rikki’s silky singing keep it from crimping the festive mood.
Manufacturing creative director Evan Hoffmann injects more than enough minimalism, novelty, and relevance to bolster the on-phase rebellion even though delighting the viewers with sonic epiphanies. Maintain your ears peeled: Hoffmann’s audio layout includes some of the very best chestnuts, especially for the duration of the pealing of the bells. (And is that a subliminal message in Huey Lewis and the News’ “The Power of Love” riff?) References to the #FreeBritney motion, Kanye “Ye” West, and Squid Game titles make you wonder how much of the script is composed vs. mad ad-libbed. Stage supervisor Jen Katz frantically will work from the wings, shuttling actors through just about every opening in the black-box Industrial Strength Theatre. All the whilst, our agile trio skate about copyrights and somehow eschew commercialism even although shopping for into the crassest sides of Christmas lifestyle.
Combined with lights layout by Helen Garcia-Alton, which alternately bedazzles and sparks shivers during ghostly or solemn vignettes — responding to actors’ cues — Every Christmas Story At any time Informed (And Then Some!) delivers primarily Computer system-PG family entertainment in a reward you are going to want to return to the theater for.
Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
Each individual Xmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) performs by December 19, 2021, at NextStop Theatre Company’s Industrial Strength Theatre, 269 Sunset Park Generate, Herndon, VA. Tickets ($25) are out there for acquire on the web.
NextStop’s COVID Patron Safety Procedures are listed here.
