Kick-ass Christmas theater
More Footlight Footnotes
- Private Lives at Shakespeare, Killer Joe at Profiles, Macbeth at City Lit
- American Buffalo shines at Steppenwolf, Icarus sputters at Lookingglass
- Irma Vep delights in drag, Teddy Bear makes for gritty drama, while Democracy is as boring as the Grant administration
- Remy Bumppo laughs at old people, Isadora Duncan dances at Timeline, and the Goodman tokes up
Spoiler: Jesus does not appear anywhere in the Christmas shows covered in this installment of Footlight Footnotes.
It may seem a bit of a stretch to refer to a folk-opera adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and a pageant-styled history of Scientology as "Christmas shows," but if A Christmas Carol taught us anything, it's that you don't need a nativity to have the holiday spirit. That, and don't be a greedy asshole. At the heart of Goodman's A Christmas Carol, Victory Gardens' The Snow Queen, and A Red Orchid's A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant is the spirit of peace, love, and goodwill toward men, but here's the best part: They don't suck.
A Christmas Carol is a Chicago staple, and the Goodman's not messing around in its 30th year. Yes, Scrooge is a jerk, but from the very opening scenes it's easy to see that he's a haunted man, even without those pesky ghosts showing him his screw-ups past, present, and future. Larry Yando's Scrooge is not only intensely guarded, hiding in his account books, but also extremely damaged. The supporting cast ably brings out the worst in Scrooge, genuinely hating the rich old man who delights in their misfortune, and toasting him at Christmas dinner. More could be said about Goodman’s production—the beautiful opening musical medley, the creepy way that child-spirits Ignorance and Want are introduced, and the towering Ghost Of Christmas Future puppet—but at the end of the night, the show is about Scrooge and his choices.
The Snow Queen’s music varies from Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell to Motown and kitschy campfire songs, and while it ventures too far into cheesiness, the production is a damn good time. The opera tells the story of Kai (Andrew Keltz) and Gerda (Leslie Ann Sheppard), two childhood friends who are torn apart when Kai gets a shard of glass in his eye, which blinds him to everything but the evil in others. He seeks refuge in the kingdom of the Snow Queen, a completely badass puppet as creepy as it is beautiful:
The first act finds its footing slowly, but once the focus shifts from Keltz to Sheppard, the show really takes off. Sheppard’s crystal-clear vocals and exuberance make her mesmerizing to watch, and she excels in capturing Gerda’s love for Kai—her affections are genuine, bringing a needed layer of humanity to the opera’s fantastic nature.
Speaking of adorable musicals, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant is about as cute as it gets, with just a sprinkle of dark Scientology freakiness.
The brilliance of Kyle Jarrow’s script (from a concept by Alex Timbers) lies in the contrast between the actors and the material, 11 child actors discussing crises of faith, war, and suicide among others. A chilling musical number at the end recounts how Scientology washes away its members' despair, even though the little girl singing probably isn’t even out of grade school. The funny kicks in when the show exploits the questionable nature of many of Scientology’s core beliefs. A demonstration of how an E-Meter works is done with puppets, emphasizing the absurd nature of the entire process (electric current plus hypnotically suggestive questions and orders) and pushing it into the farcical.
