It’s almost nearly getting close to counting down to Christmas! It’s almost time to see the tree light up the stage for Christmas! It’s— that’s a lot of counting for one little theatre elf to do, so— fourteen days awaaaay! But right now you can go see Tidewater Players’ A Christmas Story and celebrate with them until the big day! Directed by Dickie Mahoney with Musical Direction by Sophie Daghir and Choreography by Carissa McCool Jackson, this charming holiday tale is quickly making itself an iconic part of Christmas stage tradition. Full of heart and cheer— as well as all the iconic scenes and phrases from the beloved movie, this production of A Christmas Story is precious and it reminds us all to enjoy our loved ones and family and cherish the time we have together at this festive time of year.
Scenery and setting can be a tricky thing; there’s a yen to want to do up everything on the stage to create a full set with a great deal of dressing and trimming to help engage the audience in the experience happening on stage. But sometimes less is more. Set Designer Benjamin Marsh is still finding the balance of intense set pieces that really create a scene and functional, swift-moving set pieces. Because there are an elaborate amount of curtain-backdrop drapes, and rolling panel-walls to create the kitchen and the inside of the iconic ‘house on Cleveland’ street, there are a few clunky transitions trying to get from one scene to the next. When the scenery is in place, Marsh’s work fits the bill for the period piece, dialing us back to a simpler time. Lighting Designer Thomas Gardner finds useful ways to highlight the set and people on it, occasionally with some blinking festivities to augment a dance routine or two. The most successful venture of Marsh and Gardner is the basic pre-show stage dressing. The stage itself is adorned with big old-fashioned Christmas bulb lights around the proscenium and across the footlight space. The stair railings leading up to the stage are wrapped in green garland and the aisles leading to those stairs are dotted with festively festooned lampposts. It looks just like Higby’s Department Store’s window waiting to be unveiled for Christmas.
Costume duo Dickie Mahoney and Eva Grove ensure that we get the feel of the show’s timestamp with all the well-aligned period costumes, though not without some razzle, dazzle, and a little festive flare. The Old Man gets sparkly rhinestones for his big number, “A Major Award” on his vest, and the array of ‘dream costumes’ featured both during “Ralphie to the Rescue” and “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out” are simply smashing, adding a flavorful layer of whimsical aesthetic to the production. Of course all the signature pieces belonging to A Christmas Story are present among Grove and Mahoney’s sartorial selections— the pink bunny suit, the nightmare-fuel-elf-costumes from Higby’s, and the puffy- “I can’t put my arms down” snow coat for Randy. There’s even some nods to other iconic stage gems in Grove and Mahoney’s work, like when Miss Shield appears in full-on Glinda the Good Witch pink ballgown regalia during one of Ralphie’s dream sequences, and alter turns up in full-black witch gear for “Act I Finale”, which is essentially the opposite of Ralphie’s fantasy.
Mahoney’s production is brimming with cheer, enthusiasm, holiday spirit, and sentimentality, so much so that you’re nearly able to overlook some of the opening night hiccups (primarily to do with sound issues/music cues all coming out of the tech booth and a few of those aforementioned clunkier scene changes.) There’s a stunning moment near the very end of the production where Jean Shepherd is standing there as the show winds down (after the family has left the Chinese restaurant) and all of the different characters drift past him— Flick being hauled by the police & fireman, Farkus and Dill tromping menacingly by, the Old Man slowly moving past with that knowing look on his face— it’s just a moment but it clearly reflects the notion that these are the memories Jean Shepherd is seeing flash before his eyes— the story he’s been telling all night long are truly his memories that he’s reliving as he shares them with the audience. It’s a simple choice but a powerful one and resonates with a beautiful conviction, sending heartfelt sentimentality out to the audience in hopes of encouraging the recollections of their own fond Christmas memories. Mahoney also utilizes the littlest members of the cast— Adrianna & Hailey Zacker, ages three and two respectively— for adorable moments that have the audience gushing at the cuteness overload. They get pulled across on roll-wheel-rocking horses during “Ralphie to the Rescue” and are shuffled across the stage and tossed down the slide during “Up On Santa’s Lap” and it’s just the most precious thing you ever did see.
Mahoney has assembled a fine cast— complete with a few returning veterans as well as some people making their stage debut. Musical Director Sophie Daghir has brought together a large ensemble with a powerful sound. She’s worked to encourage bold and fulfilling sounds from the younger ensemble (Sofia Chardon-Muneses, Sofia Dalton, Zamir Holmes, Alivia Horn, Sophia Jorge, Carter Lien, Sadie Lien, Gino McCool, Ellie Miller, Brigid Phelan) and manages to coax a similarly robust sound from the adult singers as well. The thing that Daghir and Mahoney both achieve in their directorial pursuits is the unwavering excitement and enthusiasm. Even when there’s a little bit of chaos on the stage, the radiant joy and happiness and undeniable giddiness of Christmas are the overriding feelings that roll of the stage in waves, inviting the audience to feel the celebration as they watch this story unfold.
Choreographer Carissa McCool Jackson gets props for carrying the torch of enthusiasm into the dance routines. There’s a lot of gesture-based dance moves happening with the kids for “When You’re a Wimp” and it gets executed in a way that really gives these kids a voice. Where Jackson truly succeeds is during the tap-routines played out by Miss Shield and the featured tap-Mobster, Suzi Zacker, during “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out”, a 1920’s speak-easy-style swing-tap number. Jackson also gets a lot fun routines kicking all around the stage during “Ralphie To The Rescue” when you get to see Madai Chardon-Borrero, Tatiana Dalton, Meghan Phelan, Joshlin Sheridan-Manning, Krisi Spencer, and Suzi Zacker, do-si-do alongside Stanton Zacker in their prairie-western finery.
That aforementioned youth ensemble (Sofia Chardon-Muneses, Sofia Dalton, Zamir Holmes, Alivia Horn, Sophia Jorge, Carter Lien, Sadie Lien, Gino McCool, Ellie Miller, Brigid Phelan) really brings their A-game to numbers like “Somewhere Hovering Over Indiana” and “When You’re a Wimp” as well as being perfectly adorable during “It’s a Sticky Situation”, which runs parallel to the scene where Flick (Zamir Holmes) gets triple-dog-dared to stick his tongue to the flagpole. Holmes, as the charming but mouthy Flick, does a stupendous job of singing— with his tongue “stuck” to the pole— and mouthing off with Schwartz (Carter Lien.) Bot Lien and Holmes fit the bill for playing Ralphie’s ‘smart-ass’ friends. On the opposite end of that spectrum, you get the mean and ruthless Scut Farkus (Colby McCool) and his toady, Grover Dill (Niccola Lagano), who definitely uphold their end of being nasty bullies.
And let’s not forget Randy (Timmy Phelan) who has mastered the art of whining and crying the way an obnoxious little kid brother ought to. When Phelan freaks out visiting Santa, his blood-curdling, ear-piercing scream that reverberates all through the opera house (and possibly down the street to the river) in a way that has you giggling (when you finish holding your ears.) Blessed with a good, clear voice, the harmonies and blended sounds that Phelan adds to numbers like “Somewhere Hovering Over Indiana” and “Before The Old Man Comes Home” is incredibly sweet and solid. And when he’s goofing off at the table, eating like a little piggy, its as memorable as it was in the original movie.
The adult ensemble (Julie Alban, Madai Chardon-Borrero, Sofia Chardon-Muneses, Maggie Conneally, Sofia Dalton, Tatiana Dalton, Steve Flickinger, Kerri Heineman, Alivia Horn, Don Jackson, Genevieve Lagano, Sadie Lien, Gino McCool, Ellie Miller, Brigid Phelan, Meghan Phelan, Joshlin Sheridan-Manning, Barb Snyder, Krisi Spencer, Stanton Zacker, Suzi Zacker) play everything from townsfolk to dancing elves, to monsters at the end of Act I, to all sorts of things in-between. Steve Flickinger and Stanton Zacker are featured as bank robbers and dancers during “Ralphie to the Rescue” while Kerri Heineman plays Mrs. Claus to the big man himself, Chip Meister, aka Santa. Meister, who may have taken the “look drunk and angry” note of Santa a tad too far, ends up just a little too red in the face during “Up On Santa’s Lap” and looks a bit like a demon about to explode, but he gives the character the rotten garbage-laden growl that everyone expects from that lush-of-a-Claus in this performance.
Winning the major award for understanding the show’s time period, Tatiana Dalton embraces the role of Miss Shield with both resplendence and grace. Her cadence and patois when she’s addressing the students in the classroom reads like something straight out of 1940. She just sounds like a time traveler. And when Dalton jumps into her sassy solo “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out” she’s Broadway-brassy-belting the number like a true shimmering Broadway babe. Dalton really sells the character and is the perfect example of unending energy, even in the minor supporting role.
The narrative figure who sets up the framework for the performance is Jean Shepherd (Bobby Mahoney.) And while the text may conflict with the notion that Jean Shepherd is really just Ralphie Parker all grown up, it is commonly believed and accepted by most that this is the case and for this particularly performance, that’s the vein in which Mahoney is operating; it serves the story well. When he enthusiastically engages with a memory— like the Bumpus Hound Turkey debacle or freaking out about the football when visiting Santa— Mahoney radiates all the excitable energy of a child, reliving those moments as if they were just yesterday for him. Watch him as he observes the living memories he’s reliving; it’s quite the experience. There are moments of real, earnest emotion when Mahoney starts narrating things too, particularly near the end of the performance, that are just heartwarming and truly touching.
You get an equally sentimental and darling performance out of Eva Grove, reprising her role of Mother from Tidewater’s 2018 production. When she takes to singing “What a Mother Does” you can hear and feel the exhaustion and exasperation in her song, belaboring all of the things that are expected of a mother at that time in history. But there isn’t a heaviness to it, rather, a determination that Grove imbues to the number, giving her character a sense of accomplishment even in the face of the insurmountable tasks of motherhood. There’s an earnest chemistry between she and The Old Man (Gary Dieter) that is just too sweet and sentimental for proper words. When he’s mucking about with his crossword puzzle and singing his way through “The Genius on Cleveland Street” you get a whole host of hilarious facial expressions and body language gestures that are just delightful to watch. Grove seems to be saying, “oh not this again” while simultaneously expressing “yep, I married him, and that’s okay too.” It’s really a lovely thing to watch in the background of this song, if you can tear year eyes away from all the hilarious antics that Gary Dieter is getting up to.
There’s nothing more rewarding than watching a truly passionate actor, who cares about the role he’s playing, who’s living the dream of enjoying the ever-loving-daylights out of his chance to present this character to the masses, and you get exactly that with Gary Dieter’s The Old Man. Sprier than a spring chicken and with a voice perfectly suited for both of the big numbers that the character has to carry off, Dieter is truly a star and well-deserving of a major award. He masterfully delivers the string of nonsense-cursing that makes the character so begrudgingly loveable in the first place and yet there is this undercurrent of delightful glee, a youthful exuberance that just drifts to the forefront of his performance, putting a smile on your face, even when he’s cursing out the flimflagging blast-nabbit clinkers! Watching him leap up onto the ‘Fragile’ crate and then do his chair-top slid-down step during “A Major Award”, in addition to all his fancy tap work, is just pure Christmas bliss. Gary Dieter is the spirit of Christmas incarnate and he finds a whole host of ways to pour that out into this somewhat grumpy character, while keeping us engaged and believing ‘The Old Man.’ And what a voice! Both “The Genius on Cleveland Street” and “A Major Award” get pristinely pure vocals that peel like luxurious Christmas bells out into the house, earning him a great many cheers from the audience.
While it all comes down to Christmas, the show all comes down to Ralphie Parker (Jude Mahoney.) The astonishing way Mahoney puts his very strong, very bold voice forward, particularly during “Ralphie to the Rescue” is truly something to behold. The vocal work that Mahoney exhibits is nothing short of genius as he manages to hit those higher tenor, pushing towards an alto range, without going into quiet falsetto. You feel his pains every time he encounters a bump in the road or a setback on his masterplan to achieve his one true wish for Christmas— a Red Ryder Carbine Action BB Gun! When Mahoney stalks around the stage with the coveted gun during “Ralphie to the Rescue” it’s really something to behold. Fearless and on top of his character-performing game, Jude Mahoney makes Ralphie his own while sticking to a few of the more iconic gestures, facial expressions, and movements that audiences have come to expect from Ralphie Parker. Truly a gem when it comes to performing this big leading role, Mahoney brings a fantastic voice and excellent character choices to the table.
So what are you waiting for? You’ll shoot your eye out if you miss your chance to see A Christmas Story the musical, live on stage at Tidewater Players this Christmas season! Get your tickets before you find yourself missing out on Christmas!
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes with one intermission
A Christmas Story plays December 9, 2022 through December 17, 2022 with Tidewater Players, in residence at the Cultural Center at The Havre de Grace Opera House— 121 N. Union Street in historic downtown Havre de Grace, MD. For tickets call the box office at 667-225-8433 or purchase them online.
To read the interview with Bobby & Jude Mahoney, click here.
