Review: WISH LIST is a Holiday Whirlwind at The Hub Theatre

What is on your wish list? Time with your family? An iPhone 6s? Most would say perhaps the iPhone 6s (especially children), but after seeing The Hub Theatre's Wish List, you might want to make spending time with your family a top priority on your list. Wish List, directed by Kelsey Mesa, is a production written and compiled in house at The Hub Theatre. It is production consisting of compiled pieces of poems, bits of stories, Christmas songs, Hanukkah songs, and even a few non-holiday songs sprinkled in, such as "Winter Song" by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson. Needless to say, it is a Christmas Hanukkah infused adeline rush with a bit of love and hope in the middle. It goes by faster than you can say the names of Santa's reindeer.

In this production, the cast is small. Rose McConnell, Katie Jeffries, and Sasha Olinick are the actors who guide you through the holiday whirlwind. Rather than taking on the personas of characters, the actors portray themselves. There are glimmers of who they are, such as Katie mentioning her hope tattoo or Sasha mentioning off handily that he is from Vermont, but this small details are minimal. The audience doesn't truly get to know them completely and for awhile there is the feeling of awkwardness of being at a stranger's house for the holidays. Eventually, there is a point where the holiday cheer warms the black box (if only for a little while). McConnell, Jeffries, and Olinick show much enthusiasm in getting to know the audience. For the very start (even before the show begins), there is plenty of audience interaction, which certainly makes the production feel somewhat personable as the invisible barrier between actors and audience disappears. Audience members are occasionally peppered with questions about holiday movie quotes and what they want for Christmas. Besides a game and an occasional audience Q&A, there is dialogue in-between readings and songs, but the readings and songs dominate most of the production.

Some of the reading selections are more powerful than others. Olinick's reading of a Christmas favorite, How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, is delightful as he puts on a Grinch voice. McConnell's reading of a lesser known poem, "Jabez Dawes" by Ogden Nash, takes on a Grimes Fairytale quality that is unexpected and jarring. "Hope is a Thing with Feathers" by Emily Dickenson is read with grace and compassion by Jeffries. "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost, recited by Olinick, is reflective and nice fit with the production's themes. Besides the readings, there are a few holiday songs that stand out from the others. The top song is an overlapping of "Silent Night," with the story of the "The Little Match Girl," a story by Hans Christen Anderson. The mixing of "Silent Night" and "The Little Match Girl" is powerful and haunting. Another standout is the mixing of "Winter Song" with stories about "random acts of kindness." There is also humor among the selection of songs. A cleverly choreographed song battle is clearly an audience favorite. The battle rages between McConnell, who sings "My Favorite Things," and Jefferies, who sings " I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas." It is quite funny as they try to upstage and overlap each other. Despite the careful curation of the readings and songs, the drawback of this production is its heavy use of already created material. The use of already created material prevents the creation of original, creative holiday stories.

The visual aspects of Wish List show hints of creativity. The set, designed by Jonathan Robertson, is a living room buried under lots of unwrapped and wrapped presents. The wrapped presents and the santa hat are the only holiday decorations. Both a Christmas tree and a menorah are absent, but it is hard to tell if the absence of these holiday symbols are on purpose. Despite the lack of Christmas and Hanukkah decorations, the set's simple design is balanced as it is divided by a lattice-like window made of wood. The lighting matches the simplicity of the set and a highlight of the lighting is an array of stars that show behind the window set.

Wish List is a family-friendly production with glances of holiday magic. However, be prepared to double check your wish list - twice. Wish List runs until December 20, 2015. It is 80 minutes without an intermission and tickets can be purchased online.

Photo caption and credit: (Left to right) Katie Jeffries, Rose McConnell, and Sasha Olinick in The Hub Theatre's production of Wish List. Photo by Jim DeVaughn.

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