Review: A VERY POINTLESS HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR

Christmas productions come sweet or sour this time or year. It hardly matters which one - everybody seemingly has to do something connected with the holiday. as if it were the only thing that would lure people away from stores, parties and seasonal responsibilities.

At least there is some truth in advertising for "A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular," put on by the Pointless Theater Co., at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint.

But there is a reason for its production - a colorful, irreverent, ribald excuse for fancy dress-up, dumb puns, an irreverent band, snarky puppets and more juggling than you would have ever expected.

A sequel to last year's similarly titled "Spectacular," this year's event is billed as all-new, as would befit something subtitled "The North Pole's 239th Annual Talent Show."

It begins with a bawdy Santa Claus, face completely obscured by white beard and hair, doing some Borsch Belt patter, only to reveal Mary Catherine Curran as Mrs. Claus beneath, bawdy and sassy as you please.

Because this is Washington, she mentions some "North Pole-itics" and indulges into puns about "DonElf Trump" and the like. Soon she's on to the singer "Adelf" (who is so much better than "Tinsel Swift").

But this is by no means a one-woman show, so she makes way for a quintet of fancifully dressed and made up elves and a couple of well designed puppets by Kyra Corradin and Rachel Meyuk. Stuffy is a one-eyed elephant who expresses himself through his trunk; the other is a cranky Jack in a Box named Dick who just opened an adult nightclub called Naughty or Nice (that they're both provided voices by operators in plain sight is a distraction of modern puppeteering).

With a boldly colorful set by Patti Kalil and the interaction with the puppets by Curran, it could have added up to a smart alternate universe kids' holiday special for grownups.

But there's too much of everything else here, from a very controlled improv section to a Nutcracker takeoff that's less parody than homage, and a musical break or two from the three-piece stage band led by the latest holiday figure, the menacing Krampus, resurrected from Austro-Bavarian legend to star in a current horror flick.

What there seems to be more of than anything else, oddly, is juggling. The elf played by Daniel Riker, using existing skills (and much the same patter) certainly fits the talent show format. But it may be a reflection of the rest of the show that he has to come out to juggle three different times. Even though he graduates from balls to clubs to much more dangerous knifes, you sort of wish it were fire instead (then again, in this small of a setting, maybe not).

Despite the snide dialog, the brash production written and directed by Frank Cevarich and composed by Aaron Bliden is not without a bit of actual holiday cheer. It comes at the very end, when a Yuletide story is told with the help of elegant shadow puppetry. But by then we're so cynical we want mostly rum in our eggnog.

"A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular" got great reception on opening night, from an audience that was often as colorful as the cast itself (or perhaps the woman in the Miss D.C. sash and triara really held that title). It seemed the kind of cheer that came from well-wishing friends and family, though. Anybody else might have felt they wandered into another family's odd holiday traditions.

A VERY POINTLESS HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR through Jan. 2 at the Mead Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint, 916 G St. NW, Washington, D.C. Tickets available online.

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