A Dickens of a Season, Scrooged or Not

Whether you like your theatrical holiday fare to wax nostalgic or break with traditional sentiment, you're bound to find something in the Boston area to brighten your days now that the Winter Solstice is upon us. Amidst the frenzy of shopping, cooking, visiting, and partying, don't forget to treat your artistic soul to a bit of cheer this season.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The SpeakEasy Stage in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion in Boston's South End (617-933-8600 or www.BostonTheatreScene.com) is offering an alternative Dickens entry – several of them, in fact – with its delightful production of Rupert Holmes' The Mystery of Edwin Drood running now through December 15 with added performances December 27-30. This Tony Award-winning musical based on the unfinished Dickens novel of the same name serves up a different ending each night as audience members vote to determine which of the motley Victorian characters did Drood in one dark and stormy Christmas Eve.

Is it the hypocritical uncle John Jasper (Michael Mendiola), choir master by day and opium-smoking debaucher by night? Or could it be young Edwin's (Leigh Barrett) reluctant betrothed, Rosa Bud (Erin Tchoukaleff), the beautiful orphan for whom all men, including Jasper and the Reverend Mr. Crisparkle (Dale Place), have lusty eyes? Perhaps it's the Landless siblings, Helena (Carly Sakolove) and Neville (Brendan McNab), inscrutable exiles from Ceylon who seem to harbor more than one secret. Or maybe it's that denizen of the opium den, Princess Puffer (Kerry A. Dowling), whose libidinous livelihood is dependent upon the corruption of others.

Director Paul Daigneault and his nimble cast – some of the finest musical theater actors in the Boston area – give this play-within-a-play a jaunty, tongue-in-cheek feel that makes the anticlimactic solving of the murder take a welcome back seat to the bawdy British Music Hall antics of the colorful actors who play the parts within the mystery. Led by the personable Chairman (narrator) Will McGarrahan, this wacky vaudeville troupe never takes itself too seriously and manages to keep the show moving through its sometimes plodding storyline without ever becoming too frenetic or harsh.

Individual singing voices are uniformly strong, giving the ensemble numbers a richness and power that lifts this production beyond its stock character pastiche. The only glitches that prove a tad troublesome are the much too long prologue in which cast members mingle with the audience, and the casting of the normally wonderful Leigh Barrett as the temperamental male impersonator Miss Alice Nutting, who within the musical melodrama portrays the young Edwin Drood. Barrett has a terrific singing voice reminiscent of the role's originator, Betty Buckley, and her acting always shines. But she simply isn't youthful or boyish enough to make her appearance as a fresh faced male ingénue believable.

Production values are some of the strongest we have seen at SpeakEasy. Designers Jenna McFarland Lord, Gail Astrid Buckley, Scott Clyve and Andrew Duncan Will have transformed the black box theater into a seedy London burlesque house complete with faux proscenium arch, velvet curtain, side box seats, and appropriately low-budget but hilariously timed lighting and sound effects. When the curtain rises to reveal the streets of Cloisterham and environs, dandy backdrops and foreboding set pieces hover darkly over the nefarious proceedings.

Audience participation injects an added measure of good fun to the evening. At the reviewed performance, the audience's vote actually delivered the strongest laugh of the night. The cast reveled in the outcome, each "actor" responding with double takes and unscripted asides that demonstrated their substantial improvisational as well as comic skills. It would be fun to know, night by night, which villain receives the most votes over the course of the run.

White Christmas

The Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre (800-447-7400 or www.citicenter.org) is playing host to a decidedly more traditional holiday offering now through December 23 – Irving Berlin's White Christmas. Based on the beloved movie that starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, this post WWII musical romance features eye-popping sets, colorful costumes, engaging performances, and nifty big production dance numbers.

There's nothing new here. A pair of Army buddy song-and-dance men, Bob Wallace (Brian D'Arcy James) and Phil Davis (Jeffry Denman), follow a sister act, Betty (Kerry O'Malley) and Judy Haynes (Meredith Patterson), to a Vermont inn over the holidays. To their surprise, the inn is owned by their former 151^st Division leader, General Henry Waverly (Charles Dean). Unfortunately, Waverly runs his inn like he commanded his troops, so business is less than booming. True to so many of those big Hollywood movie musicals of that era, the boys and girls put on a show to save the day, but not before petty squabbles and misunderstandings sufficiently delay the inevitable romantic pairings to make room for nearly two dozen Irving Berlin classics.

And those songs are delivered with gusto. Without a let up we get to reminisce with "Let Yourself Go," "Sisters," "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing," "Snow," "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy," "Count Your Blessings," "Blue Skies," "I Love a Piano," "How Deep Is the Ocean," "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," and the quintessential "White Christmas." The entire cast finds the innocent heartbeat of the period and laces it with just enough winking and joyful exuberance to keep it from becoming too sentimental a museum piece.

The standout performances are turned in by a torchy Kerry O'Malley as Betty Haynes, an acerbic Susan Mansur as the inn's stalwart second-in-command Martha Watson, and the inimitable triple threat Jeffry Denman as Phil Davis. As smooth as Fred Astaire, athletic and charming as Gene Kelly, and funny as Donald O'Connor, Denman commands your attention, making it very difficult for his able but less magnetic co-stars Brian D'Arcy James and Meredith Patterson to shine. They do have their moments, too, however. Patterson comes to life in the tap dancing extravaganza "I Love a Piano," going toe to toe with Denman and acquitting herself well with effervescence, grace and charm. d'Arcy James is at his best opposite O'Malley, letting his puppy dog sincerity win over her heart and the audience's, as well. Charles Dean is a bit lackluster and unimposing as the General, but young Melody Hollis is both endearing and precocious as his spirited granddaughter Susan.

With its feel-good message, great tunes, and happily-ever-after ending, White Christmas is as pleasant a trip down memory lane as one could hope for on a cold winter's night. A cup of hot cocoa with a peppermint stick garnish couldn't satisfy any better.

Miracle on 34th Street

Another classic bit of Christmas nostalgia, Miracle on 34th Street, is on stage now through December 23 at the Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham, Mass. (781-279-2200 or www.stonehamtheatre.org). Adapted from the 1947 film starring Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn and a young Natalie Wood, the play unfortunately remains too faithful to the movie, rendering it flat and oddly disengaging.

The charm and emotional tug of the Oscar-winning film rested in its ability to contrast the quiet integrity of the lovable Kris Kringle in his defense of his identity as Santa Claus against the corporate swirl of cynical New Yorkers caught up in the commercialism of the season. The magic of believing "even when common sense tells you not to" countered the realism of merchandising, psychiatry, legal institutions, and media frenzies – and opened the hearts of a jaded single mother and her equally skeptical young daughter to the possibilities of faith and love. Close-ups in intimate scenes created a warmth and emotional power that made belief in Santa Claus unquestionable when compared to the teeming craziness of the urban jungle.

In the Stoneham Theatre production, we experience neither a miracle nor the hustle and bustle that is associated with Macy's on 34^th Street. An absolutely dreadful set design that looks more like a Candyland version of the North Pole than the streets or skyline of New York City literally boxes the actors into playing every scene on the apron. The result is a boring, two-dimensional staging that stops and starts every time the stagehands awkwardly rotate the set pieces – which is early and often. Scenes are ridiculously short, lifted straight from the movie. Unable to benefit from camera fades and instant changes in setting, the stage play stops and starts fitfully, never building interest or momentum.

The actors suffer, too. Most are drawn as caricatures, taking their stereotypes (the villainous psychiatric tester, the squeaky office assistant) to a point of discomfort. Miracle on 34th Street only vaguely approaches the honesty of its predecessor when Doris Walker (Christine Hamel), Fred Gailey (Timothy Fannon), and Susan Walker (Rebecca Lerman) finally confront their true feelings and come together as a family.

William Gardiner as Kris Kringle is an affable enough Santa, but his tender scenes with young Susan are hampered by the garish sets and stark, full lighting. We never get a sense of intimacy and warmth because we are distracted by the green and red stripes, big blue snowflakes, and pine tree patterns on the walls around them. Given a script that is less than fluid, director Weylin Symes should have done everything he could to open the stage and move scenes transparently. Instead he has accentuated the choppiness and robbed the show of any real pathos.

If you have your heart set on revisiting this holiday classic, rent the movie. Some works, apparently, just don't translate well to the stage.

Other Holiday Fare

A Christmas Carol – North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass. and the New Rep in Watertown are both staging productions of this Dickens feast this month. Performances of Artistic Director and Executive Producer Jon Kimbell's stunning musical adaptation at NSMT – now in its 19th consecutive year – run through December 23. For tickets call 978-232-7200 or visit www.nsmt.org. At the New Rep, Producing Artistic Director Rick Lombardo's critically acclaimed version also runs through December 23. For tickets call 617-923-8487 or visit www.newrep.org.

The Santaland Diaries – December 19-30, Downstage at the New Rep brings back last year's successful staging of David Sedaris' quirky anti-holiday monologue about his unconventional exploits as a department store elf. This year the one-man show stars Guy Olivieri who earlier this season wowed audiences as Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick, Boom... For tickets call 617-923-8487 or visit www.newrep.org.

Pinocchio – Boston Children's Theatre presents this family-friendly alternative to traditional holiday fare now through December 31. Performances are held at the Grand Lodge of Masons of Massachusetts, 186 Tremont Street, Boston. For tickets call BCT at 617-424-6634 or visit www.bostonchildrenstheatre.org. Tickets are also available at  www.theatermania.com.

PHOTOS: Kerry A. Dowling as Princess Puffer; Leigh Barrett as Edwin Drood and Erin Tchoukaleff as Rosa Bud; David Coffee as Ebenezer Scrooge in the NSMT production of A Christmas Carol

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