Have Yourself a Merry Little 'Christmas Story'

"A Christmas Story"

 

Written by Phillip Grecian; based on the film by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark and on the book "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" by Jean Shepherd; directed by Jack Neary; set design by Audra Avery; costume design by Molly Trainer; lighting design by P. J. Strachman; sound design by Nicholas Jabour

 

Cast in order of appearance:

Ralph, Mark S. Cartier

Flick, Adam Fisher

Schwartz, Khalil Flemming

Helen, Gilllian Gordon

Esther Jane, Rebecca Stevens

Mother, Lisa Tucker

Ralphie, Derek Santos

Randy, Evan Robinson-Johnson

Old Man, Robert D. Murphy

Scut Farkas, Zach Camenker

Miss Shields, Penny Benson

Santa, Michael Dell'Orto

 

Performances: Now through December 23

Box Office: 781-279-2200 or www.stonehamtheatre.org

 

Dear Santa. All I want for Christmas is an exemption from reviewing "A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful Life." Yes, I love it when Scrooge gets the spirit and Clarence earns his wings. But my seasonal affective depression inclines me to find holiday family dysfunction slightly more believable than magically guided trips through seasons past.

 

Thank goodness for me the Stoneham Theatre just north of Boston, Mass., is presenting Philip Grecian's stage adaptation of Jean Shepherd's classically quirky 1983 film, "A Christmas Story." Ralphie, you're my kind of hero.

 

For those who have somehow escaped the delights of Shepherd's comically retro look at the Great American Christmas Ritual through the bespectacled eyes of a fanciful 9-year-old boy, here it is in a nutshell. The time: post-WWII 1940s. The place: central Indiana. The family: Mother, the Old Man, Ralphie, and Randy Parker. The story: all that Ralphie wants for Christmas in the whole wide world is a Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model BB air rifle with a compass in the stock. He'll do anything, including writing the mother of all term papers, to get it. The obstacle to his Christmas morning success: everyone from his mother to a department store Santa telling him, "You'll shoot your eye out." And so it goes.

 

Along the way, however, a parade of merrily odd – but humorously recognizable and real – characters complicate Ralphie's life to a fare thee well. His little brother Randy is the tagalong he must protect. The schoolyard bully Scut is the evil nemesis he must avoid. The giggly Esther Jane is the classmate whose affections he can't quite understand. His nervous and befuddled Mother and alternately exuberant and cantankerous Old Man are the people he must convince in order to reap his holiday reward.

 

While the Stoneham Theatre production of "A Christmas Story" does manage to capture the warm and slightly twisted heart of Shepherd's Norman Rockwell-esque narrative, Grecian's adaptation somehow doesn't connect with its beating soul. His device of relying on a mature Ralph to tell the tale in flashback mimics the movie but often halts rather than illuminates the action. On film, Jean Shepherd's own mellifluous voice enriched the visual antics by adding an emotional layer of reminiscence to the story. On stage, Mark S. Cartier as the adult Ralph more often draws focus away from the proceedings than enhances them.

 

In scenes where the actors are allowed to speak for themselves, "A Christmas Story" is at its eccentric best. During a comic confrontation between the blustering Old Man of Robert D. Murphy and the addled Mother of Lisa Tucker, we finally see the neurotic forces that bind a hard working albeit high-strung Average Joe and his well-meaning but slightly off-center wife together. Here both actors shine, he flinging outrageous accusations while creating slapstick farce, she deflecting his assaults with equally far fetched excuses. Grecian's stage adaptation could use more of this animated showing and less of his narrator's bland telling.

 

As the adult Ralph, Cartier is amiable but only intermittently spirited. He is strongest when reliving his younger self, standing side by side the young Ralphie assuming the same facial expressions and poses. He is less effective when driving the tale, describing in words what others merely act out in pantomime.

 

Derek Santos as the much put upon Ralphie is appropriately forlorn when life seems to give him lemons, but he is less skilled at handling the exuberance of a boy whose vivid imagination frequently transports him to the Wild West of his rifle-toting hero, Red Ryder. Much more endearing is the adorable Evan Robinson-Johnson as Randy. Never faltering out of character for a second, this tiny tot draws us into his strange little world and epitomizes Shepherd's cockeyed view of a sweeter, more innocent time.

 

A solid supporting cast of children and adults do what they can to bring Grecian's narration to life, and Jack Neary's direction is at least affectionate if not inspired. Audra Avery's set and Molly Trainer's costumes establish the period nicely, but P. J. Strachman's lighting could have been more effective in defining the differences between the real world of Ralphie's day-to-day and his enacted flights of fancy.

 

Stoneham's "A Christmas Story" is rather like a child's handmade Christmas ornament. It's cute, it's a little rough around the edges, but it comes straight from the heart. I'll take one of these any day over the brightest tinsel star at the top of an aluminum tree.

 

PHOTOS:

 

1. Derek Santos as Ralphie and Michael Dell'Orto as Santa

2. Lisa Tucker as Mother, Derek Santos and Robert D. Murphy as the Old Man

3. Derek Santos, Evan Robinson-Johnson as Randy, Lisa Tucker and Robert D. Murphy

 

Photos by Paul Lyden