BWW Reviews: Area Dinner Theatre Christmas Roundup! Allenberry, Dutch Apple and Rainbow!

The holidays are upon us, and with the arrival of Thanksgiving comes the arrival of the area's Christmas shows. The first ones each year come at Allenberry, Dutch Apple, and Rainbow Dinner Theatre, and they're already out. Make your choices based on your favorite foods -- Allenberry's famous sticky buns? Dutch Apple's popular carved ham? Rainbow's fabulously fresh vegetables? -- and on the type of show you want to catch. Everything's here from new holiday comedy at Rainbow to classic holiday drama at Dutch Apple, from longer at Dutch Apple to shorter at Allenberry, and with your choice of non-musical comedy, musical comedy, or lavish Christmas spectacle. Here's the rundown on everything:

Where: Allenberry Playhouse, Boiling Springs (Cumberland County)

What: WHEN SANTA MET SALLY

Running through December 22

Best for: Families with small children, lovers of traditional and popular Christmas carols, fans of the "The Santa Clause" film franchise, people who like fancier buffets, people who hate regular dinner theatre seating (dining and theatre are in separate buildings, regular theatre seating for the show), guests with shorter attention spans (the show clocks in at 90 minutes, no intermission)

Worst for: People who don't like kids in their shows, people who object to PG-rated humor, people who don't like Allenberry's infamously delicious sticky buns (we are informed to our amazement that such people actually exist) and sticky-bun ice cream

Written, as always, by Jacqueline Heinze, of Allenberry's Heinze family, and directed by Artistic Director Roque Berlanga, this show features everything from "Jingle Bells" to the rock version of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" performed by an energetic young cast, with a throng of Elfkins played by APTC conservatory students and other children. Berlanga has given up the manic elf part that's always written into the shows, though new Managing Director Ryane Nicole Studivant, who turns out to be a powerful belter, plays a sassy, brassy elf of her own.

Santa Claus (Dan Neufer) planned to retire next year, but his back is bothering him too much to continue, so his son, Nick (Samuel Rene Damare) must take over immediately - but the Santa Constitution requires that Santa be married, and Nick hasn't even gone on a date yet. Intrepid elves Snowden (a wonderful Nathan Nolan Edwards), Pixel (Sturdivant) and Frost (Siobhan Stevenson) must help him find a wife in the middle of Manhattan. Enter the expensive and erratic Gina (Jodi Watson) and her ailing, mousy sister Sally (Allenberry veteran Carson Elizabeth Gregory, whose stage cold makes you want to keep her well past arm's length).

Unfortunately, the background music is taped rather than live, but the singing is all live and mostly a joy to hear as well as joyful. The Elfkins are enthusiastic dancers, and Gregory and Stevenson highly talented ones. The overall effect is cute and charming without being cloying, though as with most such Christmas tales, the plot's predictable as it unfolds. Nonetheless, it's a breezy, cheery Christmas romp, especially when Frost, Snowden and Pixel cut loose on stage together.

Where: Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre, Centerville Road, Lancaster

What: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Alan Mencken musical version)
Running through December 23

Best for: Families with children 10 and up, lovers of big, splashy musicals, Dickens fans, Christmas traditionalists, people who like a big buffet with a whole lot of desserts

Worst for: small children (some portions are scary), people who don't like kids in shows, people tired of "A Christmas Carol" in any version, people who don't like crowds

Talk about predictable - I predict that half the English-speaking world knows Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL in one form or another, and that most of the people in that group will still cheerfully accept if not wallow in an annual production of it. If you're going to wallow in Dickens' Victorian tale of attitude adjustment to the spirit of Christmas, Dutch Apple's production of Alan Menken's and Lynn Ahrens' musical A CHRISTMAS CAROL is the way to go. Directed by Dean Sobon and choreographed by Lauren L. Sobon, the show is also vividly costumed by John P. White, and is some of the best costuming of the year in the region. It's a Victorian extravaganza of style and color, with a not-so-Dickensian upbeat score - but you just may own the DVD of the movie anyway, so you know it already.

Robert Summers' Scrooge is suitably horrendous prior to the visit of Marley's Ghost to inform him that his crabby, parsimonious ways must go, although he seems to convert to the joys of the season rather earlier than Dickens' Scrooge does - but that's a function of the script, not any flaw in the acting. He's a fine Scrooge, and delightfully horrified by his supernatural visitors and their messages. He's at his best in his partnering with the Ghost of Christmas Present, Rendell DeBose, a man who has enough cheer and enough energy for a decade of Christmases at a time - DeBose, who's scheduled to play Donkey in Dutch Apple's upcoming SHREK (and who seems to be born for that part), is an explosive ball of good humor and rowdy enthusiasm. The mute Ghost of Christmas Future, on the other hand, Diane Huber, is a marvelous dancer who's excellent in her en pointe solo.

Also noteworthy: Jesse Corbin as Young Ebenezer and Christopher Violett as Scrooge's merry and good-willed nephew, Fred.

If you're not familiar with the show, or even if you are, consider well before taking very young children. Although the show is mostly bright and cheery, Marley's Ghost and his chains are potentially very scary, as are some of the other ghost effects, and the scene with the Ghost of Christmas Future dancing on Scrooge's grave is chilling (as is the gigantic headstone) - slightly older children will enjoy the scares, but they may be disturbing to your smallest-of-all.

Where: Rainbow Dinner Theatre, off US 30 in Paradise (Lancaster County)

What: SEASONAL ALLERGIES

Running through December 28

Best for: Families with children no younger than 12-13, people who prefer straight plays to musicals, comedy lovers, people who don't like standing in buffet lines more than necessary, people who prefer fewer children on stage to choruses of them.

Worst for: Families with pre-teen children (both the plot and the humor may be slightly inaccessible to smaller children, though there's very little humor that ever gets to a PG rating), people who prefer fast-paced/farcical comedies.

SEASONAL ALLERGIES is a family affair in production as well as in story - directed by Cynthia DiSavino, who's also given it one of her usual very fine sets, it's written by her daughter Katherine DiSavino and Kevin Mead, Katherine's fiancé. But this play has more going for it than just being a matter of putting on your kid's show - the "kid" is a talented veteran comic playwright, and SEASONAL ALLERGIES is a funny, heartwarming story about friends, family, and holiday stresses that truly isn't completely predictable, taking it out of much of the holiday theatre genre.

Julia (Josey Miller) is a chef who always winds up cooking the family Thanksgiving dinner. Her brother Pete, a dentist (a very funny Chistopher Babcock) is going through an unpleasant divorce, and has been in hiding. Not scheduled to be there for Thanksgiving at all, he crashes the dinner at which he was welcome all along, and, miserable from his own family problems, just doesn't leave... nor does his laundry, which mysteriously piles up in incredible quantities. Julia's best friend, Alison, a lawyer (Rachel Blauberg) is massively pregnant and moody, and the divorced neighbor, Emily (Lauren Zehr) is angry at Pete for driving into a tree on the front of her property and then stealing it to be a Christmas tree. Can this family be saved?

In the way of all good comedies, of course it can, and happily, by New Year's Eve. But it's a long, long, confusing way to get there, which makes it much like -- surprise! -- real life at the holidays. DiSavino's direction keeps the show moving and the jokes coming on time, but don't come in expecting a fast-paced farce; this is kinder, gentler comedy, more a Neil Simon family tale than a Ray Cooney family disaster, and the show is all the better for it.

The play's charming and certainly clean enough, but this reviewer doesn't advise it for younger children because it just may not be flashy, splashy, or Christmas-sparkly enough for the younger set. Pre-teens are old enough to understand the story of the relative who just won't leave and won't get his act together, but younger kids may not see the humor or the holiday relevance - there's no music, no Santa Claus, and no reindeer, elves, or holiday glitz. Adults, on the other hand, will immediately identify with one or another of the characters, or will know just who they are among their friends. The show's adult in its sophistication and in its understanding of life, though it's not adult in a risqué sense. If you need to entertain an all-adult crowd, especially if it's relatives, this is the best of the three shows.

For tickets and information:
Allenberry Playhouse: www.allenberry.com

Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre: www.dutchapple.com

Rainbow Dinner Theatre: www.rainbowdinnertheatre.com

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