Theater Wit Brings SANTALAND DIARIES and A CHRISTMAS CAROL to Chicago This Season

Theater Wit brings their hit holiday productions to Theatre Building Chicago for the final year (as they move into their new space next door for 2009 productions). Mitchell Fain stars as David Sedaris' surly holiday elf in The Santaland Diaries, and Steve Scott again directs Tom Mula in Mula's original adaptation of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, running in repertory during the 2008 holiday season.

Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol is the award-winning real story behind Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - the story of Marley's heroic behind-the-scenes efforts to save old Scrooge's soul returns starring its original creator, Tom Mula. This irreverent, funny, and deeply moving solo show retells the perennial holiday favorite with warmth and infection zest. Published in 1995, Mula's novel Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol was a Chicago Tribune bestseller. The audio version was broadcast on NPR nationwide for six seasons, and the play version received DePaul's Cunningham Prize. The production premiered in 1998 (remounted in 1999) at the Goodman Theatre (also directed by Scott), was nominated for four Jeff awards, and received an After Dark Award. Since then, the piece has received hundreds of productions nationally and worldwide, including in South Africa and Australia. The show runs about two hours with one intermission.

Humorist David Sedaris' sardonic tale The Santaland Diaries returns to Chicago for its sixth season. Solo actor Mitchell Fain plays the struggling young writer who takes a job as a Christmas elf at Macy's in New York, trying to enter into the holiday spirit as he is forced to deal with the humiliation of elf training, abusive customers, and badly cast Santas. Fain returns for his second year as the beleaguered elf, a role he first played in 2007. First heard on National Public Radio in 1992, this is Theater Wit's fifth annual production of the second most performed holiday show in the country, and runs about 70 minutes with no intermission.

TICKETS: 773-327-5252 and www.theatrebuildingchicago.org  (group rates available, but no 2-show combo discount); www.ticketmaster.com ; Hot Tix

The Santaland Diaries opens Friday, November 28, 2008, 7:30 p.m. (reception following) and closes on January 3, 2009. Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol opens Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 7 p.m. (reception following). Previews are on November 21, 22, 28, 29 at 8 p.m.; November 23 and 30 at 2 p.m. It closes on January 3, 2009

 

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