A modestly enjoyable ‘Christmas Story’
“A Christmas Story” makes for lightly enjoyable fare in Theatre Under The Stars’ spirited, if not ideally polished, Houston premiere.
The modesty of its ambitions is part of the appeal in this 2012 Broadway show, based on the popular 1983 movie.
In Joseph Robinette’s amusing book, faithful to the incidents in the film, and especially in Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s sprightly score, the show tells its simple story with agreeable directness, nostalgia and the right light touch. Script and score play in an easygoing, oldfashioned style appropriate to the story.
“A Christmas Story,” either as movie or musical, does not aim for the grand statement and emotional depth of weightier Yuletide classics such as “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Based on the semi-autobiographical stories of author Jean Shepherd, set in small-town Indiana in 1940, this “Story” is about nothing more, really, than a kid’s yearning to get the present he most craves for Christmas. In Ralphie’s case, it’s that Red Ryder carbine-action BB gun about which he constantly waxes rhapsodic. Yet no matter how he campaigns and implores, parental admonitions (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”) make this quest look like a long shot for the obsessive youngster.
The slender thread of plot is decorated with vignettes about childhood in that simpler time — Ralphie facing down the schoolyard bully or confronting an inexplicably hostile store Santa. Apart from Ralphie’s schemes to acquire his present, most action and humor derive from his eccentric father (“The Old Man”), who despite his overinflated estimation of his intellectual prowess, is constantly at war with the world and such enemies as a neighbor’s harassing dogs and an antagonistic basement furnace. Amusingly, for the show’s purpose, The Old Man’s outbursts of profanity pour out as gobbledygook.
When The Old Man’s crossword contest “prize” turns out to be a large novelty lamp in the form of a fishnet-clad woman’s leg, his proud insistence on keeping this eyesore in the front window becomes a point of contention between The Old Man and the exasperated Mother.
Pasek and Paul’s neatly crafted songs generally say the right things at the right moments. “It All Comes Down to Christmas,” an effective opener, introduces Ralphie and his family, setting up the situation. “Red Ryder Carbine Action BB Gun” is the hero’s requisite “wanting” song. “The Genius on Cleveland Street” turns The Old Man’s pretensions into a vaudeville strut. The songwriters do well turning the characters’ fancies into fanciful production numbers, as when Ralphie imagines himself a Saturday matinee-style cowboy hero in “Ralphie to the Rescue” or the revelation of the The Old Man’s “prize” occasions a leggy, Vegasstyle production number. Judged purely as songs, the nicest are the two wistful ballads for Mother, “What a Mother Does” and “Just Like That.”
The rose-colored perspective is heightened by the Narrator who frames and comments on the action — a mature Ralphie fondly recalling his favorite Christmas decades later, for a radio broadcast.
“A Christmas Story” is the sort of show whose funny moments elicit chuckles and smiles of recognition rather than uproarious laughter. Still, it would likely make a stronger impression were it not for the fact that some aspects of this production are more competent than inspired.
Despite the essential effectiveness and correct tone of Bruce Lumpkin’s direction, the rendition nonetheless has its slack moments and rough spots. Dana Lewis’ choreography is lively enough, yet inconsistent in style and never really memorable. Several production numbers, especially in Act 1, could use a degree more tightening.
Estus Stephens makes a likable Ralphie, very much the Everykid in his energy, impulsiveness and panic, with a clarion voice for the big notes.
John Scherer brings a goofy zest and quirky charm to The Old Man, proving himself a savvy comic and strong singer, even though his vibrato becomes pronounced in belted passages.
Susan Koozin registers well as the long-suffering, gently chiding, ever-patient Mother and delivers the aforementioned ballads poignantly.
Kevin Cooney plays the Narrator with avuncular warmth and raconteur’s ease. Sean Graul is spunky as Ralphie’s arbitrarily argumentative kid brother Randy.
Megan Sikora, who as ingenue Bambi stopped the show with her sizzling dances in Kander and Ebb’s “Curtains,” is fun as the unpredictable teacher Miss Shields. She has her best moment morphing into a hard-tapping femme fatale in Ralphie’s Act 2 gangsters-and-molls fantasy to “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out.” The sequence is somewhat hampered, however, by having Ralphie just stand around haplessly rather than being part of the dance, as he was on Broadway.
One other drawback is that the clever lyrics at several points are hard to understand. Sometimes the culprit is uneven amplification in scenes alternating between multiple characters. At other times, whether involving Ralphie’s solos or choral numbers, the enunciation just needs to be sharper.
Adding up the pros and cons — and so long as you can be satisfied with a show built on such a slight premise — “A Christmas Story” makes a pleasant seasonal diversion.