HOLIDAY CHEER
New musical at Goodspeed offers a very merry ‘Christmas’
“Christmas in Connecticut” is bringing happy holidays to Goodspeed audiences, with the emphasis on happy.
This stage musical, which has its world premiere now at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, is upbeat and appealing. It has its share of farce-happy comic confusion alongside seasonal atmosphere and sentiments.
The show boasts some cheeky tunes, too; “Catch the Ornament” is a silly romp about a holiday tradition, and it’s a crowd-pleaser, as is “Blame It on the Old Magoo,” about the effects of a strong cocktail. And the show concludes with a compassionate, contemplative song, the absolutely lovely “May You Inherit.”
The tale is set in 1943-44 New England — first in a business-focused, bustling New York City and then in a rustic farmhouse in Connecticut. Liz Sandor (played by Audrey Cardwell) comes to the Big Apple with the hopes of writing about the modern woman, but male bosses have other ideas. She ends up penning a supposedly autobiographical homemaker column, which becomes hugely popular. There’s only one problem: She’s making it all up. She’s not married. She doesn’t have a baby. And she can’t cook.
When her unwitting publisher and a war hero who is a Liz fan want to visit her home for Christmas, Liz has to figure out how to fool them into thinking she is the woman portrayed in her columns.
This “Christmas in Connecticut” was inspired by the 1945 Warner Bros. film of the same name, but it’s actually quite different. Patrick Pacheco and Erik Forrest Jackson adapted the piece, and Jason Howland and Amanda Yesnowitz created the songs. Amy Anders Corcoran directs the production.
The stage version has added some central figures to the cast and has changed the relationship between others. It also packs in more plotlines and weaves in modern political and social views. There are discussions about the have-nots versus the haves, prompted by a socialist farmer; a gay relationship; and a much more expansive view of women’s independence and power. Some of those inclusions feel more effortful than others.
The comic approach is also broader onstage than in the film, which starred Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan.
A lot of musicals tend to burst with fun and creativity in the first act and then lose steam as they have to tie up all the plot points in the second act. “Christmas in Connecticut” is an exception. It feels a little prosaic at the start but builds consistently as it goes along. The fizziest, funniest