Reviewed by Pittsburgh Good News Reviewer Angel Quinn
A Christmas Story, The Musical
chronicles young and bespectacled Ralphie Parker as he schemes his way toward
the holiday gift of his dreams, an official Red Ryder® Carbine-Action 200-Shot
Range Model Air Rifle (“You’ll shoot your eye out kid!”). An infamous leg lamp,
outrageous pink bunny pajamas, a maniacal department store Santa, and a
double-dog-dare to lick a freezing flagpole are just a few of the distractions
that stand between Ralphie and his Christmas wish. Chock-full of delightful
songs and splashy production numbers, A Christmas Story, The Musical has
proudly taken its place as a perennial holiday classic for the whole family.
The New York Times writes “I was dazzled. You’d have to have a Grinch-sized
heart not to feel a smile spreading across your face.” A Christmas Story, The
Musical premiered on Broadway in 2012 and was nominated for three Tony Awards®
including Best New Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book of a Musical.
This hysterical musical presents
that he will do whatever it takes to make it known that he really wants
one. From writing a story about it in school, leaving notes around the house
for his parents to even asking Santa-who thinks it's a horrible idea. Thus, the
"You'll shoot your eye out kid!" comment. He'll have to wait until
Christmas morning to see if he gets what he wants. This
comical rendition of A Christmas story is for all ages and will definitely
put you in the Christmas spirit. It's
no wonder that the TV movie version has traditionally amused and entertained
families down through generations for years.
In a pre-war 1940 in
small-town Indiana, Christmastime turns 9-year-old Ralphie (Austin Molinaro) into an almost maniacal, bespectacled, obsessed child fiend
because of his rampant wish that Santa leave an official Red Ryder, carbine action,
two-hundred shot BB gun on Christmas Eve.
“A Christmas Story, the Musical,” has been adapted from
the ever popular nostalgic Christmas movie of the same never. Ever popular with baby boomers, the desire to
see this movie has been passed on from grandparents to grandchildren and even
great grandchildren. Like the movie the
musical takes us back to a time when stay-at-home moms were cooks and dressed
like Donna Reed. Pardon the baby boomer
mention, for us millennial, look it up.
My mother in law had to tell me this one. Mothers of the time, wiped
noses, scolded, ran up to the school which was close enough to do then when the
children got into trouble and dispensed sage advice about bullies.
The songwriters, Benj
Pasek and Justin Paul and book writer Joseph Robinette sentimentally stayed
close to the movie that runs endlessly on TV during the holidays. But they
added their own individuality to with big production numbers by choreographer
Warren Carlyle and a dozen singing, dancing kids.
The most fun thing about
this musical was the kids. Often the two
Ralphies are onstage together singing about disasters and triumphs and being an
older brother and bullies and the general would be malaise of childhood.
“You’ll shoot your eye
out,” is an oft-repeated phrase and the title of a big second-act dance
number for Miss Shields. Ralphie fantasizes that Miss Shields is a sexy flapper
and his schoolmates do a Gene Kelly type tap with an impressive tap solo by
Lucas Marinetto.
Just like the movie there
are allusions to the horrendously gauche leg lamp that emits “the soft glow of
electric sex,” as Ralphie puts it; his pal Flick getting his tongue stuck on a
flagpole, the ridiculously fru-fru pink bunny suit sent to Ralphie by a
well-meaning aunt and the Old Man’s mumbled curses.
What a musical funfest
for the entire family, young and old. It
was a bit edgy and your mind could wonder to adult unsaid content if you let it
and there is of course the hysterical slide scene with the bad Santa in the
department store but overall it's a funny story narrated by the adult Ralphie
which recounts his hysterically amusing childhood which wasn't so hysterical to
him. And then there were the kids and I
wonder if they will be as nostalgic about their performances as fans are about
the movie and the musical. Another great
feather in the cap of Pittsburgh as it brings grand theater and musicals to
Pittsburgh.
Angel Quinn is a graduate pharmacy technician and business student at Carlow University, a wife, mother and sometimes Wonderwoman and also Hometown Tourist Reviewer for Roving Pittsburgher Report and pplmag.com
The Roving Pittsburgher Report is one of sixteen good news segments on the PositivelyPittsburghLive podcast and is one of the good news pages on http://pplmag.com, Pittsburgh's First Internet Radio and TV Network and Pittsburgh's Premiere Podcasting Portal.
