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In the world of ever-shrinking subsidies for the arts, and an ever-growing dependence on ticket sales and promotions, hitting paydirt with a holiday show has become a necessity for small-to- middling theatre companies. In general, holiday shows are a hit- or-miss proposition. What may one night be a rousing tale of Holiday Cheer may the next night be Santa's gift to an unbelievably naughty child. This especially holds true when child actors are included in the equation. The rigorous "six-shows-a- week-two-matinees" schedule can result in totally different presentations of the same materials from one evening to the next. Fortunately, a recent Sunday matinee of Playwright's Workshop Theatre's production of the ariZoni award-winning "Holiday In Hoopersville" was no lump of coal, but instead an enjoyable romp through a town's search for the true meaning of Christmas.
In the mythical town of Hoopersville, different contingents battle to present their version of the town's holiday pageant. Such diverse groups as the local hoods, the dance school, the girl's basketball team, the town's Hollywood starlet and her entourage, and the bratty mall rats present their skits showing what Christmas means to them in hopes of capturing the $20,000 grand prize. By the end, everyone is set right as they are shown that they were on the right track, but forgot the 'big picture.' Written by PWT's artistic director Raymond Shurtz and Kathy Warren, the script has quite a bit going for it, including cute lyrics, funny situations, and the unique use of children in roles that are more than, "trot them on, make 'em look cute and trot them off so we can go on with the show."
It's ironically refreshing to see a kids' holiday show where the children are the best part of the production. Their presentations, from Ashley Rice's cutesy performance of the orphaned Teeny Jeannie McSqueeny to the four adolescents playing the biker girls gang named "The Angels," were solid and thoroughly enjoyable, allowing the show to be carried by the 25 kids with only a bit of guidance by the 10 adults. The youngsters had minimal problems with pronunciation and projection, an added surprise, and in a lot of cases actually performed better than some of their adult counterparts. Since this was a Sunday matinee, the double-cast show meant that the production was full of the "B" performers; mostly the adults, but also two of the kids . For a "B" group, the presentation was solid. Standouts of the adult cast included Stacie Lathrop as the looney, artsy-fartsy dance teacher, Betty Wiggy, and Keith Hegemen as the slimy gangster turned reluctant-do-gooder Willie Kilya.
Kudos go to Kathy Warren's direction, which must have been a time-and-a-half operation to be part musician, part entertainer and part traffic cop. Despite the crowd of actors, almost all under the age of 15, the show went very smoothly, and even had its touching moments and bits of hilarity. The best part of the production was in the way that the show never slipped into pandering to its audience. This is a holiday show that talks with and not down to its audience, no matter what age.
Generally, it's not my policy to review holiday shows, though I made an exception to this rule after hearing about The Arizona Republic's terse, unkind review of this production by their new critic, Katherine Creno. This would be the first time since she began reviewing a few months ago that she's actually been truly negative about a production she's seen. In my opinion, it's wrong to review children's shows in the first place, but if it must be done, leniency is more than a courtesy, it's required. According to hearsay (I will not read the review myself until after I've finished this one), the oft-wishy woshy Creno was genuinely cruel in her comments, and may have damaged these fledgling actor's self-respect in the process. While it's true that there may not be a future star in the entire bunch, Ms. Creno has done as much as she can to frighten these youngsters away from the joys and triumphs in the theatre. Perhaps she did see the worst night of the production, and there was little in its presentation to recommend itself to her, but it is a reviewers job to be fair and balanced, and especially with a production almost completely filled with children, to point out something positive to aid in their growth as performers. It's a shame that Ms. Creno's lack of experience has had such profound repercussions.
The "Holiday In Hoopersville" that I saw is a cute show, with solid performances and a surprisingly good presentation by the children in the cast. If you are lucky to see it on a good night, then you, too will be pleasantly surprised.
Production Details:
"Holiday In Hoopersville" by Raymond Shurtz and Kathy Warren
Playwright's Workshop Theatre, Phoenix
279-5151
December 7-December 28, 1996
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