Beth Kennedy and Company (Photo by Ashley Erikson)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
The Colony Theatre
Thru Dec. 22
RECOMMENDED
Reviewing the Troubadour Theater Company’s annual world-premiere Christmas musical can be a thankless task. That’s because, by the time the review is published, tickets are usually long gone. Judging by the teeming throngs at last weekend’s matinee performance, that’s almost certainly the case with the group’s latest offering, Troubies Home Alone-ly Hearts Club Band.
Matt Walker, who has helmed all Troubie shows for over twenty years, directs—an impressive achievement, especially considering that he hasn’t lost an ounce of youthful ebullience and creativity in the interim.
The Troubies’ stock-in-trade is mashing up classic/contemporary source material with modern music, typically rock. In their earlier shows, the Troubies heavily favored Shakespeare (Fleetwood MacBeth, Duran DurAntony and Cleopatra). More recently, the group has borrowed from TV and film (It’s a Stevie Wonderful Life, Rudolph the Red-Nosed ReinDOORS, DieHEART). Alone-ly combines Home Alone and the Beatles.
Walker plays Kevin, the role made famous by Macauley Culkin, while Rick Batalla, the company’s co-founder and Walker’s reliably droll partner in seasonal mayhem, is Harry (Joe Pesci in the movie) who, alongside his bumbling associate Marv (Philip McNiven), attempts to broach the precociously resourceful Kevin’s house. The pair meet with a series of increasingly painful disasters, including a glowing remote-controlled tarantula that detaches from Marv’s face and makes a beeline (spiderline?) for Harry’s crotch. And no Troubies Christmas show would be complete without a visit from the Winter Warlock (hilarious company stalwart Beth Kennedy), who is somehow wedged into the flow of action, which roughly (and we mean roughly) follows the plot of the film.
As always with Troubie shows, latecomers are playfully humiliated. At this performance, four tardy guys identically attired in garish green velour tracksuits festooned with reindeer were perfect Christmas presents for Walker et al, who played off the quartet throughout the show.
That’s just one example of the Troubies’s improvisational flair. When a comical opportunity presents itself, the performers run with it—but there’s painstaking rigor under the outwardly off-the-cuff trappings,
That rigor applies across-the-board in this production, which features Bo Tindell’s lighting, Roberto Arturo Ramirez’s sound, Matt Scott’s whimsical props, Batalla’s purposely campy low-rent videos, and Suzanne Jolie Narbonne’s spot-on costumes and wigs, all essential contributions to the fun. Eric Heinly, another veteran Troubie, is credited as music supervisor, while a live onstage band led by music director Ryan Whyman keeps things percolating. And of course, the performers, many of whom play multiple roles, embrace the silliness with gusto.
A caveat: Those expecting a family-friendly Christmas diversion should be forewarned that the Troubies, with their occasional outbursts of profanity and topical references to the likes of P. Diddy and the Hawk Tuah girl, may be deemed NSFT (Not Safe for Toddlers).
Over the years, Troubie shows have evolved into powerhouse entertainments that are as impeccably produced as they are outrageously funny. Home Alone-ly Hearts Club Band is no exception. Consider this a rapturous recommendation to their latest triumph. But when it comes to getting tickets…well, after all, this is the season of miracles.
Colony Theatre, 555 N. Third St., Burbank. Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 4 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 and 7:30 p.m., thru Dec. 22. (818) 558-7000. www.troubie.com. Running time: two hours with an intermission.
