[ssba]
A Christmas Memory
Reviewed by Neal Weaver
Sierra Madre Playhouse
Through December 27
RECOMMENDED:
Truman Capote’s autobiographical novella, A Christmas Memory, deals with his loving friendship with his elderly eccentric cousin Sook, and takes place during a period in the writer’s childhood when, due to his mother’s marital vicissitudes, he was farmed out to various relatives in the South.
The story is set in Monroeville, Alabama, where the boy was sent to live with his older cousins, Jenny, Sook, and Seabon, and where his neighbor and playmate was Nell Harper, who grew up to be the Harper Lee of To Kill A Mockingbird.
Capote’s novella has achieved the status of a modern classic, and there have been several attempts to dramatize it — most notably a television version which starred Geraldine Page as Sook. So it was perhaps inevitable that somebody should turn it into a musical.
But when anyone sets out to turn an existing work into a musical, there has to be a decision. Will the conventions of the musical be stretched to accommodate the flavor and atmosphere of the original, or will the original be subsumed by the musical traditions?
The creators – Duane Poole crafted the book, composer Larry Grossman provided the music, Carol Hall wrote the lyrics — here seem to have opted for the latter approach. Some of the songs, like “Fruitcake Weather,” seem apposite and right. But elsewhere the razzmatazz of the Broadway musical seems at odds with the affectionate understated realism of Capote’s tale. And we have to wonder where Sook who, we are told, has never even seen a movie, acquired the music-hall style which director/choreographer Alison Eliel Kalmus employs for many of the numbers.
The story’s essentials remain. The Capote character, young Buddy (Patrick Geringer, alternating with Ian Branch) adores his eccentric and socially inept cousin Sook (Diane Kelber), and delights in their favorite occupations, which include flying home-made kites and making large numbers of fruit-cakes for Christmas presents for their friends (who rather imaginatively include Jean Harlow and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt). Their adventures encompass searching the woods for a Christmas tree, buying whiskey for their cakes from the fearsome bootlegger Mr. HaHa (a showy performance by Christopher Showerman), and making Christmas decorations from the cheap materials available to them: popcorn, construction paper, and tin-foil. Their affection for one another makes it all seem magical.
The fly in their ointment is their self-righteous, bossy and authoritarian cousin Jenny (Jean Kaufman) who thinks Sook is a bad influence on Buddy, and decides to send him off to military school to be made into a man, thus disrupting the pair’s cherished friendship.
The adaptation has somewhat domesticated the gauche unsociable Sook, but Kelber captures her shy — and sly — subversive streak, and lends her a fey charm. Young Geringer gives an agreeably straight-forward performance as Buddy. And Kaufman proves unexpectedly sympathetic as the dour Jenny, who feels she must do what she sees as her duty, even if it inspires resentment and revolt. Jeff Scot Carey holds the proceedings together as the “Adult Buddy” who, as narrator, wrestles with writer’s block. And understudy Theresa Ford is a solid presence as the laundress Anna, who’s also the family’s de facto matriarch.
Despite the occasional stylistic jumble, the piece is faithful in its way to Capote’s story, which is substantial enough to survive adaptation. That places it head and shoulders above most so-called holiday musicals.
Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre. Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2:30 p.m., through Dec. 27. (626) 355-4318 or www.sierramadreplayhouse.org. Running time: 2 hours and 20 minutes with one intermission.
