[ssba]
Who Killed Santa?
Reviewed by Jessica Salans
The Noho Arts Center
Through January 2
RECOMMENDED
If you’re searching for a holiday antidote to the repetitive drone of A Christmas Carol, look no further than the very funny West Coast premiere of Neil Haven’s Who Killed Santa? The play premiered in Milwaukee seven years ago and is now being presented by Theatre 68 at the Noho Arts Center.
It’s the annual holiday party and all your favorite Christmas characters have gathered to celebrate like you’ve never seen them before — as cheeky puppets.
First to the party is Frosty the Snowman, sporting a top hat, the vocal cadence of Ed Wynn and a habit of melting (which turns out to be pretty painful). Rudolph, whose red nose is sourced in habitual drinking, enters next, followed by Tiny Tim (the only Dickens character invited), and then Steve, an angry punked-out, shaggy-headed young man, formerly known as The Little Drummer Boy. The newest edition to the guest list is a bubbly, sexually enticing Little Drummer Girl named Chastity.
Santa, the largest puppet, is a drunken homophobic sleazebag. Rudolph drinks, Frosty is bullied, Steve scowls, while Santa and Tiny Tim fight for Chastity’s belt. And then — Santa is stabbed in the back with a candy cane.
Neither a visit from an aggressive Magoo-like detective nor another from the repressed unwelcome Tooth Fairy can solve the case. It ends up in the hands of the audience — who’ve been conscripted by the ensemble into hard-working, unionized and pissed-off elves — to decide which holiday character to condemn to death.
As Chastity, Rebecca Phillips, who played Tiny Tim in the original Milwaukee production, overacts (although her broad style is in keeping with her character).
Accompanied by the strong arm of puppeteer Peter Osterweil, Jonathan Berenson, voices the pitiful Frosty, with the two performers moving as a seamless unit.
Katie Zeiner is a trip as a Tiny Tim, trembling either from fear or from his first CJ (Crutch Job. Yeah. That kind.) Ed Cosico leads the chorus of unionized elves to rousing effect, and Marissa Fennell is hysterical when her Rudolph finally dives off the deep end from too much drink.
Jotapé Lockwood proved an outstanding puppeteer, guiding his puppet Steve with such impressive synchronicity that I sometimes believed the puppet itself was breathing. Equally skillful was Thomas F. Evans who manipulated Santa Claus, the Detective, the Tooth Fairy and Mrs. Claus with utmost comic ease. Mr. Evans disappeared into the floor of designer Danny Cistone’s trick-laden set, only to magically reappear as his next, wholly invested ridiculous character.
Libby Letlow’s cartoonish puppets are designed with animated detail, and highlight the comedy with such humorous touches as the droopy eyelid that shows up on a wasted Rudolph. The ensemble is tight in their movements and they sound great when singing the burlesqued carols.
Haven’s writing is very quick and funny; his best lines come in his reprisals of well-known holiday classics like Frosty the Snowman, Here Comes Santa Claus and a most hilarious version of Carol of the Bells.
Perhaps the writing isn’t meant to be taken seriously, but that’s belied by the fine work of the ensemble, who have honed a hilarious comedy romp for the holiday season.
Theatre 68 at The NoHo Arts Center; 11136 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood 91601; Fri.- Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m.; through Jan. 2; additional dates, 12/10, 12/17, 12/23 at 8p.m.; No show Christmas Day. www.plays411.com/santa; Running time: approximately two hours and 10 minutes with intermission.
