Dan Tursi’s Rarely Done Productions,
which holds court at downtown’s Jazz Central, 441 E. Washington St.,
thrives on surprising audiences. No other area company would tackle (if
that’s the word) an all-male version of Valley of the Dolls. What
we are less prepared for is having the artistic pendulum swing in quite
another direction toward earnestness, sincerity and (who could believe
it?) sweetness. OK, that’s sweetness bordered with bracing humor and
topped with madcap spoofery. The title of James Hindman and Ray
Roderick’s revue tells you what you need to know: A Christmas Survival Guide. To survive you have to lighten the emotional burden and tamp down the excesses, but you’re still supposed to have a good time.
Hindman and Roderick may not be
household names, but they’ve spent a lifetime in the theater, on both
sides of the footlights. They are best-known in these parts for Pete’n’Keely,
a splendid vehicle for Moe Harrington and Michael Connor in May 2003,
performed at the State Fairgrounds’ New Times Theater. The authors
conceived A Christmas Survival Guide later in 2003, opening it
in Florida. That’s why only one number deals with snow, a mocking
version of Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.”
A high percentage of the songs,
especially in the first act, are standards like “Carol of the Bells,”
“We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” “Silver Bells” and even Jose
Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad.” Along with these are unfamiliar numbers
from fashionable contemporary composers, like Jason Robert Brown’s
“Sarabaya Santa” and Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s “All Those
Christmas Clichés.” Finally, with all the wholesomeness of Midnight
Mass at the Cathedral, we hear some heartfelt religious works.
Still more of the lyrics are original to
the show, adapted to traditional music with satirical swipes in two
directions. The most ingenious of these is “The Twelve Steps of
Christmas,” sticking the rhetorical repetitiveness of “The Twelve Days
of Christmas” on the enforced repetition of addiction control. This
comes at the beginning of the second act, right in the middle of the
show, and could be excerpted as a sampler to explain what Survival Guide is like.
As one of the best-connected directors
and impresarios in town, Dan Tursi always knows where to look for
talent. His first important choice was engaging Jeff Unaitis as music
director to accompany the entire score. Unaitis is incomparable in
negotiating the devilish shifts in tone, from raucous to plaintive. In
the sacred trio of “Amazing Grace,” “Away in a Manger” and “Some
Children See Him,” the counterpoint weaves with effortless grace. His
sharp banter with the singers is perfectly timed. And Unaitis breaks
out of character to recite key passages from the Gospel of Luke when
answering the question about the meaning of Christmas. These are the
same passages Linus recites in A Charlie Brown Christmas. They root the holiday in tradition without exactly proselytizing.
Among the six performers Tursi gives us a mix of familiar and new faces, with some of the veterans asked to do new things. Survival Guide will
change people’s perceptions of Dana Sovocool. Long one of our most
admired local singers (including his People’s Choice honor from the
Syracuse New Times Syracuse Area Live Theater (SALT) Awards), he hasn’t
always been given as much credit as a performer, despite the lead in
Simply New Theatre’s Chess two years ago. Here he’s the lead
comic, starting with Darth Vader and Yoda imitations and rising to a
grumbling child in a Buster Brown outfit unwilling to sit on Santa’s
knee.
In his two biggest, contrasting numbers
Sovocool demonstrates how far he can reach. The first is his funky
rendition of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” with an Elvis wig and red
jumpsuit and a credible Tupelo accent. Together with the women in the
company, Sunny Hernandez, Sara Weiler and Kathleen Wrinn, this wins the
most laughs-per-minute just before intermission. Then in the second act
he plays to his more recognized strength with “O Holy Night,” piety
made glamorous.
The two other men in the show are Rarely
Done regulars, opera singer Peter Irwin and comic Jimmy Curtin. Irwin’s
best moment comes in the heavily ironic interpretation of “Silver
Bells” where his tenor has to complete with cacophonous cell phones.
And Curtin’s ebullient hilarity wins with his madcap Santa and his
obsessive sleigh pilot.
Most of the musical goodies, however,
are assigned to the female newcomers. Although fresh out of the
Syracuse University Drama Department, tall Kathleen Wrinn may be the
most recognizable of the new women, and not just because she looks like
a reincarnation of 1930s film star Mary Astor. She was also the solo
performer in Lauren Unbekant’s Woman in the Blue Dress that recently accompanied the Turner to Cezanne exhibit
at the Everson Museum of Art. Here she is both naughty, as in “I’d Like
to Hitch a Ride with Santa” by Syracuse’s Jimmy Van Heusen, and very,
very nice, courtesy of the stunning “Little Girl Blue,” a forgotten
jewel from Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
Both Sunny Hernandez and Sara Weiler are
called on for dramatic spin along with demanding vocals, sometimes
together as in “Old Fashioned Sleigh Ride” and Irving Berlin’s
little-known and heavily sardonic “Happy New Year Blues,” with
Sovocool. Wailer’s best solo comes early in the first act with “All
Those Christmas Cliches,” which is presented in tandem with Irwin’s
“Silver Bells.” Such songs are the Survival Guide part of the
show. Hernandez has two very funny bits; one is the aforementioned
“Twelve Steps of Christmas,” and the other being “Sarabaya Santa,” with
the singer descending to a contralto for a faux Marlene Dietrich.
Rarely Done’s space at Jazz Central does not always allow for elaborate set decoration, but the festive greenery for Survival Guide would have made an honorable window at Dey Brothers in the glory days. No gritting of the teeth here; it’s time to enjoy.
This production runs through Saturday, Dec. 12. See Times Table for information.
