There are some new gifts, as well as a sleigh-full of familiar Christmas comforts, in the Christmas shows returning to Connecticut theaters this holiday season.
TheaterWorks’ ‘Christmas on the Rocks’
TheaterWorks was all set to announce that Matt Wilkas and Jenn Harris would return as the stars of its annual alt-Christmas frolic “Christmas on the Rocks,” when Wilkas learned that the shooting schedule had abruptly changed for a RuPaul film he’s appearing in.
So TheaterWorks’ producing artistic director Rob Ruggiero, who conceived and directs “Christmas on the Rocks,” called an old friend, Randy Harrison — from the groundbreaking Showtime series “Queer as Folk,” the musical “Pop!” at Yale Repertory Theatre and the recent national tour of “Cabaret,” who miraculously was able to jump in.
The show, which brings iconic characters from beloved Christmas stories —nutcracking Clara, BB-gunshooting Ralphie, grief-stricken Charlie Brown and others — to a seedy New York bar on Christmas Eve, is in its sixth season. It’s the fifth for Jenn Harris, who plays all the female characters, and the second for Tom Bloom, the bartender who serves them all. The show contains adult material and is recommended for ages 16 and up.
TheaterWorks has hinted at another big change in this year’s production, but that’s still being firmed up. Numerous playwrights each contribute one-acts to the show, and Ruggiero says “I like to rotate them off a little bit.”
“Isn’t it crazy?” Ruggiero marvels. “This weird, fun idea I had, coming back for its sixth season. Bringing that old bar set out again is like putting up the Christmas tree.”
CHRISTMAS ON THE ROCKS, featuring short plays by John Cariani, Jeffrey Hatcher, Jacques Lamarre, Theresa Rebeck, Edwin Sanchez and Jenn Harris and Matthew Wilkas, runs Nov. 27 through Dec. 23 at TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:30 and 6:30 p.m. The Dec. 21 show is at 9:30 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. Tickets are $45 to $70. 860-527-7838, theaterworkshartford.org.
Hartford Stage’s ‘Christmas Carol’
The big change this year for Hartford Stage’s “A Christmas Carol — A Ghost Story of Christmas” is that there are no big changes. Now in its 21st season, dozens of actors have trod the cobbled London streets of Tony Straiges’ scenic design in those decades. In 2016, Rachel Alderman took over as director, charged with maintaining the integrity of Michael Wilson’s original 1997 staging (and the 2013 high-tech revamp of some of the ghost sequences). Last season, acclaimed actor Bill Raymond — who’d played Scrooge for 17 of its first 19 seasons — hung up his top hat, and Michael Preston took over the role. A few other long-serving “Christmas Carol” cast members left when Raymond did.
This year, all the professional actors in the company are returning. The only new faces are in the horde of children and in the ensemble, drawn from Hartt School acting students.
“The joy for me is that the whole Equity (professional) company has come back,” Alderman says. “ I’m thrilled to have such a tight-knit group for the second year running. It’s a very short rehearsal process but because everybody’s returning, I get to deepen everything with this family. The more you do it the deeper it gets.”
“I never take anything about this for granted,” says Alderman, now in her third season as director. “Every performance is going to be the very first show … for some child in the theater. I take that seriously. I treat that with the utmost respect. We’re building a generation of of theatergoers.”
There are no changes in the elaborate costume, set, lighting and sound designs, except backstage. This is the first time the show has been done since major renovations transformed Hartford Stage’s dressing rooms and other areas, including a new “wig room” for actors who have to hurriedly switch from London street folk into supernatural apparitions.
Does she have a favorite moment?
“Many. That first moment when the sliders open and the ghosts come through the haze and the fog, you can feel the excitement in the crowd. But one of the most magical moments for me is when the Ghost of Christmas Past comes through on her sleigh — it’s so heartwarming, magical, ethereal, seasonal.”
A CHRISTMAS CAROL — A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS runs Nov. 23 through Dec. 29 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m.; with additional evening performances Dec. 13, 20, 23 and 26 at 7:30 p.m.; and extra matinees Dec. 24, 26 and 27 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $90. hartfordstage.org.
Goodspeed’s ‘A Connecticut Christmas Carol’
“A Connecticut Christmas Carol” is among the state’s younger Christmas traditions. The musical, with a script by LJ Fecho and music and lyrics by Michael O’Flaherty, debuted just last season but is infused with over a century of Connecticut history.
The famous actor William Gillette (who lived not far from the Goodspeed and died in 1937) introduces the drama and plays Scrooge, and the ghosts include P.T. Barnum and Mark Twain. But one of the ghosts from last season, Harriet Beecher Stowe, will not return this year.
The role has been rewritten for another historical Connecticut figure — “but I won’t tell you who it is,” O’Flaherty teases.
What we can reveal is that, after Lenny Wolpe originated the role(s) last year, a new actor will be playing William Gillette playing Ebenezer Scrooge — Robert Cuccioli, the Broadway veteran best known to Connecticut audiences from the pre-Broadway tour of the musical “Jekyll & Hyde” in 1995.
“We’re very fortunate he came to audition for us,” O’Flaherty says. “He hit it out of the park.”
Besides those major changes in both the script and the cast, this year’s “Connecticut Christmas Carol” will include a new song and one more actor in the supporting ensemble.
“We wrote the new song from scratch for Mr. Cuccioli,” O’Flaherty says. “Scrooge never sang much in the original.”
The musical’s opening scene has also changed slightly. “It took a little too long to get Scrooge to his desk. The scene still exists. It just happens much faster.”
The show, which like last year will be staged at the Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, still hopes to become an annual tradition, and perhaps even move to the larger Goodspeed Opera House, where the musical is actually set.
“A lot hinges on this year, whether people come back,” O’Flaherty says. “Last year was an enormous hit. The audience surveys were glowing, and it sold very well.”
A CONNECTICUT CHRISTMAS CAROL runs Nov. 30 through Dec. 30 at the Norma Terris Theatre, 33 N. Main St., Chester. Performances are Wednesday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m., with added 2 p.m. matinees on Dec. 13 and 20, with Sunday evening shows at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 2 and 9. There is no Sunday matinee on Dec. 9. Tickets are $25 to $60. 860-873-8668, goodspeed.org.
Sea Tea’s ‘Christmas Carol’
The Christmas theater show that experiences constant changes — at every performance, on purpose — is Sea Tea Improv’s “An Improvised Christmas Carol.”
Claire Zick, who’s produced the show for three seasons at the Sea Tea Comedy Theater on Asylum Street, says the show was originally developed by Randy Dixon of Unexpected Productions in Seattle in the mid-1980s.
“Ours is the same version. Randy Dixon gave us the rights. It has the same outline. That’s unusual for improv. There’s a script! The rehearsal process is different. We’re script-in-hand at first. We want to hit certain bits. Once they’re set, we can take liberties.”
The show changes based on about 30 suggestions from the audience, who are asked for them all at the start of the show.
“We get everything up front,” Zick says, “so as not to interrupt the flow. But we don’t specify how we’re going to use the suggestions.”
The seven cast members are the same as last year, including Kevin McDermott as Scrooge. Some of the cast may play different roles than they did last year, just for variety’s sake.
Zick, who is not a member of the main Sea Tea Improv company but who has brought several projects, including the “Cage Match” series and numerous longform film parodies, to the Comedy Theater space, says the “Improvised Christmas Carol” set consists of just “four wood blocks. We all wear red and green outfits, and we don’t change costumes.”
Memorable moments? “Last year I was playing the ghost, and had to use David Mamet as a playwriting style,” Zick says, which led her to caution the audience that foul language was ahead.
Which reminds her: “All of our shows are appropriate for ages 14 and up. The Sunday matinees are for ages 5 and up.”
“We’re doing eight performances this year. It’s very popular — alternative, very affordable. Last year we had many people come back to see it more than once. We hope it becomes a Christmas tradition like all those other shows.”
AN IMPROVISED CHRISTMAS CAROL runs Dec. 6 to 15 at Sea Tea Comedy Theatre, 15 Asylum St., Hartford. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18, $10 children. 800-578-4TEA, seateaimprov.com.
