Tag: Elf

Santa’s Surprise Party is, No Surprise, Hilariously Fun at The Hive Collaborative in St. Paul

Santa’s Surprise Party is the party to attend this holiday season. This new show from The Mechanical Division, the brainchild of Ben Thietje and Amanda White formerly of DalekoArts, continues that Theater’s tradition of holiday fun. Directed by White who plays the voice of Jessica Claus and written by Thietje who appears in the cast as an elf named Sandwich. The show takes place at an assembly of the ELFS (Midwest Chapter). While waiting for the meeting to start Mrs. Clause joins the meeting through Microsoft Teams and reminds the Chapter that it’s Santa’s 250th birthday and so far none of the other Chapters has even said happy birthday to Santa. This Chapter is going to be the last meeting and it’s up to them to wish Santa a happy birthday and raise his spirits. Before they can begin to make plans, a human discovers them inside the building without permission. They must use elf magic to keep him from leaving and with his help they plan a surprise party for Santa.

I don’t want to give away the best bits or the surprises in store so I’m going to keep things vague. First off, if you enjoy Christmas at all and love a good laugh, you’ll want to snatch up tickets for the three remaining performances. If the show I was at tonight wasn’t sold out, there couldn’t have been more than one or two seats left. I’ve written before about a game we sometimes play on the drive home from a show called who was your favorite. When you can’t name who was your favorite, it’s either one of two things, no one is any good, or everyone is perfectly cast in their roles. This is the latter. Let’s start with Ben Thietje usually cast as the romantic lead due to his matinee idol looks, completely disappears into the role of Sandwich. He’s the nerdy, not dealing with a full deck, possibly a touch psychotic elf with slicked over hair and glasses with lenses as thick as coke bottles. He’s found the character and never breaks from it whether he’s pushing to burn the human or just in the background ritually touching a Christmas light. He hasn’t the fewest lines but makes the biggest impression. Siri Hellerman plays Bing Bong, the President of the Midwest Chapter of ELFS. She runs the meeting like a pro and knows exactly how to keep control of everyone, but is particularly adept at calming Sandwich down with a sip from a juice box. Hellerman handles such absurd moments so matter of factly that they become even funnier. Nora Sonneborn who really caught my attention earlier in the year in Lyric Arts Production of 9 to 5 proves that notice was well deserved, she has comedic chops and displays once again a really strong singing voice, which I’d like to have had even more of. Bradley Beahen who serves as the Music Director also plays Sprinkles. Beahen whom I’m used to seeing mainly as a Music Director is great in the role and his rendition of “Like a Virgin” but with festive lyrics is a blast. Finally, Patrick Kozicky plays Cole, the human who reluctantly helps them plan the party. Kozicky masterfully captures the human responses to the ridiculousness of the elfs. I loved watching him process the rules to the elf party games like Tinsel and Tickle and Elf or Dare.

Santa’s Surprise Party is everything it needs to be, it has holiday spirit, a touch of darkness, a ton of super silly elf nonsense, and even some great singing. It runs a quick 70 minutes with no intermission so there’s still plenty of time in your evening to get presents wrapped and nog some eggs. It runs through 12/21 at The Hive Collaborative in St. Paul, which if you haven’t been, you’re in for a treat. It’s just about the coziest little theater there is, bring some cash so you can make a donation and enjoy some snacks and beverages. Plus whether you need it or not, visit the furthest restroom, or perhaps I should say the Batroom. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.thehivecollaborativemn.com/events/santas-surprise-party

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Elf The Musical JR. at Stages Theatre Company in Downtown Hopkins is a Fantastic Holiday Treat for all Ages.

Sayer Keeley as Buddy Photo by Fischeye Films

God did I need this! I was afraid I was turning into Ebenezer Theater Scrooge. This was the 4th show in a row that was an adaptation of a book or film that I love and the first three resulted in negative reviews. Stages Theatre Company has renewed my faith in theater with Elf the Musical Jr.! Frankly, I had gone into this production in light of the last week with lowered expectations knowing there would be a cast made up mostly of school aged theatre students and adjust my critical gaze accordingly. Completely unnecessary! This cast and production require no handicap, they were fantastic! Looking for a Holiday show to take your young kids to, or older kids, but the Children’s Theatre Company a bit out of your price range? Stages tickets will cost you about a third or less of Children’s and this productions ranks right up there With Annie.

Elf the Musical Jr. tells the story of Buddy, an orphan who as a child snuck into Santa’s bag. Santa’s elves decided to raise Buddy as their own so Buddy grew up at the North Pole believing he was an Elf. When he learns he is human and that he has a father in New York City, he sets off with Santa’s blessing to find him. Having grown up at the North Pole, Buddy is unfamiliar with the way life works in the world of humans and much of the humor comes from this fish out of water setup. Buddy finds his father along with a stepmother and half brother as well. Buddy’s father doesn’t know of his existence and assumes Buddy is insane and has him escorted out by security. He ends up in the the toy department at Macy’s and is mistaken for an employee as he’s dressed like an elf. Here he meets the toy department manager and a girl he falls in love at first sight with Jovie. Before the end of the play Buddy must connect with his new family, win over Jovie, and help the city of New York believe in Santa Clause so that his sleigh will fly again.

Elf the Musical Jr. is based on the new classic film from New Line Cinema Elf. The adaptations book is by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin with music by Matthew Sklar and lyrics by Chad Beguelin. The show runs about 1 hour 20 minutes with a brief intermission to get up and stretch and so the story needed to be condensed from the film. The script does a nice job of altering the films story to simplify things without losing the heart of the story. The songs were lively and fun, I especially liked “A Christmas Song” and “The Story of Buddy”. The Show’s opening song “Happy All the Time” burst forth as a promise that the show never failed to live up to. It was also with this first song that I knew I was in good hands. The Choreography by Krysti Wiita, the cast of elves, and Buddy were in perfect synchronization. You could tell how hard they had worked on their dancing by how effortlessly they seemed to be performing it. The Set Designer Joe Stanley created simple scene changes that flowed nicely. The sets conveyed the places they needed to, particularly effective was the park which really evoked the feel of a park with it’s bare branches strung with lights.

The cast led by Sayer Keeley was fantastic. Keeley though a bit short in what would be ideal in the height department for Buddy makes up for it and more with the Christmas joy he exudes. As a Senior, I sure hope he intends to continue in theater past high school. He has the stage presence to command an audience’s attention and the performing skills vocally and physically. Other standouts were Josie Turk as Jovie and Will Buckler as Michael Hobbs. Lending some adult assistance are Roy Richardson Jr. as the Macy’s Manager, Shana Eisenberg as Emily Hobbs, Bruce Rowan as Santa Claus, and Brent Teclaw as Walter Hobbs. All of them help the young performers excel and in doing so, shine as well. There is a particularly effective duet between Will Buckler and Shana Eisenberg on the song “I’ll Believe in You”. Really everyone from the main rolls down to the littlest elf were spot on and I believed them when they reminded me that the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.stagestheatre.org/. Elf the Musical Jr. runs through December 27th.