Have yourself a sarcastic Christmas

New musical pokes fun at all the holiday cheer that came before it.

By Jeanne Claire Van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Originally published Thursday,November 29, 2007

The people at Yellow Tape Construction Company - which is a theater collective, not an actual construction company - really do take the spirit of the holidays seriously. Yeah, believing in the spirit of belief is a warm and lovely thing. Really.

"We just wanted to have a little fun with it," says Yellow Tape co-founder Jonathan Morgan.

They also wanted to have a little fun with over-the-top Christmas musical extravaganzas and other spectacular entertainments that show up every December. And they wanted to poke fun at absolutely every holiday movie and television special that ever was.

"The Ultimate Christmas Musical: The Musical," which opens today at Salvage Vanguard Theater, takes it all on: Christmas musicals, holiday movies, stage extravaganzas and feel-good television specials.

After all, the Yellow Tapers are the equal opportunity spoofers who brought Austin "I Love My Dead Gay Son: The Musical," a campy musical that was a riff on both the 1980s smash movie about mean high-school girls, "Heathers," and campy musicals. "Dead Gay Son" was a hit with audiences and critics, selling out its three-week run.

No wonder it's impossible to have a completely serious conversation with any of this crew.

Morgan outlines the plot of the two-act, 90-minute musical like this: Santa has grown way old. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a celebrity jock in love with celebrity, and his fellow reindeer are similar poserlike jocks with attitude. Frosty the Snowman is the spiritual center of the North Pole community who nevertheless kidnaps Little Billy, a boy who's grown embittered with Christmas. And the North Pole is populated by very contemporary elves: One has carpal tunnel syndrome. Another is your basic angry disenfranchised computer nerd. And don't forget the weary, jaded homemaker elf.

"You know, it's the basic feel-good story about how the spirit of disbelief threatens the Christmas," says Morgan, but then adds: "But we're having a 'So You Think You Can Santa Dance' contest at intermission and we want audience members to dress in Christmas costumes and compete for the prize!"

Audience costume contests are just a natural extension of Yellow Tape's collaborative creative process. Though some of the company roughed out a script for "The Ultimate Christmas Musical" months ago, the real creative process took place when the cast of 22 started rehearsing a couple months back. With performers boasting sketch comedy and improv comedy backgrounds, everybody had a hand in shaping their characters.

"I'm just naturally funny on my own," deadpans Leticia Leal Evans, who plays Jeannie, the lonely single girl elf. "And besides, I'm really into myself."

"The Ultimate Christmas Musical" joins a long list of Austin holiday productions, some of which have been returning for decades. A sparkly spectacular for the whole family, Ballet Austin's annual production of "The Nutcracker" is now in its 45th annual run. And Austin Symphony Orchestra has been singing Handel's Messiah annually for 14 years. Zachary Scott Theatre has been getting people to boogie along with "Rockin' Christmas Party" for 14 years. And Salvage Vanguard Theater's "Best Salvage Vanguard Christmas Ever" has packed crowds into Little City Coffee Shop for raucous, off-beat holiday-themed sketch theater for 10 years.

"We wanted to offer something a little crazy and with really wacky songs," says Morgan, who adds that the show is geared toward audiences age 14 and up. "Why not have a little sarcastic time with the holidays?"

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699