A Christmas Survival Guide, written by James Hindman and Ray Roderick with musical arrangements by John Glaudin, is currently being offered at Westerly’s Granite Theatre as a fun, lively, sweet and sarcastic alternative to traditional December theater such as Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol and the many “variations on a theme,” as Andy Kaufman would have called them, of Dicken’s classic. In fact, it seems that at some point in their current season, Granite switched their announced performance of the traditional A Christmas Carol to this more contemporary, if not quite as epic, story.
The show is produced by David Jepson, and both directed & musically directed by Scott Morency.
I found the performance of A Christmas Survival Guide on Dec. 8, to be a welcome and refreshing change of pace. Moreso a series of skits, songs and vignettes with a “serio-comic” sensibility than a traditional play, the show is broken into Two Acts, about an hour long each with about a fifteen-minute intermission, plenty of time for a break and/or refreshment.
The cast, consisting of three sturdy, like-able and “every-man” type Adult males (Nicholas Lombardo, Scott Morency, and William Pereira), three fantastic and robust Adult females (Jessica Gates, Denise Lacharite, and Courtney Littlefield) are joined by young talent Caeden Morency who provides comedic relief in his scenes with Santa Claus and a humorous “elevator in the mall” scenario.
This is the type of show where if one particular scene or song is not to your liking, don’t worry, as there is about 20 total scenes within the show. Eventually, most, if not all, viewers will be won over by the talent and pluck of the cast and the wonderful orchestra of Scott Morency on keyboards, who also provides a humorous scene himself as the lofty and non-sympathetic “Married Guy” battling in biting barbs with the more lonely, single characters, Tiffany Morency on red, and Tom Oldfield on drums.
The Cast greets the appreciative audience
Most touching to me personally was a scene between an off-beat office worker, who takes the initiative to invite a shopping mall Santa to be her date to her annual office party. The scene is handled with care, compassion and comedic presence by both performers. Other contemporary topics, such as Craig’s List personals, find themselves mixing and mingling with yuletide classic songs and sentiments.
There is enough of both “feel good” and “feel swarmy” type perspectives to ensure a good time for theater goers regardless if one’s own slant on the holiday season leans towards “Love it” or “Leave It.” Imagine if the cast of Seinfeld took on A Charlie Brown Christmas and the modality of mood met somewhere in the middle.
The set build design team and set decoration team also deserves a standing ovation of their own for assembling a warm and festive set that brings just enough attention to itself, without being overwhelming or overshadowing the performances.
