Even those trying to fight it will likely emerge from Theatre Orangeville’s latest production in a festive mood.
While it does have some weaknesses, Everything I Love About Christmas exudes an infectious holiday spirit from start to finish, thanks to a heartwarming story, fine performances and a great mix of traditional and contemporary Christmas carols.
The play opens with the Barnes family – Maggie (Alison Lawrence) and Ted (Bobby Prochaska) and their children Robbie (Christopher DuBois) and Gracie (Lindsay Scheel) – seemingly enjoying a normal Christmas holiday.
But as family patriarch Grandad (Ian Downie) soon reveals, the family is awaiting the Christmas Eve arrival of Ted and Maggie’s eldest daughter, Susan (Jayde Lavoie), who is stranded at a bus station during a severe winter storm while on her way home from college.
It seems only a miracle will allow Susan to get home in time for Christmas. Enter elves Theodora (Emily Oriold) and Barnaby (Salvatore Scozzari), who must muster all their powers – and their close connection to Santa Claus – to help reunite the Barnes family.
Readers can probably guess how this one ends, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t tag along for the ride.
Oriold and Scozzari are perfectly cheerful and hyper as Christmas elves, incorporating great timing and chemistry throughout the production.
Lawrence is great as Maggie but it is Prochaska, as Ted, who really makes the play click. His own performance is spot on, as usual, but he also helps guide the cast, notably its two youngest members, through every musical number – both on the piano and through other subtle cues. He is the straw that stirs this festive drink.
Providing some extra yet integral flavour is Downie, who, despite a couple of fumbled lines, proves that an actor can never be too old to inject some youthful exuberance into a production.
DuBois, Lavoie and Scheel will have audiences lauding the breadth of talent among local young thespians.
DuBois, enjoying his third prominent role in a Theatre Orangeville Christmas play, is great as Robbie. But Scheel and Lavoie in particular, thanks to the great material afforded their characters in the script by Robert More, tend to steal the show and win audiences’ hearts.
Scheel, though two years removed from her small part in Theatre Orangeville’s A Gift to Last in 2012, is no less adorable. More impressively, even on opening night, she seemed to have a remarkable grasp of the play’s comedic scenes and how and when to deliver her contributions to those parts.
Lavoie appears young for 16 (and thus her college-aged character), but she boasts an on stage maturity far beyond her years. Whether it’s humour or heartache, solemn delivery or song and dance, she is not out of place alongside the play’s veteran actors.
As is tradition for the company’s holiday productions, the Theatre Orangeville Youth Singers make several appearances to sing Christmas carols. The Scrooges in the audience might suggest there are a few too many carols included, but the singers’ delivery is great and the song choices perfect.
At the heart of this production is a family’s desire to be reunited for the holidays – and their willingness to do just about anything to make that happen.
Given the emotional impact of that story line, audiences may find themselves shifting in their seats when the story gets sidetracked in the second half. More’s tale takes an ill-advised turn to explore several side plots, including:
– the development of an odd relationship between Theodora and Barnaby;
– an unnecessary exploration of Barnaby’s incompetencies as a newbie elf; and
– verbose appearances from Santa Claus, whose trivial dialogue smacks of irreverence, instead of the deification usually afforded jolly old St. Nick.
The time spent on these matters could have been dedicated instead to exploring Susan’s teenage angst, which is brought up several times but never fully explained or resolved.
Nonetheless, the script is rescued just in time to turn things around. And despite its flaws, Everything I Love About Christmas is aptly titled and delivers all the basic goods expected from this type of play: heart, humour and holiday cheer.
Sure, it can be predictable and cheesy, but that’s what holiday productions – and indeed Christmas itself – are all about. Those unable to appreciate that, to quote a Christmas classic, “have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile.”
Everything I Love About Christmas plays five shows a week until Dec. 21. For tickets call 519-942-3423 or 1-800-424-1295 or visit theatreorangeville.ca.
