PHOENIX – A profession girl from the massive metropolis will get stranded in a quaint city simply earlier than Christmas however in some way finds love on the vacation with a prince in disguise … or a highschool crush … or a widowed father.
Seems like a plot line from a Hallmark Channel vacation film? This Christmas, tales like this are additionally enjoying out off-screen on theater levels across the nation. As spoofs.
Whereas numerous theater corporations are dusting off conventional chestnuts like “A Christmas Carol” or “White Christmas,” some are tackling the TV Christmas rom-com. Nearly like a plot from Hallmark’s playbook, regional and neighborhood theaters are placing on a festive present. However these are mild send-ups of the movies and all their tacky spirit.
Love ‘em or hate ’em, formulaic meet-cute vacation flicks have turn into as tied to the yuletide as ugly sweaters and scorching chocolate. Theater administrators say the films have a common attraction since most audiences can acknowledge the story beats. And judging by the excessive ticket gross sales, these parodies are gaining a holly jolly reception.
Meet our stars, Holly, Pleasure and Carol
Ghostlight Theatre, a neighborhood theater within the Phoenix suburb of Solar Metropolis West, is presenting “The Vacation Channel Christmas Film Wonderthon,” by Don Zolidis. The story juggles six completely different would-be {couples} on the similar Vermont inn.
All of them signify archetypes, from the film star searching for anonymity to a Christmas-themed store proprietor. All the feminine characters have holiday-ish names like Holly, Pleasure and Carol. In a single humorous twist, real-life husband and spouse Michael and GinaKay Howell play one of many {couples}. She says the expertise has been “the best Christmas current.” Their courtship banter, nevertheless, was nothing like within the play.
“There are moments the place I’m like, ‘What? What are we even saying?’” laughed Michael, who performs the prince of a fictitious nation with a “Borat”-like accent. “It actually hit the nail on the top of all the things that Hallmark stands for after which, like, makes enjoyable of it.”
Zach Athanasakis, the director, emphasised to the 16-member forged that a lot of the humor depends upon them saying their traces with a straight face.
“A variety of these traces are very, very corny and you’ve got to have the ability to say it together with your chest and actually, actually embody how a lot weight that holds for the character in it — irrespective of how foolish it’s,” Athanasakis mentioned.
Laura Vines, Ghostlight’s govt director and co-founder, had been in search of one thing “that might sort of set us aside” in metro Phoenix. She learn in a Fb group that one other neighborhood theater had discovered successful in “Wonderthon.” Economically, the present would not break the financial institution to stage.
“It really within the script calls for everyone to simply put on purple and inexperienced sweaters. We’re doing one thing slightly bit completely different, nevertheless it’s sort of alongside these traces,” Vines mentioned.
5 gol-den rings! And an viewers embrace
The day earlier than Thanksgiving, Broadway Rose Theatre Firm in Tigard, Oregon, unwrapped “5 Golden Rings: A Greeting Card Channel Vacation Musical.” This present additionally takes place in a Vermont bed-and-breakfast with a protagonist named Holly. She’s a enterprise govt who falls for the “hunky lumberjack widower” proprietor of the B&B, mentioned the director, Dan Murphy.
The regional theater, which employs 250 folks, has constructed a popularity for selecting reveals “off the crushed path,” says Murphy, a founding member. He actually felt good concerning the selection when he noticed the reactions throughout age teams.
“This final weekend we had a gaggle of donors are available and watch rehearsals they usually have been laughing at a few of the jokes,” Murphy mentioned. “The crew, they’re interns from highschool seniors to school. They arrive in and watch a rehearsal. They have been laughing hysterically.”
At each theaters, most performances for the Hallmark spoofs have bought out.
Murphy thinks persons are in search of one thing completely different however nonetheless multigenerational. Plus, tried-and-true favorites like “The Nutcracker” and “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” will likely be round each December.
“It’d scare some theaters. For us doing this, it’s a danger that we’re taking that’s completely paying off,” Murphy mentioned.
Some theaters set the motion in their very own quaint city
The Williamston Theatre in Williamston, Michigan, is reviving an unique play by John Lepard, a founding member of the corporate, who binged 15 Hallmark Christmas films, taking notes, after which sat down to write down “A Very Williamston Christmas” in 2022.
“The rationale I wrote it’s because my spouse discovered one thing on YouTube, like a three-minute spoof,” Lepard mentioned. “She mentioned, ‘It is best to write one thing like this for the theater.’”
It took him a few month to knock out a script. He used the nom de plume Robert Hawlmark, thus making it a “Hawlmark unique.” The play is a love letter to Williamston, which has a inhabitants simply over 3,800. The company profession gal comes dwelling from the massive metropolis of Lansing, the state capital 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the north.
“Lots of people mentioned seeing our city get to be in a Hallmark film was actually enjoyable,” mentioned Lepard, who’s directing.
However the play’s attraction is not restricted to Williamston. Lepard has gotten requests to license it to theaters elsewhere in Michigan, and in Texas and Colorado. They might rejigger it like a Mad Libs sport, he mentioned, and “simply plug in your city, your native vintage retailer and all of the issues native to your home.”
The supply materials is handled fondly
Hallmark is on board with these stage reveals satirizing their “vibrant, beloved storytelling model.”
“It is sensible to us that it’s leapt off the display and onto the stage,” Samantha DiPippo, senior vp of programming, mentioned in an announcement. Within the performs, she mentioned, “persons are discovering enjoyable methods to emulate our signature messages of hope, love, humor, and significant connection in their very own communities.”
The send-ups gently jab on the films — not the movie-watchers, Athanasakis made clear. Each those that relish and those that roll their eyes at Hallmark Christmas fodder may have a superb chortle.
The aim, he says, is having the ability to poke enjoyable “in a approach that’s not essentially disrespectful to Hallmark films, however in a approach that it takes these jokes and simply makes them that a lot larger” on the stage.
“In a film, you continue to wish to hold a way of realism,” he mentioned. “In a present like this, you don’t should.”
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