St. Albert Children's Theatre holiday musical brims with nostalgia

The tinsel is going up at the Arden Theatre as St. Albert Children's Theatre puts the finishing touches on this year's nostalgic gift to the city.

Artistic director Janice Flower has spent the last three years negotiating to obtain the rights for A Christmas Story, The Musical, and on Nov. 27, the Canadian premiere opens for a nine-day run.

Based on the 1983 film that captures author Jean Shepherd's evocative and comedic holiday tale of a 1940s Christmas, A Christmas Story captures the dysfunction and joy of the season.

This classic American holiday story focuses on a rascally, bespectacled boy, Ralphie who dreams of getting a BB-gun for Christmas. But it's not just any gun. It's a Red Ryder BB gun. And Ralphie will do anything to find it under the tree.

Even as Christmas excitement builds, Ralphie, his family and friends blunder into all kinds of loopy scenarios including a scrap with a bully, a tongue stuck to a frozen flagpole, a major award, a gaudy leg lamp and Chinese Christmas dinner.

“It's the whole premise of a young boy who wants a Red Ryder Action BB-gun. It's taken over his life and the whole show's plot is him scheming and coercing his parents to let him have that gun,” says Flower.

But this was an era where the nation had just come out of the Depression and would soon be embroiled in the Second World War. Unlike today, resources were limited.

Flower grew up in the slightly more affluent '60s, however she easily connects with Ralphie's dilemma.

“When I was a kid, you didn't get everything you wanted. You would think long and hard about a present. You planned for it. You yearned for it. And I think there was more appreciation because you had to wait for it, and the joy and the pay-off was so great.”

Award-winning Dogfight composer-lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have penned a score that captures the essence of the times with such songs as Red Ryder, Ralphie to the Rescue, A Major Award and You'll Shoot Your Eye Out.

“The music hearkens to an old Broadway style. It's tuneful and you remember it. I love these kinds of shows that make an impact with songs you hum after it's done. It's infectious. I've listened to a lot of theatre shows and this music touches me.”

Not only did Flower scoop the Canadian premiere, she also persuaded Pasek and Paul to drop by the Arden Theatre for a concert and master class on Friday, Dec. 5.

“What an honour to have the creators of the show. We have invited other people over the years, but things didn't pan out. When I invited them I didn't think anyone would come. I honestly thought it would never happen.”

It has fallen to first time SACT costume designer Dana Strauss to create hard reality from the whimsy of Joseph Robinette's book and the Pasek-Paul score.

Originally from Saskatchewan, Strauss set her sites on Grant MacEwan's theatre production program and discovered costume design, now a growing passion.

Using the script as a guide, she has worked with 32 actors creating more than 100 costumes for both daily life and dream sequences.

Many of the day-to-day costumes match the economic conditions, the austerity of the times. Some of the attire, purchased at Value Village, is well worn and conveys a certain drabness prevalent to the era.

“Ralphie's father works in an office and they were a middle class family. You can see evidence they have just come out of the Dirty Thirties. Ralphie talks about how his dad's tires are so thin you could read a newspaper through it,” Strauss said.

She adds that the '40s were a “transition period” between the pre-war fripperies of the 1920s and slim silhouette of the '50s. Clothes were muted in colour, practical and unrestrained with boxy shoulders, A-line skirts, wide pant legs and lots of cardigans.

But Strauss delivers her brand of sparkle through dream sequences where she's been given a free hand to dress bank robbers, gangster molls, can-can girls, cowboys and Indians. Oh, yes and there's a pink bunny floating through the show.

“This is a great creative outlet. You don't have to be an illustrator or a painter to make something pleasing.”

If the movie is any guide to the upcoming musical, it bodes well for good holiday entertainment that captures a simpler time with its wit and heart of gold.