PHOENIX — A profession lady from the large metropolis will get stranded in a quaint city simply earlier than Christmas however someway finds love on the vacation with a prince in disguise … or a highschool crush … or a widowed father.
Feels like a plot line from a Hallmark Channel vacation film? This Christmas, tales like this are additionally taking part in out off-screen on theater phases across the nation. As spoofs.
Whereas a whole lot of theater firms are dusting off conventional chestnuts like “A Christmas Carol” or “White Christmas,” some are tackling the TV Christmas rom-com. Virtually like a plot from Hallmark’s playbook, regional and neighborhood theaters are placing on a festive present. However these are light send-ups of the movies and all their tacky spirit.
Love ‘em or hate ’em, formulaic meet-cute vacation flicks have grow to be as tied to the yuletide as ugly sweaters and scorching chocolate. Theater administrators say the flicks have a common enchantment since most audiences can acknowledge the story beats. And judging by the excessive ticket gross sales, these parodies are gaining a holly jolly reception.
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 totally different would-be {couples} on the similar Vermont inn.
All of them symbolize archetypes, from the film star looking 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 pinnacle of every thing that Hallmark stands for after which, like, makes enjoyable of it.”
Zach Athanasakis, the director, emphasised to the 16-member solid that a lot of the humor depends upon them saying their strains with a straight face.
“Quite a lot of these strains 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 stated.
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 does not break the financial institution to stage.
“It truly within the script calls for everyone to simply put on purple and inexperienced sweaters. We’re doing one thing slightly bit totally different, however it’s sort of alongside these strains,” Vines stated.
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, stated the director, Dan Murphy.
The regional theater, which employs 250 individuals, has constructed a repute for selecting reveals “off the overwhelmed 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 number of the jokes,” Murphy stated. “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 offered out.
Murphy thinks individuals are in search of one thing totally different however nonetheless multigenerational. Plus, tried-and-true favorites like “The Nutcracker” and “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” will probably be round each December.
“It’d scare some theaters. For us doing this, it’s a threat that we’re taking that’s completely paying off,” Murphy stated.
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 motion pictures, taking notes, after which sat down to put in writing “A Very Williamston Christmas” in 2022.
“The explanation I wrote it’s because my spouse discovered one thing on YouTube, like a three-minute spoof,” Lepard stated. “She stated, ‘It’s 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 residence from the large metropolis of Lansing, the state capital 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the north.
“Lots of people stated seeing our city get to be in a Hallmark film was actually enjoyable,” stated Lepard, who’s directing.
However the play’s enchantment 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 recreation, he stated, and “simply plug in your city, your native vintage retailer and all of the issues native to your house.”
Hallmark is on board with these stage reveals satirizing their “vibrant, beloved storytelling type.”
“It is smart to us that it’s leapt off the display and onto the stage,” Samantha DiPippo, senior vice chairman of programming, stated in a press release. Within the performs, she stated, “individuals 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 motion pictures — not the movie-watchers, Athanasakis made clear. Each those that relish and those that roll their eyes at Hallmark Christmas fodder could have a very good snigger.
The aim, he says, is having the ability to poke enjoyable “in a means that’s not essentially disrespectful to Hallmark motion pictures, however in a means that it takes these jokes and simply makes them that a lot greater” on the stage.
“In a film, you continue to wish to hold a way of realism,” he stated. “In a present like this, you don’t need to.”
