Seeing TheaterWorks Hartford‘s hip holiday staple “Christmas on the Rocks” every year for the last decade is like seeing a cool indie rock band come back to its hometown every year on tour. The setlist is different, the lineup has changed but the experience still rocks, hyped up on the thrill of seeing something that’s grown and changed and thrived and stayed sharp.
It’s fun to check out the “Christmas on the Rocks” audiences. A good number of the theatergoers have drinks in hand from the lobby bar and are ready to party. Unlike a lot of TheaterWorks shows, many of which are new dramas receiving their Connecticut premieres, audiences know exactly what to expect from “Christmas on the Rocks,” now in its 13th year of lovingly puncturing beloved pop culture icons and merry Christmas tropes. Invariably, you see folks in the crowd who’ve seen the multi-scene, 90-minute anthology of heartwarming hilarity multiple times and have clearly brought someone along with them who’s never seen the show.
For those experienced audience members, there’s more than usual to recapture their attention, starting with the videos that play before the show has even started. For the first time in “Christmas on the Rocks” history, the video introduction to the show has been rendered on high definition flat screens, with longer clips from the movies and specials that “Christmas on the Rocks” is satirizing. The clips have also been edited for a truer representation of the current lineup.
Matthew McGloin as Kevin McCallister from “Home Alone” in the comedy of traumatized adult versions from classic Christmas special and movies, “Christmas on the Rocks” at TheaterWorks Hartford. (Michael Marques)
“Christmas on the Rocks” returns this year with a new actor in the male roles, a couple of scenes gone from last year and a couple of well-remembered vignettes from past years restored. One of those restored scenes has been in every rendition of the show since its inception and was much missed when it left the lineup for a single season last year. It’s the one with Ralphie from “A Christmas Story,” wearing an eye patch due to a BB-gun incident.
It is the first scene in the show and the one which comes closest to explaining its overarching concept of adult versions of characters from classic Christmas movies or TV specials who bear lasting emotional scars from their childhood adventures and find themselves craving alcohol and companionship at a corner bar on Christmas Eve.
In the first scene of his first season with “Christmas on the Rocks,” Matthew McGloin, aided by some rude new rewrites by the scene’s author John Cariani, elevates Ralphie from a contemplative depressive to a hyperphysicalized stuffed toy fetishist. It’s a highly successful reworking since it suits how wacky and slapstick “Christmas on the Rocks” has become, especially since Jen Cody joined it as “The Woman” several seasons ago.
In this critic’s humble estimation, of the four” The Man” actors in the show’s 13-year history, Harry Bouvy was the consummate Charlie Brown, no one has bettered Matt Wilkas as Hermey the dentist elf and Randy Patrick brought both humor and pathos to Tiny Tim (in a scene penned by Theresa Rebeck that has not been in the show for several years now). McGloin, new to all the roles in the show, is fine in all of them but exceptional as Ralphie and Kevin.
TheaterWorks Hartford’s ‘Christmas on the Rocks’ mixes it up with renewed scenes and brand new ‘Man’
Jen Cody plays Clara, The Little Red-Haired Girl, her signature role of Elf on the Shelf (which she originated, and which she does as a Joe Pesci impression) and, in another grand return of a scene that was retired for quite a few seasons, Zuzu from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” She sets a formidable fast and furious pace for McGloin to match.
Richard Kline has really settled into his role as the hapless bartender who serves as a straight man for all these funny forlorn characters. In Kline’s portrayal, the bartender is named Larry, just like the swingin barfly Kline played on the 1970s sitcom “Three’s Company.”
Thirteen years in, “Christmas on the Rocks” has become its own thing on top of being a meaningful parody of formative figures in pop culture. This year, it’s clear that the show needs to be cautious in how it addresses its own longevity. At a recent performance, two new-self-referential bits basically fell flat. One is an overlong intro video revisiting the Karen character from” Frosty the Snowman,” whose regular scene in the show was cut this year. Not only is the video for “Christmas on the Rock” diehards only, it delays the start of the main show and is only intermittently funny. The other self-referential bit is a throwaway line about replacement cast members, a one-liner added to the Charlie Brown scene that the audience didn’t seem to get or at any rate did not laugh at.
If you haven’t seen “Christmas on the Rocks” yet, the show is in a particularly good place this year. It’s tightly wound but also tightly scripted. Its craziness is neatly constrained by the show’s director Rob Ruggiero, who also conceived it in the first place and has always taken charge of its changes and maintenance. The rewrites, which affect not just the Ralphie and Zuzu segments but random lines throughout the evening, are an effort to reflect how the show’s antic style has gotten a little more vulgar and a lot more physical over the years. It’s still a laugh riot, but a self-aware, well-staged riot. “Christmas on the Rocks” is still a strong cocktail of comedy, seasonal cheer and the thrill of watching lonely people cavort in an empty bar. Cherish it.
“Christmas on the Rocks” runs through Dec. 23 at TheaterWorks Hartford, 233 Pearl St., Hartford. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 and 6:30 p.m. with added performances Dec. 18 and 23 at 3:30 p.m. and Dec. 22 at 7:30 p.m. $43-$78. twhartford.org.
