I believe it was in September when I received the glossy card stock mailer from Charleston Stage. I scanned it quickly and then did an audible OMG. "Charleston Stage presents A Christmas Story!" it read. I sat the card up by my computer and have watched the calendar days roll down since.
Okay, so it was my birthday last weekend and what did I want to do? Yup, A Christmas Story! Not that it took convincing my huband, Don, who could play Ralphie and his father simultaneously without a script. I was going to have to watch him to keep him from blurting out the lines. We anticipate couch night with the classic movie every year, but the play was going to be a first. I'm here to tell you they had a lot to live up to. We carry the Christmas Story pandemonium a bit further and have adopted the tradition of eating Chinese on Christmas day, as well.
Julian Wiles, cast, and crew surpassed my expectations of this Christmas classic with their very first presentation of A Christmas Story. They knocked it out of the ball park! It may very well become another holiday tradition for my family. Becca Anderson as Ralphie's mother, Victor Clark as Ralphie, and Josh Harris as grown up Ralphie were phenomenal, as were ALL of the actors from the Kid Stage Performance Troupe and Theatre Wings High School Apprentice Program. A special shout out to Joshua (Ralphie), Michael McCoy (Flick), and Nikita Narodnitskiy as Scut Farkus. The stage sets were fantastic and magical, totally recreating the feel of several scenes in the original movie, if not better. I particularly liked the department store with Santa set.
There are only 4 more performances—Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Hurry and
get your tix!
I'll leave you with a few of my fave A Christmas Story quotes:
Fudge! Only I didn't say "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!
It's a Major Award! Mr. Parker reads a side of the box with the prize that he won.
Mr. Parker: Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian.
Ralphie as Adult [narrating]: Scut Farkus! What a rotten name! We were trapped. There he stood, between us and the alley. Scut Farkus staring out at us with his yellow eyes. He had yellow eyes! So, help me, God! Yellow eyes!
