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.
Appears 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 a number of theater firms 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 group 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 sizzling 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
Ghostlight Theatre, a group theater within the Phoenix suburb of Solar Metropolis West, is presenting “The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon,” by Don Zolidis. The story juggles six totally different would-be {couples} on the identical Vermont inn.
All of them symbolize archetypes, from the film star in search of 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 greatest Christmas present.” Their courtship banter, nonetheless, was nothing like within the play.
“There are moments where 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 really hit the nail on the head of everything that Hallmark stands for and then, like, makes fun of it.”
Zach Athanasakis, the director, emphasised to the 16-member forged that a lot of the humor is determined by them saying their strains with a straight face.
“A lot of these lines are very, very corny and you have to be able to say it with your chest and really, truly embody how much weight that holds for the character in it — no matter how silly it is,” Athanasakis mentioned.
Laura Vines, Ghostlight’s govt director and co-founder, had been on the lookout for one thing “that would kind of set us apart” in metro Phoenix. She learn in a Fb group that one other group theater had discovered successful in “Wonderthon.” Economically, the present doesn’t break the financial institution to stage.
“It actually in the script calls for everybody to just wear red and green sweaters. We’re doing something a little bit different, but it’s kind of along those lines,” Vines mentioned.
5 golden rings!
The day earlier than Thanksgiving, Broadway Rose Theatre Firm in Tigard, Ore., unwrapped “Five Golden Rings: A Greeting Card Channel Holiday Musical.” This present, by Stephen Garvey with songs by David Abbinanti, 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 exhibits “off the beaten path,” says Murphy, a founding member. He actually felt good concerning the selection when he noticed the reactions throughout age teams.
“This last weekend we had a group of donors come in and watch rehearsals and they were laughing at some of the jokes,” Murphy mentioned. “The crew, they are interns from high school seniors to college. They come in and watch a rehearsal. They were laughing hysterically.”
At each theaters, most performances for the Hallmark spoofs have offered out.
Murphy thinks individuals are on the lookout for 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 might scare some theaters. For us doing this, it’s a risk that we’re taking that’s totally paying off,” Murphy mentioned.
Their very own quaint city
The Williamston Theatre in Williamston, Mich., 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 jot down “A Very Williamston Christmas” in 2022.
“The reason I wrote this is because my wife found something on YouTube, like a three-minute spoof,” Lepard mentioned. “She said, ‘You should write something like this for the theater.’ ”
It took him a couple of month to knock out a script. He used the nom de plume Robert Hawlmark, thus making it a “Hawlmark original.” The play is a love letter to Williamston, which has a inhabitants simply over 3,800. The company profession gal comes house from the large metropolis of Lansing, the state capital 20 miles to the north.
“A lot of people said seeing our town get to be in a Hallmark movie was really fun,” mentioned Lepard, who’s directing.
However the play’s attraction isn’t restricted to Williamston. Lepard has gotten requests to license it to theaters elsewhere in Michigan, and in Texas and Colorado. They may rejigger it like a Mad Libs sport, he mentioned, and “just plug in your town, your local antique store and all the things local to your place.”
Supply materials is handled fondly
Hallmark is on board with these stage exhibits satirizing their “vibrant, beloved storytelling style.”
“It makes sense to us that it’s leapt off the screen and onto the stage,” Samantha DiPippo, senior vice chairman of programming, mentioned in a press release. Within the performs, she mentioned, “people are finding fun ways to emulate our signature messages of hope, love, humor, and meaningful connection in their 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 snicker.
The purpose, he says, is having the ability to poke enjoyable “in a way that’s not necessarily disrespectful to Hallmark movies, but in a way that it takes those jokes and just makes them that much bigger” on the stage.
“In a movie, you still want to keep a sense of realism,” he mentioned. “In a show like this, you don’t have to.”