By Jody Tuos-Key – Managing Editor

My favorite part of the Holiday Season is all the fun programming in cinemas, on television, and especially on stage right here in Atlanta! It helps inspire us to feel Christmas Spirit and reminds us what this season is all about. I love a classic Christmas story, and Theatrical Outfit is currently offering just that. A CHRISTMAS STORY opened November 20th to appreciative audiences and closes December 24th. I recently attended opening night and had the pleasure of attending the time honored TO tradition of the Opening Night Toast, given by Artistic Director Matt Torney and previous Artistic Director Tom Key who also happens to play the adult Ralph who narrates the tale. It was so good to see Tom again and especially on stage. You should go if for no other reason than to see Tom’s brilliance in action, but there’s so many other great reasons to see this show!

Most of you know A CHRISTMAS STORY from the 1983 movie directed by Bob Clark based on the book “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash” by Jean Shepherd as well as Clark’s 1977 book “Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories” and Other Disasters. The film was a sleeper in the theater, but found great success on VHS (a pre-streaming cassette type device for those of you born after the early 2000s). Since 1997, the film has been the feature of a 24 hour marathon of 12 consecutive airing on TNT and then moved to TBS in 2004. This is a holiday staple, and has now been adapted to a stage play as well as a musical in 2009. This adaptation is not the musical, but is a hilarious stage play in which grown up Ralph is on stage telling the story as the cast unfolds the action. 

This is the story of an All American Family set in the 1940s. It’s a glimpse into family life before the advent of television and cell phones. A simpler time when families gathered around the radio to listen to shows like Little Orphan Annie and The Milton Berle Show. Families went together to the Thanksgiving parades and children pressed their nose against the windows of department stores and walked ‘2 miles uphill both ways in the snow’ to get to school. 

Theatrical Outfit does and excellent job making everything come to life in this story we all know and love. Narrated by the grown up Ralph (Tom Key), Ralphie Parker (Max Walls), his brother, Randy (August Smith/Michael Wood), and their parents, only known as ‘The Old Man’ (Robin Bloodworth) and ‘Mother’ (Marla Rodriguez-Sager) are preparing for Christmas. Ralphie dreams of receiving a Red Rider Carbon Action 200-shot range Model air rifle with a compass and a thing that tells time built right into the stock. We know it today as a BB-gun. All he hears from anyone he tells is, “You’ll shoot your eye out.” Woven within this obsession for the perfect Christmas gift is vignettes of life including Ralphie’s friend Flick’s (Oliver Gold) encounter with his tongue and a cold flagpole, encounters with the town bully, Scut Farkas (Sully Brown), a visit to Higbee’s department store to see Santa, a special pink Christmas present from an aunt, and the arrival of a ‘major award’ won by the Old Man in a crossword puzzle contest. 

Expertly directed by Rosemary Newcott, the authenticity of Theatrical Outfit’s telling of the story starts with the technical elements. Alexander Whittenberg’s set design spreads out the Parker house into one open design, complete with the front room, living room and kitchen. A set of stairs leads up to Ralphie’s room. The kitchen includes the cloth/cupboard under the sink where Randy loves to spend his time. The colors and feel of the set transport the audience into the 1940s. In front of the set is a dusting of snow on the ground which serves for the outdoor scenes. After intermission, the house is cleverly and abstractly transformed into Higbee’s department store. April Andrew Carswell’s costume design also captures the essence of the time period, and the Pink Bunny Pajamas are appropriately hilarious. 

Tom Key’s portrayal of Ralph is the thread that holds the whole string of popcorn together in this hilarious comedy. His narration and reactions are genuine, and he’s onstage throughout the entire play. Max Walls is the quintessential Ralphie, and embodies a youthful mix of excitement and anxiety as he agonizes over whether or not he’ll receive his heart’s desire. Robin Bloodworth as the Old Man included the essential elements of using colorful language when dealing with the furnace, becoming infatuated with the neighbor’s dogs, and being moved to tears when receiving the award of an unusual leg lamp. Maria Rodriguez-Sager’s as Mother plays this using part beautifully. The entire cast comes together to weave this memorable tale and enable the audience to feel the Christmas Spirit.   

If you need a little Christmas and a lot of laughter this holiday season, add A CHRISTMAS STORY to your Christmas list, and get your tickets to this fun production at https://www.theatricaloutfit.org/ ! Thanks for your readership and Peace, Love, and Light be with you.