Christmas is wonderful with the Winter Wonderettes
By Carolyn Reid
Setting: Harper’s Hardware Store during the Harper’s Hardware Holiday Party, 1968.
Characters: Missy, Cindy Lou, Suzy and Betty Jean, best friends who were high school songs leaders years before.
Plot: Make up for Christmas in the absence of Santa Claus
Result: Light-hearted hilarity, obvious chemistry, and tight vocal harmony from four talented actors.
Christmas is the best time for fun and laughter, and KRT helps with that every weekend from now through Sunday, December 17 by presenting Winter Wonderettes, a musical involving four friends who find themselves at the company Christmas party with no Santa to be found.
The ladies, being in that Santa-less bind, call upon their high school accolades as the third-place State High School Song leaders, and they entertain the “hardware store staff” (the audience) with familiar Christmas songs while sharing their lives and, yes, some battles, right in front of the “staff.” The girls sing songs like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Run Run Rudolph,” and other popular 60s Christmas music while blending in some old standards such as “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” The plot thickens when most of the hardware staff and the self-declared assistant manager Betty Jean (played by Allison Kalfas), receive a different surprise from the Santa-Owner than they expect for their Christmas bonus.
Kalfas is joined by Elly Morris (Cindy Lou), Cassidy Perme (Missy), and Madisyn Kelley (Suzy) in bringing song and dance to the stage. The fun behind this play, in part, is the lack of precision and decorum needed to put on the staff Christmas show. The are amateurs reliving their pasts in order to give to their colleagues as they also have a ball doing what they love, leading to some hilarious situations. Kelley plays the part of a pregnant Suzy whose ADHD enthusiasm runs so amuck sometimes that she walks around the stage in pregnant-lady fashion, waddle-walk along with supporting her aching back. Morris, as Cindy Lou, is the attractive-and-she-knows it flirt who often displays her personality as she entertains with songs. Perme’s Missy is the newlywed who is trying to fit into her ideal of a wife, and her “husband” often becomes a distraction; and Kalfas’s Betty Jean tries to be the practical mind, but often ends up losing control she does not really have over the other three, which puts her in positions of singing and doing what she is told rather than what she wants.
The characters become real people with real relationships and real pains.
All four performers have strong, rich voices that stand alone, but when they sing as an ensemble, the blend gives the listener the best kind of chills with gorgeous harmony.
The fun does not only happen on the stage. The play is written to be interactive, allowing the audience to join in the play as a whole and also for some members to be singled out for some fun moments on stage.
Winter Wonderettes runs weekends from now through the weekend before Christmas. The production begins at 7 p.m. every Friday and Saturday night, and Sunday performances begin at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 for 18 and up, $18 for those over 55, and $15 for ages 17 and under. Group rates are also available. Tickets may be purchased online or at the box office.