BY AMY LYONS
It’s no surprise that the current run of A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol at
Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre has been extended several times.
The sense of Christmas cheer that stems from the cozy, down-home musical
comedy provides sweet respite from the frantic hustle and bustle of the shopping
mall season.
________________________
In addition to playing
the lead, Phil Olson
also penned the script,
creating a character that
he plays to perfection.
_______________________
Set on Christmas Eve in Bunyan Bay, Minnesota, the play tells the story of
Gunner Johnson (Phil Olson), a Scrooge-like bar owner who wears holiday misery
on his sleeve. Gunner mopes and barks his way through the play’s early scenes,
revealing feelings of inadequacy connected to his apparent inability to impregnate
his wife, Clara (Therese Lentz). Gunner’s inferiority complex is exacerbated when
the conversation centers on Sven Yorgensen, a suave singer who occasionally blows
through town and makes the ladies swoon.
Unmoved by the kindness of his closest chums, Kanute (Mark Atha) and Bernice
(Rebekah Dunn, understudy), Gunner’s grouchiness gets increasingly worse until a last
straw fight with Clara sends him speeding off on his snowmobile. He lands himself first
in an ice-hole and then in a coma, launching a very Dickensian morality tale speckled
with original songs backed up by the recorded instrumentation of an on-stage karaoke
machine. As Gunner shuffles around the bar outfitted in a hospital gown and a gauzy
head bandage, he initially doesn’t know why Clara and company ignore his presence.
When Sven Yorgensen (Chris Winfield) shows up to play the part of his tour guide on
the journey to Christmases past, present and future, Gunner begins to learn the lessons
that motivate him to change his foul attitude.
The show moves along at pitch-perfect pace, with a very healthy dose of musical numbers
that keep things lively. The silly lyrics to songs like The Christmas Cheese Polka and
What Would Barbara Streisand Do? are coupled with simple dance-steps choreographed
to imitate the hokiest of ho-downs.
In addition to playing the lead, Phil Olson also penned the script, creating a character that
he plays to perfection. Olson injects Gunner with a maddening amount of self –pity, but he
manages to also give the character enough oafish charm and likeability to inspire the audience
to root for his metamorphosis.
Rebekah Dunn dazzles as Bernice, a character whose girlish appeal and unexpected sexiness
keeps Kanute and the audience smitten with her. Dunn has a sparkling energy that she uses to
fill every on-stage moment, whether she is singing, dancing, rollerskating or chirping out her
end of any conversation. Dunn also gets to play a version of Tiny Tim (a part she plays on
bended knees) that inspires sheer giggles from the crowd.
Winfield is well cast in the role of the Casanova chick-magnet who smoothly tempts both
Clara and Bernice with his lover-boy ways. He woos while hilariously commenting on his
character’s over sized ego.
In the end, we know all will be made right in the world of Bunyan Bay, but the journey toward
the tidy ending of A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol is a fun-filled holiday vacation. ☼
Runs through January 27 at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre, Fridays and
Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets, call (818) 700-4878 or visit www.lcgrt.com.
