First Stage's "Rudolph" is a Joyful Holiday Tale

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is back at the Marcus Center this holiday season, along with all of this friends – Santa and Mrs. Claus, the elves who work in the toyshop, Sam the Snowman, the crusty prospector Yukon Cornelius, and even an abominable snow man. On stage in the Todd Wehr Theater, First Stage has remounted their delightful adaptation of the beloved, stop motion animation TV special that has been part of holiday celebrations since it was first broadcast in 1964. The festive musical, featuring 16 young performers, 8 adults and dozens of puppets runs through December 24, under the skillful direction of FSM Artistic Director Jeff Frank, who conceived of the adaptation and helped bring it to life.

Here are five reasons for children and parents (and anyone who wants a nostalgic dose of Christmas cheer) to get tickets for this heartwarming holiday musical with the ever-timely message about how “misfits” and their special gifts can be just as wonderful as any other elf, reindeer or toy at the North Pole.

1. The music. The music in Rudolph is charming and eminently singable. In fact, near the mid-point of the show, the elves hold up cue cards so the audience can do just that – sing along with the cast to the slow ballad “Silver and Gold,” celebrating the beauty of Christmas and its decorations. It’s no coincidence that Burl Ives was chosen to croon holiday favorites “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “The Most Wonderful Day of the Year,” and the title song that started it all in the original TV special. In Ives’s place, Tommy Novak easily slips into the role of the narrator, Sam the Snowman, leading the audience through the tale as well as leading them in song. Their strong, clear tenor feels like coming home for the holidays.

2. The magic. Thanks to the exceptional artistry of Brandon Kirkham (scenic, costume and puppet designer), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical is stunning in that it looks exactly like the original TV show has come to life. Every misfit toy is an exact replica, every costume and wig looks identical to the stop-motion version, every piece of the set appears to be a three dimensional version of the flat images from the screen. It’s absolutely uncanny and that attention to the smallest detail makes the experience magical. Jason Fassl’s lighting provides his signature grace notes to an already vibrant stage, adding color to a swirl of snowflakes that adorn the proscenium and creating a northern lights effect when a trio of explorers sets sail on an iceberg.

And thanks to a team of teen performers clad completely in white, the special effects of the original version are also accomplished before our eyes. These “kōken” (a Japanese Noh theater convention) are the almost invisible set movers, puppeteers, and magical forces that lift the reindeer into the air when they fly. It’s a convention that works extremely well and requires just a tiny bit of imagination from the audience. And speaking of puppets, watching the abominable snowman take the stage in many forms, at several different scales, is also a treat. Kudos to Tim Linn and the team of performers who operate the “bumble” who is both scary and amiable by the end.

3. The cast. Director Jeff Frank has outdone himself this year on the pitch perfect casting of the entire show. David Flores and Karen Estrada are a well matched couple as Mr. and Mrs. Claus – Santa fretting about the weather forecast for an extremely foggy Christmas Eve and his wife worried that the stress is causing the jolly old elf to lose weight, because as we all know, “No one likes a skinny Santa!” The aforementioned Novak is a spellbinding storyteller, a lovely voice of calm reassurance while they tell the tale of a year when Christmas was almost canceled, and J. T. Backes channels the grumpiness and snide, pinched voice of the original Boss Elf to a T.

The star of the show, Rudolph (an adorable Liam Eddy in the Silver Cast), hits just the right notes of childhood insecurity and resolve to do the right thing in the face of overwhelming odds, and his parents Donner (James Carrington) and Mrs. Donner (Ashley Oviedo) embody the dichotomy of loving a child exactly as he is and also wishing that he was like the other kids so his path would be easier. As both the lovable miner Yukon Cornelius and the old-school Coach Comet, Rick Pendzich throws himself into the broad characters as both the voices of condemnation and redemption for Rudolph. And as the “misfit” elf Hermey, who would really rather be a dentist than make toys, Layton Lal is adorably geeky. The braces on his teeth somehow add to his devotion to dental hygiene.

4. The event. Back in the 1970s when I was first viewing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” on television it was a different time. (Obviously.) There were no 24-hour movie channels, no videos on demand, not even a VHS tape on the shelf. That meant that “Rudolph” was shown exactly once a year in prime time, in the weeks leading up to Christmas and if you wanted to see it, you had one chance. Viewing it was a special ritual in the countdown to December 25. Sitting in the Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center for the opening performance, the excited, wiggling, festively dressed children around me experienced a similar feeling of joyful anticipation as the lights went down, as I did in my pajamas, sitting on the green shag carpeting of my living room decades ago. Now that the story is a live TYA production, it is a magical musical celebration of a Christmas story that they will remember for years to come.

5. The joy. Sure, things look bleak for several of the characters over the course of the story. But Rudolph is a show that relentlessly chooses joy and that’s a wonderful antidote to our uncertain times over the past few years. From the top of the elves’ pointy hats to the curls on the toes of their boots, they work to bring others happiness at least once a year. And even for the island of unloved, unwanted, misfit toys, this show assures us that everyone deserves love.

Not all of Rudolph has aged gracefully. The outright rejection and taunting that the young reindeer and the wannabe dentist receive from adults (including Rudolph’s own father) is vile by today’s standards. Of course everyone comes around to Rudolph and Hermey, when their abnormalities are useful to others, but it’s initially hard to watch a story that preaches such hardline conformity. Fortunately, like A Christmas Carol, in Rudolph redemption bats last.

So if you don’t have kids, borrow your nieces and nephews or volunteer to chaperone the neighbor’s little ones to see this Rudolph – and find many more reasons that the show is destined to be a Christmas classic for a whole new generation.

Post Script

First Stage's "Rudolph" is a Joyful Holiday Tale