This cheery family holiday musical is a jolly jumble of innocent shenanigans with a little bit about a lot of things and a whole lot about some other things, mainly good times and goodwill. Loose jointed, it's in no hurry to get where it's going, and detours aren't a problem. Saturday's matinee began with moppets, parents, and grandparents ushered jostling and scrambling into one of the Odyssey's three theatres. Oops, wrong one. The jolly mishap intensified the good mood. Here we go again, into Miss Gibson's second-grade classroom, where we belong. Miss Gibson is a puppet (we won't call her a dummy), animated and activated by smiling Kimberly Huie.
Tom McCleister's Yule 2K extravaganza began a few years back as a radio show, and, we're told, McCleister adapted it for the stage at the suggestion of the Odyssey's Ron Sossi and Circus Theatricals' Jack Stehlin. McCleister directed, and he is ventriloquist and puppeteer as kid Andy McCandy and his inseparable wooden alter ego Mr. Laffey. McCleister does a lot of things to make himself indispensable. He aims to please and seems to succeed. The kiddies appeared pleased, and the lady seated next to me declared herself delighted, especially with the music, composed by Kevin Quinn, Daniel Nathan Spector, and McCleister, arranged and performed by Spector. The music is lively and likable. I especially liked that golden oldie "Hark the Herald Angels," as performed to a boogie beat.
We first meet McCleister's cast mates performing on their knees, with plastic wigs (but no kneepads), as Miss Gibson's second-graders. They are E.E. Bell, Jo Chim, David Hart, Melanie Jernigan, Carolyn Palmer, and Steven M. Porter, each with a puppet self. They all get off their knees, which must be a relief, for the second act, which like the first includes a grab bag of unrelated snippets. The puppeteers have their way with tradition in the holiday Nutcracker Ballet. We get rousing Irish jigs and clogging à la Riverdance, five wicked dancing penguins, a lyric tenor with a vibrato, and a wizard sorcerer. We get a know-it-all frog marionette—a bog bigshot that finds a little girl's lost doll. We get a little bit about a lot of things, and a lot of music, dancing, good cheer, and goodwill. Sort of like an English Christmas pantomime, it doesn't make much sense, and who cares?
"The Tom McCleister Christmastime Theatrical Extravaganza for 2000," presented by and at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Sat. 1 & 4 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Nov. 26-Dec. 17. $12. (310) 477-2055.
