Arts Club Granville Island Stage to December 29, 2024
Tickets from $39 at 604-687-1644 or www.artsclub.com
Posted November 30, 2024
A scruffy little black dog gave this excellent cast, brought together by director Omari Newton, a run for its money. Suddenly no one is looking at the show’s stars and everyone is watching a real dog – always a risk – on the Arts Club Granville Island Stage on opening night of Miracle on 34th Street. I’m not even sure who was on the other end of the leash – maybe Ashley O’Connell – maybe not. The dog’s appearance was brief but the audience roared its approval as the blasé critter in a rhinestone-studded collar trotted obediently across the stage. It wasn’t even a speaking role, for heaven’s sake, but the audience lapped it up.
Credit: Moonrider Productions
In the big, speaking roles are Kevin McNulty as an old guy named Kris Kringle who lives in a retirement home and claims he’s Santa Claus. Not the one in the famous Macy’s Christmas Parade in NYC but the real deal; and young Alex MacIsaac (alternating with Siggi Kaldestad) as Susan Walker, a youngster whose overly pragmatic mother Doris has made sure that poor little Susan harbours no illusions about Santa Claus or any other fantasy character. Probably no tooth fairy for Susan, either.
Miracle on 34th Street began as a story idea for the American film, released in 1947 and which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Story for writer Valentine Davies. The play adaptation by Caleb Marshall and Erin Keating was originally produced by Theatre New Brunswick (Fredericton, NB) in December 2013 but the 40’s atmosphere was retained and that’s probably a good thing: it’s hard to know, considering how savvy kids are in the 21st century, how many still actually believe in Santa Claus. The Nativity aspect of Christmas has been all but forgotten in many societies; perhaps Santa Claus/Saint Nicholas/Sinterklaas are about to go the same way. The cheery “Merry Christmas” may be on its way out, too. “Season’s Greetings” just doesn’t have the same jingle bell ring to it, though, does it?
This Arts Club production is full of winter magic with sound designer Owen Belton’s gorgeous choral soundscape enhancing Amir Ofek’s beautiful blue and white wintry set: silhouetted snow-covered trees adrift in large snowflakes against a backdrop of Manhattan skyscrapers. A revolve adds other elements like the elevator in Macy’s department store and a courtroom where Kris Kringle ends up on trial. Santa Claus on trial? Can you believe it?
(For the record: In 2008, Canada’s Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism officially granted Canadian citizenship to Santa Claus, in recognition of his reputed residence in the North Pole. Canada Post lists the following address for mailing letters to Santa’s Arctic workshop: Santa Claus North Pole H0H 0H0 Canada. This, of course, assumes that Canada Post is back in business in time for kids’ letters to reach Santa this year.)
Apart from Michelle Harrison who plays Susan’s mother Doris, an events organizer for Macy’s Department Store; McNulty; Jay Hindle (romantic interest Fred Gailey); and MacIsaac and Kaldestad (alternating as Susan Walker), there’s plenty of multi-casting going on. Raugi Yu, for example plays five roles, carving out characteristics to keeping them separate, and Tess Degenstein portrays another three – inebriated Mrs. Shellhammer, a mother of one of the kids, and the court stenographer. Completing the cast are Azriel Dalman and Denzel Onaba (alternating as Mortimer and Tommy), Emma Slipp and Kamyar Pazandeh.
The heart and soul of Miracle on 34th Street, however, really rests on Kris Kringle, and McNulty is all eye-twinkling charm without overdoing it.
Newton’s direction is a blending of caricature and real. Yu, Nathan Kay, O’Connell, Degenstein, and Julio Rod Marín are given free rein to take it over the top while the leads are played straight up. This doesn’t often work and it’s not entirely successful here, either. It adds an opportunity for comedy but it generally undermines the story.
However, it all comes together beautifully at the end with what is probably the best loved Christmas carol sung by Alex MacIsaac and the ensemble. Suddenly it feels like Christmas – Santa Claus, twinkling Christmas trees, stockings hung by the fire but also the baby Jesus in the manger, the star over Bethlehem and Three Wise Men. It gets me every time.