A career woman from the big city gets stranded in a quaint town just before but somehow finds love on the holiday with a prince in disguise 91裸聊视频� or a high school crush 91裸聊视频� or a widowed father.
Sounds like a plot line from a Hallmark Channel holiday movie? This Christmas, stories like this are also playing out off-screen on theater stages around the country. As spoofs.
While a lot of theatre companies are dusting off traditional chestnuts like 91裸聊视频淎 Christmas Carol91裸聊视频� or 91裸聊视频淲hite Christmas,91裸聊视频� some are tackling the TV Christmas rom-com. Almost like a plot from Hallmark91裸聊视频檚 playbook, regional and community theatres are putting on a festive show. But these are gentle send-ups of the films and all their cheesy spirit.
Love 91裸聊视频榚m or hate 91裸聊视频檈m, formulaic meet-cute holiday flicks have become as tied to the yuletide as ugly sweaters and hot chocolate. Theater directors say the movies have a universal appeal since most audiences can recognize the story beats. And judging by the high ticket sales, these parodies are gaining a holly jolly reception.
Meet our stars, Holly, Joy and Carol
Ghostlight Theatre, a community theater in the Phoenix suburb of Sun City West, is presenting 91裸聊视频淭he Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon,91裸聊视频� by Don Zolidis. The story juggles six different would-be couples at the same Vermont inn.
They all represent archetypes, from the movie star seeking anonymity to a Christmas-themed shop proprietor. All the female characters have holiday-ish names like Holly, Joy and Carol. In one funny twist, real-life husband and wife Michael and GinaKay Howell play one of the couples. She says the experience has been 91裸聊视频渢he greatest Christmas present.91裸聊视频� Their courtship banter, however, was nothing like in the play.
91裸聊视频淭here are moments where I91裸聊视频檓 like, 91裸聊视频榃hat? What are we even saying?91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频� laughed Michael, who plays the prince of a fictitious country with a 91裸聊视频淏orat91裸聊视频�-like accent. 91裸聊视频淚t really hit the nail on the head of everything that Hallmark stands for and then, like, makes fun of it.91裸聊视频�
Zach Athanasakis, the director, emphasized to the 16-member cast that much of the humor depends on them saying their lines with a straight face.
91裸聊视频淎 lot of these lines are very, very corny and you have to be able to say it with your chest and really, truly embody how much weight that holds for the character in it 91裸聊视频� no matter how silly it is,91裸聊视频� Athanasakis said.
Laura Vines, Ghostlight91裸聊视频檚 executive director and co-founder, had been looking for something 91裸聊视频渢hat would kind of set us apart91裸聊视频� in metro Phoenix. She read in a Facebook group that another community theater had found a hit in 91裸聊视频淲onderthon.91裸聊视频� Economically, the show doesn91裸聊视频檛 break the bank to stage.
91裸聊视频淚t actually in the script calls for everybody to just wear red and green sweaters. We91裸聊视频檙e doing something a little bit different, but it91裸聊视频檚 kind of along those lines,91裸聊视频� Vines said.
Five gol-den rings! And an audience embrace
The day before Thanksgiving, Broadway Rose Theatre Company in Tigard, Oregon, unwrapped 91裸聊视频淔ive Golden Rings: A Greeting Card Channel Holiday Musical.91裸聊视频� This show also takes place in a Vermont bed-and-breakfast with a protagonist named Holly. She91裸聊视频檚 a business executive who falls for the 91裸聊视频渉unky lumberjack widower91裸聊视频� owner of the B&B, said the director, Dan Murphy.
The regional theater, which employs 250 people, has built a reputation for choosing shows 91裸聊视频渙ff the beaten path,91裸聊视频� says Murphy, a founding member. He really felt good about the choice when he saw the reactions across age groups.
91裸聊视频淭his last weekend we had a group of donors come in and watch rehearsals and they were laughing at some of the jokes,91裸聊视频� Murphy said. 91裸聊视频淭he crew, they are interns from high school seniors to college. They come in and watch a rehearsal. They were laughing hysterically.91裸聊视频�
At both theaters, most performances for the Hallmark spoofs have sold out.
Murphy thinks people are looking for something different but still multigenerational. Plus, tried-and-true favorites like 91裸聊视频淭he Nutcracker91裸聊视频� and 91裸聊视频淒r. Seuss91裸聊视频� How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical91裸聊视频� will be around every December.
91裸聊视频淚t might scare some theaters. For us doing this, it91裸聊视频檚 a risk that we91裸聊视频檙e taking that91裸聊视频檚 totally paying off,91裸聊视频� Murphy said.
Some theaters set the action in their own quaint town
The Williamston Theatre in Williamston, Michigan, is reviving an original play by John Lepard, a founding member of the company, who binged 15 Hallmark Christmas movies, taking notes, and then sat down to write 91裸聊视频淎 Very Williamston Christmas91裸聊视频� in 2022.
91裸聊视频淭he reason I wrote this is because my wife found something on YouTube, like a three-minute spoof,91裸聊视频� Lepard said. 91裸聊视频淪he said, 91裸聊视频榊ou should write something like this for the theater.91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频�
It took him about a month to knock out a script. He used the nom de plume Robert Hawlmark, thus making it a 91裸聊视频淗awlmark original.91裸聊视频� The play is a love letter to Williamston, which has a population just over 3,800. The corporate career gal comes home from the big city of Lansing, the state capital 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the north.
91裸聊视频淎 lot of people said seeing our town get to be in a Hallmark movie was really fun,91裸聊视频� said Lepard, who is directing.
But the play91裸聊视频檚 appeal isn91裸聊视频檛 limited to Williamston. Lepard has gotten requests to license it to theaters elsewhere in Michigan, and in Texas and Colorado. They could rejigger it like a Mad Libs game, he said, and 91裸聊视频渏ust plug in your town, your local antique store and all the things local to your place.91裸聊视频�
The source material is treated fondly
Hallmark is on board with these stage shows satirizing their 91裸聊视频渧ibrant, beloved storytelling style.91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频淚t makes sense to us that it91裸聊视频檚 leapt off the screen and onto the stage,91裸聊视频� Samantha DiPippo, senior vice president of programming, said in a statement. In the plays, she said, 91裸聊视频減eople are finding fun ways to emulate our signature messages of hope, love, humor, and meaningful connection in their own communities.91裸聊视频�
The send-ups gently jab at the movies 91裸聊视频� not the movie-watchers, Athanasakis made clear. Both those who relish and those who roll their eyes at Hallmark Christmas fodder will have a good laugh.
The goal, he says, is being able to poke fun 91裸聊视频渋n a way that91裸聊视频檚 not necessarily disrespectful to Hallmark movies, but in a way that it takes those jokes and just makes them that much bigger91裸聊视频� on the stage.
91裸聊视频淚n a movie, you still want to keep a sense of realism,91裸聊视频� he said. 91裸聊视频淚n a show like this, you don91裸聊视频檛 have to.91裸聊视频�
