Metro Pulse/Backstage/The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Comment
on this story

What:
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

When:
Bijou Theatre Center

Where:
Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. through Dec. 16.

Cost:
$4/$6. Call 523-4211 for further info.

The Bijou's Christmas Pageant celebrates the season with laughs

by Paige M. Travis

Maybe I'm not the right person to review The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Call me a Grinch or Scrooge, but Christmas and kids don't give me the warm fuzzies in the same way that, say, Saturn commercials and kittens do. So I fully expected the Bijou's annual production of Barbara Robinson's play to be simply an exercise in seeing through the audience's eyes and trying to figure out what everyone else thought was charming about this seasonal favorite. On opening night, most of the audience consisted parents, siblings or young members of the alternate cast. Before the kids got antsy and after parents told each other which young actors belonged to them, the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas signaled that the show was about to begin.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever chronicles the fateful season in which Mrs. Armstrong, the usual organizer of the town's pageant, breaks her leg and the responsibility lands in the lap of Grace Bradley, the mother of Charlie and Beth. Charlie is a good kid who is constantly bullied by any one of the six Herdman kids, your stereotypical wrong-side-of-the-tracks roughnecks who steal lunch money, disrupt class and strike fear into the hearts of teachers and students alike.

One day while being roughed up by Leroy Herdman, Charlie brags about the treats they get in Sunday school (the one place besides home that Charlie is free from the unwanted attentions of the hell-raising Herdmans). Leroy decides he wants to get some of this pie and Oreo action, so he and his siblings rumble into church during the Christmas pageant's casting call. The Herdmans do a number on Grace's patience and get themselves parts in the pageant for the first time in the event's holy history. The rest of the play unfolds as Grace tries to teach her unruly cast about the first Christmas and get the pageant in order in time for the Christmas Eve performance.

Becky Ferguson plays Grace Bradley as the quintessential mom, full of family, community and church-going spirit. Even when she's tempted, she never quite loses her temper with her rambunctious cast members. She even lets them charm her a time or two. Gary Mullins plays the wacky dad who is always saying things to gross out his kids. Garret DeLozier, a sharp actor, plays Charlie as neither an underdog nor a hero, which makes him a genuinely sympathetic character. Kaysi Knight's Beth is a preppie good girl who just wants to stay out of the Herdmans' way. Unlike her snooty friend Alice (Kandace Dalton), Beth comes to realize that the Herdmans have hard lives and deserve some sympathy.

Pat Fitch does double duty as Mrs. Bryte, the super-twangy Texas principal of the school, and Mrs. Armstrong, the pageant's perennial organizer who must have been trained by the Third Reich. Adults in kids' stories tend to be either nonexistent or exaggerated types, and Fitch plays her characters as full-on, over-the-top personalities. Her principal wears cowboy boots, a fringed top and cat's eye glasses from the '60s. And the wheelchair-bound Mrs. Armstrong waves around an opalescent wand like it's a riding crop and gives orders to Grace like Colonel Klink with a cell phone.

The Herdman kids provide much of the comic relief of the play. They're mean, ignorant, adorable and funny, with little Gladys (Kathleen Connelly) as the toughest and cutest of them all. As the oldest sister Imogene, Chastitie Goodman shows some real spunk and true feeling. Much of the play is powered by sighs over the baby angels (awww!) and laughs over the hijinks, but the most touching moment occurs when Imogene, dressed as Mary, wraps the baby Jesus doll in a blanket and carries him up to the manger. The stage is perfectly still and dark but for one light and a background of glowing blue. Director Robert Hahn holds this moment for a few seconds to a powerful effect. With no words spoken, we see how this rough-and-tumble young girl innately understands Mary, a poor mother just trying to take care of herself and her family.

Many adult casts could learn a lot about body movement from this group of youngsters. Maybe you couldn't keep two dozen kids still even if you wanted to, but their physical energy keeps the play moving. Somebody's always taking a swing at someone else, and although this kind of behavior isn't condoned in school or church, it makes for really good theater.

So maybe I was charmed by these kids (some of whom were pretty cute) and the story of Christmas (which holds a lesson of peace and generosity for us all). And if you hold a general fear of children's theater, be not afraid of this production. The adults in the audience seemed to be laughing as much as the kids. I can't say for sure if this pageant is the best one ever, but it surely ranks up there for family entertainment value.