PHOENIX (AP) 鈥� 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 ... or a high school crush ... 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 theater companies are dusting off traditional chestnuts like 鈥淎 Christmas Carol鈥� or "White Christmas,鈥� some are tackling the TV Christmas rom-com. Almost like a plot from Hallmark's playbook, regional and community theaters are putting on a festive show. But these are gentle send-ups of the films and all their cheesy spirit.
Love 鈥榚m or hate 鈥檈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 "The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon,鈥� 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 鈥渢he greatest Christmas present.鈥� Their courtship banter, however, was nothing like in the play.
鈥淭here are moments where I鈥檓 like, 鈥榃hat? What are we even saying?鈥欌�� laughed Michael, who plays the prince of a fictitious country with a 鈥淏orat鈥�-like accent. 鈥淚t really hit the nail on the head of everything that Hallmark stands for and then, like, makes fun of it."
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.
鈥淎 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 鈥� no matter how silly it is,鈥� Athanasakis said.
Laura Vines, Ghostlight's executive director and co-founder, had been looking for something 鈥渢hat would kind of set us apart鈥� in metro Phoenix. She read in a Facebook group that another community theater had found a hit in 鈥淲onderthon.鈥� Economically, the show doesn't break the bank to stage.
鈥淚t actually in the script calls for everybody to just wear red and green sweaters. We're doing something a little bit different, but it's kind of along those lines,鈥� Vines said.
Five gol-den rings! And an audience embrace
The day before Thanksgiving, Broadway Rose Theatre Company in Tigard, Oregon, unwrapped 鈥淔ive Golden Rings: A Greeting Card Channel Holiday Musical.鈥� This show, by Stephen Garvey with songs by David Abbinanti, also takes place in a Vermont bed-and-breakfast with a protagonist named Holly. She's a business executive who falls for the 鈥渉unky lumberjack widower鈥� owner of the B&B, said the director, Dan Murphy.
The regional theater, which employs 250 people, has built a reputation for choosing shows 鈥渙ff the beaten path," says Murphy, a founding member. He really felt good about the choice when he saw the reactions across age groups.
鈥淭his last weekend we had a group of donors come in and watch rehearsals and they were laughing at some of the jokes,鈥� Murphy said. 鈥淭he crew, they are interns from high school seniors to college. They come in and watch a rehearsal. They were laughing hysterically."
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 鈥淭he Nutcracker鈥� and 鈥淒r. Seuss鈥� How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical鈥� will be around every December.
鈥淚t might scare some theaters. For us doing this, it鈥檚 a risk that we鈥檙e taking that鈥檚 totally paying off,鈥� 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 鈥淎 Very Williamston Christmas鈥� in 2022.
鈥淭he reason I wrote this is because my wife found something on YouTube, like a three-minute spoof," Lepard said. "She said, 鈥榊ou should write something like this for the theater.鈥欌��
It took him about a month to knock out a script. He used the nom de plume Robert Hawlmark, thus making it a 鈥淗awlmark original.鈥� 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.
鈥淎 lot of people said seeing our town get to be in a Hallmark movie was really fun,鈥� said Lepard, who is directing.
But the play's appeal isn't 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 鈥渏ust plug in your town, your local antique store and all the things local to your place.鈥�
The source material is treated fondly
Hallmark is on board with these stage shows satirizing their 鈥渧ibrant, beloved storytelling style.鈥�
鈥淚t makes sense to us that it鈥檚 leapt off the screen and onto the stage," Samantha DiPippo, senior vice president of programming, said in a statement. In the plays, she said, "people are finding fun ways to emulate our signature messages of hope, love, humor, and meaningful connection in their own communities.鈥�
The send-ups gently jab at the movies 鈥� 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 鈥渋n a way that鈥檚 not necessarily disrespectful to Hallmark movies, but in a way that it takes those jokes and just makes them that much bigger鈥� on the stage.
鈥淚n a movie, you still want to keep a sense of realism," he said. "In a show like this, you don鈥檛 have to.鈥�
Terry Tang, The Associated Press
