Productions offer alternatives to tired holiday offerings

Not so long ago, December was a wretched month for local theater. The offerings consisted usually of about six to 10 awful productions of "A Christmas Carol." I remember once standing in front of a playhouse with two other local critics, each of us wondering how much longer we could stand to sit through this sort of stuff.

Times change.

We still have a fair number of "A Christmas Carols," but some of them are of quality -- and we have alternatives.

E.J.G. Productions is offering Saturday and Sunday a dinner-theater adaptation of Dickens' tale at Lawry's The Prime Rib. The annual show takes an unusual approach. An empty space in the middle of the restaurant serves as the stage, and scenes are performed between meal courses. Directors/writers Edward Gryska and Brandon Klock have seen to it that their dozen well-cast actors, clad in Victorian costumes, help create a festive atmosphere. They welcome patrons, mingle table to table during the eats, encourage audience anticipation -- all the while exhibiting a fine-tuned sense of humor. Alex Olson, in particular, makes for a moving Fred, Scrooge's nephew who repeatedly tries to make his lonely uncle part of the family. He projects wholesomeness, strength and vulnerability; his acting would be equally at home in a major production.

Gryska and Klock have come up with some nifty special effects and puppetry (by Ticking Productions) that make the most of a small playing area. The highlight of the evening, though, may be in mingling with the strangers at your table. You make friends fast here (info: 893-2223).

Signature Productions recently offered a stirring rendition of holiday songs, with differing sorts of arrangements and styles, in "A Signature Christmas" at the Summerlin Library. Things got off to a rousing start with Brandon Albright leading the company in a raise-the-roof version of "Music of Heaven" (with live musicians yet!). Later, he and Taylor Sinquefield unexpectedly shook things up with an unusually moving, energetic "Angels We Have Heard on High." Each of the 16 cast members seemed to have been chosen for unique qualities. And the two children who between songs delivered letters to Santa -- Amy Smith and Joshua Smithline -- were genuine scene stealers. Director Leslie Fotheringham didn't succumb to the temptation of having them tug too tightly on our heartstrings. It's just too bad the show had only a three-performance run. More people deserve to have seen it.

Las Vegas Little Theatre will be offering this weekend "A Little Theatre Christmas," a musical salute to the season. And it will wind up its three-week run Sunday of the haunting, superb and very adult "Hellcab." It makes for a different (but optimistic) take on Yuletide cheer (info: lvlt.org).

Add to that the Onyx's too-soon closed recent "The Santaland Diaries" -- a hysterically funny story for grown-ups about the horrors of working as a store elf -- and you have a month of theatergoing worth living through.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.