EBENEZER SCROOGE’S BIG AURORA FOX CHRISTMAS SHOW – Written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen; Directed by Steven J. Burge. Produced by the Aurora Fox Theatre Company (9900 East Colfax Avenue, Aurora) through December 22. Tickets available at 303-739-1970 or AuroraFoxArtsCenter.org.
As the play starts, your first impression might be that this was something that the Fox staff put together in their spare time or that it was written by a couple of very clever college kids. It’s got a kind of semi-raunchy prurient humor that you would not normally associate with Dickens’ darling tale. But the playwrights Rosen and Greenberg know exactly what they are doing. Before long, the unexpected modern humor has you smiling, then there’s a chuckle or two, and before you know it, you’re laughing out loud and turning to the person beside you with “Did you hear what she just said?” Not only does the script have embedded humor, but apparently the playwrights left it open so that each new cast could make it their own.
These five women are having SO MUCH fun doing this show, which spills over into the audience. They have set the tale in Wild West days in early Aurora but are still telling Scrooge’s sad sorry story. The set is a barn in which both Scrooge and Bob Cratchit have their offices – Scrooge on a big barrel; Bob’s is smaller.
There are sight gags – Scrooge’s bed, for instance. There are sound gags – everything from galloping horses to farts. There are jokes – mostly corny Dad-type jokes – but usually so inappropriate, you can’t help but laugh. There are five women on stage and two backstage, helping them change clothes at a break-neck pace to morph from one character to the next. All the old familiar characters are there – The three ghosts, Fezziwig, Nephew Fred, even a tiny Tiny Tim.
Karen Slack is a miracle as Ebenezer. The last time I saw her on stage, she was giving life to a grieving heartbroken mother. And now here she is up on this stage being the funniest Ebenezer I’ve ever seen – complete with bushy sideburns and a snarl. The rest of the story is told by her four comrades in arms – LuAnn
Buckstein, Sonsharae Tull, Janae Burris, and Min Kyung Kim – trying to be serious and almost succeeding. Not!
This show is a hoot from beginning to end. Family-friendly because the kids love when adults mess up, second only to fart jokes. Adults love it because it is irreverent and brilliantly funny. Directed by Steven Burge, himself a gifted comic, he mined the script for all the humor written in and then added a whole additional layer of Aurora jokes. Kudos to Casey Burnham for a sound design that took it over the top and Costume Designer Linda Morken for creating breakaway clothes that made the quick changes possible.
This is downright fun and you don’t want to miss it! Hee Haw!!
A WOW factor of 8.75!!!