Review: SANTALAND DIARIES Puts Director Marc Robin on the Fulton Stage

It's Christmastide, and time for an elf or two. Maybe the big, jolly one in the red suit? Oh, that's Santa, although The Night Before Christmas does say he's an elf... or the big jolly one in green? Oh, that's Buddy. He tried to get a job at Macy's, but it didn't work out well. How about a big elf in green that's working at Macy's but not quite so happy to see you? Ah, now, that's Crumpet the Elf, anti-hero of THE SANTALAND DIARIES, originally told on National Public Radio in 1992 and later taken to the stage. It's a tale of humorist David Sedaris' (author of such classic brain-melters as DRESS YOUR CHILDREN IN CORDUROY AND DENIM) real or imagined incidents in working as Crumpet one season in the 34th Street Macy's Santa Land.

Starting out with the best intentions and the leanest bankbook, David applies to Macy's Elf School and becomes a trainee elf. The show, a series of monologues of incidents in Elf School and Santa Land, is a hysterical but hefty piece of work for an actor, 90 minutes straight through of tales out of elf school. Whether it's the costumer's training session for female elves including a lesson on why elves wear underwear, or the flooded bathroom in which elf costume changes are occasional ogling sessions, "David," transforming into an increasingly insane Crumpet under pressure as the season continues, tries hard, but not necessarily successfully, to not buckle under the strain of thousands of small children, their self-centered parents, various weird Santa actors, and the occasional celebrity guest to the store's Christmas displays.

Sedaris' priceless, and newly classic, Christmas story is on at the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, directed by and starring the theatre's artistic director, Marc Robin. It's a bit of a risk for him; Robin has been an actor since age 4, when he was in THE WIZARD OF OZ, but he hadn't acted recently, and a 90-minute nonstop monologue is more than a bit of a challenge; it makes Vanya's Act Two scene in VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE look like a short audition piece. And Robin is, admittedly, somewhat older than the originally-drawn character, a young, straight-off-the-midwestern-bus starving actor who isn't getting his fantasized soap opera gig, or any other jobs. Robin transforms him into a slightly older, grunge-themed unemployed slacker of an actor, who's down to his last Starbucks run, and makes "David's" dire situation work. (Taking a barista job at the Starbucks would have worked, too, dude, but the story wouldn't have been so funny. Thanks for taking that elf job for the team.)

Robin's remarkably physical with the tale, up one side of the stage, down the other, and behind a dressing room screen turning David into Crumpet while still talking about learning the Macy's cash registers. The energy can be almost exhausting for the audience to watch, as well as for him to perform, but it's to good effect. He does have a finely tuned knack for sounding spontaneous rather than rehearsed, even though the script is itself written colloquially; there's no sense that Robin is doing anything other than rattling his memories of elfdom off the top of his head. He's also not a bad mimic, voicing other characters neatly during David's telling of stories involving people he encounters during elf life (the dried-out, chain-smoking elf-costume fitter is memorable).

THE SANTALAND DIARIES is an unusual thing, a Christmas show for adults. No sentimentality, no family-friendly sappy or sweet stories (it's about as sweet as a double espresso with a lemon twist), no nostalgia, no uplifting moral at the end, no promises of redemption, and certainly no language suitable for the kids. In these respects, it's a gigantic relief to those of us 18 and over who can't handle one more telecast of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER or yet another viewing of MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, or yet another holly jolly carol sing along. It's closer to live Grinchness than anything, if the Grinch were doing adult stand-up, and the world is a better place for having Crumpet's increasing dementia sweep across a theatre stage in the evening.

If you want to do something that's fun, that's not one more Christmas thing you do every year, and that's geared at your own 18-and-up age group, there's no better holiday activity than THE SANTALAND DIARIES. At the Fulton, it's on stage at the fourth-floor Tell black-box theatre through the 17th while BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is downstairs on the main stage. Marc Robin holds out the possibility of doing it again next year, allowing area adults to start their own holiday tradition of catching Crumpet's brand of holiday insanity. This author knows the show well, and admits to seeing it live at least once a season, knowing that for her, it's not Christmas without Crumpet. Make it your own tradition as well.

At the Fulton Theatre through December 17; visit thefulton.org for details and information.

To post a comment, you must register and login.