Review: Gaslight's MR. JINGLE'S CHRISTMAS CLAUSE

Theater during the holiday season tends to be something of a mixed bag: multiple productions of A Christmas Carol, countless stagings of It's A Wonderful Life, numerous renditions of The Nutcracker and a sampling of original revues that include songs suitable for the season and heart-tugging and oftentimes cloyingly sweet reminiscences of home and hearth, all of which is designed to put you in the holiday spirit.

For a theater critic, the season can be (how do I put this diplomatically?): Challenging. No matter how difficult it might be to get into the holiday spirit, one must approach every theatrical offering with an open and objective mind, allowing the sentimental and nostalgic to waft over you and to transport you to a kinder, gentler frame of mind. After all, during this season of giving, a theater critic can easily be mistaken for a latter-day Ebenezer Scrooge if he gives a highly critical - an out-and-out pan, if you will - review to a show so bad that it defies convention.

Mr. Jingle's Christmas Clause, now onstage at Dickson's Gaslight Dinner Theatre - where the pre-show buffet is filled with enough seasonal favorites to make you feel as if you've taken a trip over the river and through the woods to the grandmother's house of your dreams (the buffet is crowned by a glorious pecan cobbler that is certain to make your heart sing and your A1C count soar into dangerous territory) - is one such production, the tale of five talented actors who sing their hearts out, but are saddled with a script so badly written and poorly plotted that nothing makes sense. In fact, there are so many plot holes to be found throughout the script that an 18-wheeler could drive through them without mucking up the festivities. It's highly nonsensical and difficult to follow...have I gotten my point across yet?

The musical score for the show is rather odd: "I Wanna Do Christmas Stuff" is one of the songs I'd never heard before (and, for the love of all things Baby Jesus, I hope never to be forced to listen to again) that punctuate the performance, along with some other tunes that are memorable reminders of happier holidays.

The cast - which includes local veterans like writer/director Greg Frey, Jenny Norris-Light, Noah Rice and Kim Kinsley, along with Nashville theater newcomer Trevor Sideris - are committed to their jobs and are focused on the task at hand, but nothing short of a complete rewrite could save Mr. Jingle and company from the bad jokes, horrific puns, borderline racism and stereotypical characters that comprise the script.

Meanwhile, for the next wrinkle in time, I'll be at the table in the corner, shoving whole cloves into navel oranges in some sort of holiday-themed rehabilitation facility.

• Mr. Jingle's Christmas Clause. Created, written and directed by Greg Frey. Musical direction by Randy Craft. Choreography by Tosha Pendergrast. Presented by The Gaslight Dinner Theatre, Dickson. Through December 19. For details, go to www.gaslightdinnertheatre.org; for tickets, call (615) 740-5600.

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