BWW Interviews: Shannon Guggenheim on MESHUGANUTCRACKER

With that in mind, The MeshugaNutcracker has a bit of a local history, as well. Can you tell me about its creation process leading up to its current run in the Bay Area?

We have had this little gem of a show in our library since 2003. Since we can only roll it out for the holidays, that means it has taken years to develop, but we are so pleased to present this new version of the show in anticipation of a New York opening in 2015. What started as a small play to answer the "December Dilemma" for local Jewish agencies (meaning, giving their members a show to call their own) has grown into a full-fledged Broadway bound musical complete with beautiful sets and the most lovingly created, hand-made costumes you've ever seen. Throw in eight of the most talented and well-cast artists and you have the perfect recipe for a fantastic family outing.

I'm no fan of replacing "Christmas" with "Happy Holidays," but I do greatly appreciate other cultures and traditions. MeshugaNutcracker really seems to embrace that same idea by combining one of the Christmas classics with a different belief. How much of the original Nutcracker is maintained? And how do these two mesh together?

First of all, we always try to make sure our audience knows, we didn't write this show to bash Christmas. We wrote it as an inside joke for Jews who truly have nothing to do on Christmas day but go to the movies and go out for Chinese food. As the show evolved, though, it has become an experience that Jews and Gentiles can enjoy together: the Jewish grandma can bring her children and grandkids and delight in seeing their culture represented in a holiday musical, while the non-Jewish son-in-law will be tickled to the very familiar Nutcracker tunes with witty and whimsical lyrics. And the overall themes are entirely universal: Chanukah is a holiday about good triumphing over evil and remembering that together, our light shines more brightly...that light can always overcome the darkness. That's a message everyone can relate to.

To create something like this, you must have a personal connection to the theme. Can you tell me about that?

I'm a Jew by choice who's married to a Jew, so we definitely have two very different personal connections to the themes of the show: for Scott, writing The MeshugaNutcracker was a chance to bring something exciting and wondrous to Jewish kids during the holiday season. I grew up dancing in The Nutcracker and had a deep fondness for the score, not to mention a love for dance and great storytelling. I'm also somewhat irreveren,t so the idea of marrying Christmas and Chanukah in a fun and accessible way was very appealing. That's what I love most about this show: it's a Chanukah show but it's not just for Jews. You don't have to be Jewish to love it.

And you, yourself, are performing in the production. Tell me about the rest of the cast and their characters.

Even though we have written a rather traditional piece of American musical theatre as far as plot and style are concerned, we are dealing with a very intense vocal score. Remember, every note in the show comes from the instrumentation of the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker suite, so we had to find ridiculously talented performers to sing this score, which frequently breaks into eight part harmony. Then, after they learned those 20 songs, we told them they'd be dancing in dreidel costumes, wearing pots and pans on their heads, integrating classic clowning character techniques, tap dancing, singing in a foreign language at times, and performing in nearly every scene and song of the full length, two-act musical! All eight of the artists are the epitome of triple-threats and I can't imagine anyone else in the roles now that they have made them their own.