Review: Seattle Public Theater's CHRISTMASTOWN is a Winning Holiday Diversion

Let me see if I can get us into that Noir mood, Dear Readers. It was an uncertain time in the City of Emeralds. The holidays were here and it looked like it we'd be offered up the same old holiday shows. But then a sultry new offering breezed through my door. With a jingle and a jangle and a ho ho ho Seattle Public Theater stood before me with "Christmastown: A Holiday Noir" and with it's hilarious script and cast proved that our holiday entertainment need not be limited to the same old ghosts, nativities and red nosed reindeer.

In Wayne Rawley's delightful Christmas/Film Noir mash up, it's Christmas time in Christmastown, but then it always is. And Private Detective Nick Holiday (John Ullman) finds a healthy dose of trouble when sexy rich girl Holly Wonderland (Pilar O'Connell) slinks into his office. She's got a job for him. She's stumbled across some racy pictures involving the big man in red and wants Nick to confront the jolly one with them. So Nick teams up with Rudy, the trusty cab driver and his reporter, ex-girlfriend Virginia Ribbons (both played by Carol Thompson) to get to the bottom of things. But what they discover is a mystery that leads them straight to the top including department store mogul E.B. Wonderland and Mrs. Santa Claus herself (both played by Brandon Felker).

Rawley's play is a wonderfully twisted Christmas tale with crisp dialog and enough holiday references to shake a candy cane at that will leave you giggling for the entire 90 minutes. And director Anita Montgomery takes this adorable script and infuses it with just the right amount of stylized noir elements and lightning fast pacing that your laughter dies down from the last bit just in time to bubble up again with the next.

Ullman manages that perfect Humphrey Bogart tone as he self narrates his way through the show. And the rest of the cast pull double and triple duty as they switch characters throughout the night to hysterical effect. O'Connell is amazing as the mysterious dame who walks into Nick's life but then switches it up for the funniest rough and tumble elf ever. Thompson brings to glorious life the smarter half of those bad boy elves along with a wonderfully over the top no nonsense reporter. And Felker's two faced Mrs. Claus is a thing of comedic beauty.

So if you're looking for a fun break from the same old holiday fare then you can do much worse than the outrageously funny "Christmastown: A Holiday Noir" from Seattle Public Theater that I'm inclined to give a still giggling YAY with my three letter rating system. Another awesome script from local playwright Rawley who just seems to keep pumping out the gold. And aside from a few tame innuendos, this one manages good clean fun for the whole family.

"Christmastown: A Holiday Noir" performs at Seattle Public Theater through December 24th. For tickets or information visit them online at www.seattlepublictheater.com.

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