This long-running holiday hit returns to Milwaukee’s In Tandem Theater, much to the delight of adoring local theatergoers. Look around the audience and you’ll see many Milwaukee-born folks. They know the difference between a Polish “punchki” and a “pierogi” (for the rest of you, the first item (poonch-kee) comes from a bakery, and the second (pee-ROW-gee) is a meat-and-potato-filled pie). One look at the Green Bay Packers’ memorabilia-adorned set, and you know A Cudahy Caroler Christmashas returned.
After seeing this show at several different venues over the years, this reviewer is proud to report that the current show is better than ever. Happily, a number of key cast members have returned from previous years. Most notable is Chris Flieller, the company’s co-founder and artistic director. He plays the ever-amusing lead character, Stasch Zielinski. One cannot imagine another actor who could trump Flieller as the beer-guzzling, warm-hearted Stasch. As Stasch explains in a prologue to the audience, his quest is to reunite the now-defunct Cudahy community choir.
The choir split up a long time ago, by a long-running feud (and, more recently, a pending divorce). But now the choir has been invited to perform on a cable TV show. Stasch must use every trick he knows to convince the individual choir members to reunite for “one last time.” Stasch makes his way to various homes around Cudahy, a lower-class working neighborhood in Milwaukee. He has a tough job ahead of him. He starts with Pee-Wee (Nathan Wesselowski), a childhood friend who owns a bowling alley. Pee-Wee now lives in his home’s basement, as he is separated from his wife, Edna (Lisa Morris). She lives on the floors above him. The scatter-brained Edna has let a lottery win go to her head, and she dreams of “escaping” grimy Cudahy for the spacious green lawns and majestic homes nestled along Lake Michigan.
Both Pee-Wee and Edna are former choir members, as is their grown daughter, Nellie (Kelly Cline). Like a pre-adolescent who dreams of becoming a princess, the ditsy Nellie announces that her goal in life is to become a water-ski queen in a nearby Wisconsin resort community. That Nellie doesn’t know how to water-ski, and does not own a boat, doesn’t seem to matter. Cline, who is trim, blonde and youthful, certainly has the looks to become a beauty queen. As we soon discover, she also has a strong set of pipes.
But it is another female character who winds up stealing the show. Alison Mary Forbes plays Trixie, the mousy, overweight librarian. She desperately wants to join the choir, but is so shy she can barely talk above a whisper. She seems destined to fail her audition until she downs half a bottle of mango-peach schnapps to calm her nerves. Suddenly, to Stasch’s amazement, Trixie begins belting out a tune and winds up doing a modest strip-tease. As she sings, she is accompanied by two back-up dancers dressed as old-fashioned school boys. In this adult-themed show, the dancers seem delighted when Trixie slaps a ruler across their rear ends.
One of the dancers also doubles as Zeke, Stasch’s son (Joe Fransee). Zeke, another choir member, has been madly in love with Nellie (or, at least, her body) since they were kids. The talented Fransee wrings every last drop of humor from this situation.
Trixie’s song, like those in the rest of the show, is a holiday favorite with changed lyrics. In one example, “O, Holy Night” becomes, “O, Bowling Night.” Many of the lyrics are so lame that they are inevitably hilarious when sung by the straight-faced choir. One poetic example: “Let’s shoot a deer; then have a beer.” In fact, most of the song lyrics are woven around beer, brats and bowling, although there are a few clever twists (such as mentioning a Christmas buffet that features a “holiday lamb made out of SPAM.”)
The characters may be goofy, but their voices are excellent. When dressed in choir robes for their debut TV appearance, the characters sing in tight harmonies and display an extensive vocal range.
A few lines of dialogue have been updated, but most of the homespun humor is intact from past productions. Under Jane Flieller’s direction (she’s another company co-founder and is married to the leading man), the actors offer us a snappy, funny and truthful look at friends and family relationships, Cudahy-style. It’s a holiday treat that only comes around once every few years. With luck, it will keep In Tandem’s cash registers merrily ringing for weeks to come.
