For a deliciously funny show that lampoons traditional holiday characters, it would be difficult to beat Who Killed Santa?
Every year, Santa throws a party for holiday characters a few days before Christmas. Plenty of booze is consumed during the party, but Santa has a head start: he’s half-drunk before the guests arrive. As the curtain opens, Bo Johnson (who plays Santa and a few other human characters) sings a few choruses of the song: “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (with some very lewd lyrics). It’s only the first of many recognizable Christmas tunes to get fractured in this musical comedy, written by Neil Haven.
The characters are ones we’ve known since childhood: Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer; Tiny Tim (from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol), The Little Drummer Boy, and Frosty the Snowman. They are all represented by puppets that artfully come to life via some very talented puppeteers (think Avenue Q.) However, just as Sony Motion Pictures executives are discovering in real life (via hacked e-mails), there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than one suspects. For instance: Rudolph is promiscuous, Tiny Tim is a virgin, Frosty has the hots for Mrs. Claus, and the Little Drummer Boy was sexually abused as a kid. When the liquor begins to flow (and none of the characters are teetotalers), the tales start to circulate. After all the “regulars” arrive, a new character is introduced: Chastity. Unlike her name suggests, this red-haired, sexy puppet practically spills out over the top of her skimpy costume. Santa introduces her as the “new” Little Drummer Girl. He makes it clear that Chastity is his girlfriend and advises the other male characters to back off. The other characters start to complain about this situation, although it is the Little Drummer Boy who feels the most ripped-off.
In case one hasn’t guessed it by now, this is definitely an R-rated play. After all – what kid wants to see Santa killed by a giant candy cane stuck in his back? Besides, one hopes that only adults can understand the meaning of lines such as Frosty being Mrs. Claus’ “favorite snow blower.”
Meantime, the characters speculate on who could have done such a dastardly deed to Santa. They start to accuse each other, at the encouragement of a police detective (Bo Johnson, again) who attempts to solve the case. Unfortunately, the detective becomes the second to die. Since this is a whodunit, a few hand-picked audience members are selected to choose the killer. The cast adjusts to whoever is named as the culprit.
Neil Haven, Bo Johnson (who appears in the cast) and Dan Katula (a very talented puppet-maker) have put together this show six times in the past seven years. It has appeared in various locations. This year’s version is in Soulstice Theater in St. Francis, Wisconsin, a quiet Milwaukee suburb. Soulstice Theater’s 80-seat space is near-perfect in terms of the necessary intimacy for this show. The lobby features a bar, which is fitting for a musical in which almost all the characters become tipsy themselves.
One of the best things about Who Killed Santa? is the warped lyrics to songs such as: “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Come, He Told Me (The Little Drummer Boy);” “Frosty, the Snowman,” etc. Local references also abound, such as questionable skills the characters claim to have learned at a local technical college.
Poor, dim-witted Frosty (animated by Nate Press) is the unknowing butt of many jokes told by the others. One tends to pity him until it becomes clear that he’s also a bore. More sympathetic characters are Tiny Tim (Kelly Dougherty), whom Santa refers to as “Timmy;” and Rudolph (Sara Zientek). By the show’s end, poor Rudolph is still foggy about his sexual orientation.
For the first time this year, the play is done in repertory with Neil’s Dirty Shorts, a collection of six comedy skits. Santa audiences can pay a bit more and see Shorts either before or after the play, depending on what day they see the musical.
Many of the same actors appear in both Santa and the skits. A few more join in, including Dan Katula and Grace DeWolff, Happily, none of these skits is about Christmas. The show is funny about half of the time, and entertaining throughout.
The three best skits are all in the 70-minute show’s first half (before intermission). They include the dilemmas faced by two couples stranded in a life raft (without water or food), and an unnerving and painfully realistic skit in which a hapless cable customer attempts to disconnect her services. Credit for the former skit goes to actors Nate Press, Grace DeWolff, Dan Katula and Kelly Doherty). The cable skit is played out by Sara Zientek, Kelly Doherty, and T. Stacy Hicks.
