No Elf on a Shelf

The Santaland Diaries–at the Goodman Theatre

No Elf on the Shelf

Not everyone looks upon the holiday season with the same unbridled joy and delight as movies, musicals and television specials would have you believe is in everyone’s hearts. Even that crabby old Victorian curmudgeon, Ebenezer Scrooge, eventually found Christmas to be a season of joy and renewal. But ask someone who’s worked in the public sector during the holidays, especially in retail or hospitality, and suffered the indignities and downright rudeness of people at their worst, and you will understand how some folks look at Christmas in an entirely different light.

Murder at Haversham Manor

The Play That Goes Wrong–at the Oriental Palace Theatre

Murder at Haversham Manor

Two warnings accompany this review. The first is to bring along an oxygen tank when you attend this show, because you’re going to laugh until you hyperventilate. This is, without any doubt, the funniest comedy, with more laughs per minute, than any other play, since “Noises Off.”

[sound of door slamming shut]

Deathscribe – Wildclaw Theater

Getting the Best of the Bogeyman

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins–at Strawdog Theatre 

Getting the Best of the Bogeymen

Presented like a holiday vaudeville show aimed at younger audiences, this lively, laughter-provoking entertainment is actually a play-within-a-play.

Learning to Be True to Yourself

Book of Merman–by Flying Elephant Productions

Learning to Be True to Yourself

With the phenomenal success of Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez’s cleverly written, irreverent and infectious musical comedy, “The Book of Mormon,” it was inevitable that someone would eventually write a parody of this mega popular Broadway show.