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About Rudolph 2004
Cast and Crew
Press Photos
Reviews
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don we now our gay apparel...
Chicago Sun-Times
'Rudolph' rollicks as high-camp satire
by Christopher Piatt
They grow up so quickly, don't they? The Goodman Theatre's evergreen
production of "A Christmas Carol" turns 26 this holiday season,
while over at Bailiwick Repertory, "The Christmas Schooner,"
an original musical about the first man to bring Christmas trees to Chicago,
is rounding out its first decade.
Bringing up the rear is a most unlikely perennial tyke. Each year, Hell
in a Handbag Productions, most famous for the musical satire of "The
Poseidon Adventure," pulls out of the attic "Rudolph, the Red-Hosed
Reindeer." It's a high-camp retooling of the 1964 TV special, in
which oddball Rudolph is cursed not with an awkward red nose but with
scarlet tights and a taste for his mother's Chanel scarves.
The musical turns seven this year, and it has survived for a reason. David
Cerda, its writer and composer, has penned a smart, withering romp that
gives an unusually large and entirely winning cast plenty of room to don,
flaunt and even strip their gay apparel.
Rudolph (Brannen Daugherty, in a performance so nuanced that it would
be out of place here, were it not equally funny) is born unto sensible,
hardworking reindeer parents. When it becomes apparent that Rudolph is,
ahem, special (he pulls the ornaments off the tree and wears them as earrings),
his folks panic and try to suppress his natural instincts because, as
the cheery song asserts, "They'll Hate You If You're Different."
Honestly, it's surprising how well the analogs in Cerda's script work.
The '60s Christmas special is a great story about ostracized youth whose
unusual gifts can make them freaks as youngsters but successful as adults.
The Handbag tribe spins the tale as a uniquely gay one and, like it or
not (purists might not), it works just as well as "It's Not Easy
Bein' Green" works as a song about racism.
Read
the entire review...
Chicago Reader
by Jennifer Vanasco
This risque musical parody of the beloved animated children's TV special
takes the show's moral--that misfits are valuable--and turns it into the
lesson that being normal isn't normal. Rudolph (Brannen Daugherty) is
a cross-dresser, his girlfriend (Melissa Pond) is a perky riot grrrl,
and Herbie (Adam Keune), who wants to be a dentist, is just not out enough
for his fey fellow elves. David Cerda's script pokes pointed fun at the
way gays and straights alike try to make people fit into niches and occasionally
makes a swipe at political commentary: one of the misfit toys is an actor
wearing an empty box labeled "WMD play set." At times, however,
the arch humor seems strained, though it's relieved by Lori Lee's genuinely
funny performance as lobotomized lesbian Yukon Cornelia.
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