The Rep’s Santaland Diaries is a present worth opening
If the proliferation of shiny plastic Christmas specials leaves you feeling more bah humbug than ho ho ho, you’re not alone. And you might run into your fellow dyspeptic at the Copaken Stage, where the Kansas City Repertory Theatre is pouring a spiked-eggnog antidote to commercial cheer with its production of The Santaland Diaries.
The source material, David Sedaris’ 1992 essay “SantaLand Diaries,” has become a crotchety Christmas classic. In it, Sedaris details his stint as a Macy’s SantaLand elf, with acerbic one-liners and cutting observational humor that hold never-ending appeal to the season’s unfairly maligned scrooges. Targets include cheesy motivational cheers, the debatable blackness of Santa Jerome, and torturous “elf dress rehearsal.”
Joe Mantello’s stage adaptation, directed here by Jerry Genochio, keeps much of the original essay intact. The one-man, one-act play works as a series of linear monologues, separated by brief sound and light cues to denote the passing of narrative time.
Brian Sills delivers a solid performance as Sedaris turned Crumpet the Christmas elf, commanding the stage in candy-cane tights and an elf costume that includes, for whatever reason, an Elizabethan ruff. Sills masters a tone that’s caustic but not cruel, transitioning well between tongue-in-cheek jabs at a little-person co-worker (she’s “coasting on her looks”) and less curmudgeonly fare – say, a Macy’s Santa with a gift for inspiring authentic familial connections.
The show runs about an hour but earns some heft from a spirited musical preshow, courtesy of Claybourne Elder and Shanna Jones (performing as the Shenanigans). The duo admirably warm up the crowd, singing blue versions of Christmas classics over ukulele and kazoo.
Sedaris’ subject matter might not shock modern audiences, but Clint Ramos’ genius scenic design might. An enormous, glittering green present opens out like a pop-up Christmas book to reveal the full SantaLand set. The effect is stunning: a Christmas miracle to wow even the most cynical stage lovers.
