As Christmas closes in, area stages are serving up holiday fare to help get in the mood. Uptown Players closes the year with its new season opener and Lyric Stage does the same. These two shows give some different holiday vibes with one classic story reimagined as totally gay and the other giving some sassy comedy next to its charming musical numbers.
Uptown Players’ A Queer Carol is a dramatic retelling of a classic holiday tale
Last weekend was the opening weekend for A Queer Carol by Uptown Players which closes this weekend. A reimagining of the Charles Dickens classic, Joe Godfrey’s play puts a rainbow sheen over the holiday story. A drag queen, gay Scrooge and a whole new relationship between Bob Cratchit and Tim minus the “tiny.”
In this play, Ben Scrooge is a famed interior designer in Dallas with Bob as his assistant. The two are working late into the day before Christmas on a Margot Perot job. Ben is a taskmaster with no appreciation for the holiday while Bob is much more cheerful and ready to get home to his partner Tim who is in good spirits despite his illness.
The play follows the Christmas Carol structure so we see Ben being a jerk to Bob, to fabric supplier Fred and to his houselady Svetlana as well as Nick, the man who visits asking for donations. He’s visited by his past business and life partner Jacob Marley to warn of three ghosts coming in the night. Christmas Past is Marilyn Monroe and Christmas Present is a fabulous truth-talking drag queen all presenting Scrooge with his life’s traumas and dramas.
Of these, the past hits the hardest as it looks at Scrooge’s childhood and his alcoholic father’s rejection of his “sensitive” son. But then it looks at Scrooge’s meet-cute with Jacob which then grew into a full-fledged relationship despite Scrooge’s closeted ways.
Although this is A Queer Carol, the show relied very much on the drama of Dickens’ story over any sort of campy take on the piece. The fun side of that though was the playwright’s
Music
queer
wellness
show
UPS
classical
Marilyn Monroe
Christmas Carol