SEASON'S STAGINGS: HOLIDAY INN

Growing up, the movie Holiday Inn was a perennial favorite in our household, especially around Christmas.  It’s a combination of all my favorite things: musicals, the 1940s, inns, New England, and, most importantly, holidays!  So when I heard there was a new stage musical adaptation headed for Broadway, I promptly bought tickets.  Some unabashed Golden Age musical optimism seemed the perfect anodyne to these last few days of the most stressful election season ever (something the lead actor touched upon during his closing remarks).  It’s got that All-American, Greatest Generation “we’re gonna put on a show!” (which is literally dialogue in the musical) sunniness.

Although the critical reviews were somewhat tepid, I was not disappointed.  The first act was definitely a bit sluggish despite the many chipper Irving Berlin tunes (in addition to the holiday-themed tunes that appear in the original film, the stage version is padded out with several other Berlin songs such as “Blue Skies”).   There was a lot of plot set-up before we actually got to the holidays themselves, but once the first seasonal number started (replete with showgirls dressed like turkeys wearing cornucopia headpieces) I was all in.  The best number came towards the end of Act One—and I’m not saying that just because it was Christmas-themed.

Interestingly, the song was “Shaking the Blue Away,” a Berlin tune I associate more with Easter since it appears in the film Easter Parade.   However here it was repurposed and staged at Christmastime, with a bevy of enthusiastic showboys and showgirls shaking and singing while simultaneously decorating the inn for Christmas.  Most impressive was a tap routine that was done while the dancers also jumped rope using a bedazzled garland.  That’s the kind of old school musical razzle dazzle that I live for! 

The second act was loaded with holiday-themed numbers, including the aforementioned “Easter Parade” (with wonderfully over-the-top Easter bonnets) as well as numbers devoted to Valentine’s Day and the 4^th of July, including a recreation of Fred Astaire’s famous fireworks and tap routine.  Gone is the “Abraham” number from the original film, which makes sense given that it was done in blackface (a reminder that the 1940s, however idealized now, was also fucked up).  The ensemble of the stage version was relatively diverse, and one of the male leads was African-American, which signaled a nice change from the all-white casts of days gone by.  There was one sour note, a tired trans-panic joke where one of the showgirls speaks in a deep man's voice and scares off one of the male leads.  I was surprised that such a moment (aside from being unfunny) would be included in such a traditionally queer-friendly space as Broadway theatre.

Also gone was the problematic character of the African-American housekeeper, replaced with a coded lesbian “handywoman” played to perfection by Megan Lawrence.  It’s the type of supporting character that Thelma Ritter or Mary Wickes would have relished back in the day.  The other standout for me was leading lady Megan Sikora, who in addition to all of the dancing and singing was extremely funny in the type of part that can sometimes be a bit bland.  Speaking of a bit bland, the one weak spot was High School Musical graduate Corbin Bleu.  His dancing was admirable (he’s the one that does the 4^th of July fireworks routine), but his character, a lovable cad played by Fred Astaire in the film, fell flat.  Perhaps due to a surfeit of dialogue, his character barely registered outside of his dancing. 

The true stars of the night, however, was the cranky elderly woman and her hard-of-hearing husband sitting behind us!  She irritably repeated the punchline of every joke to him after the fact, and after a not-terribly-funny joke about a character being stung by a Connecticut wasp, she relayed the punchline and then said:

Cranky Wife: “Took you long enough.”

Husband: “What?”

Cranky Wife: “I said, took you long enough!”

Husband: Pause.  Yes, it did.

I’m waiting for the day those two get their own Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?-style stage musical extravaganza!

DARK KNIGHT COURT

The Simpsons

Season 24 (2013)

I’ve written before about the scarcity of Easter-themed TV episodes, but luckily The Simpsons has been around for so long that the show has gifted us with not just one Easter episode, but multiple ones (okay, well, at least two that I’m aware of).  Up until now I’d never seen “Dark Knight Court,” for as a Simpsons purist I stick to the first 11 seasons or so.  I was pleasantly surprised by the first five minutes, and then the rest of the (Easter-less) episode was a reminder of why the show has mostly lost its charms.

But let’s start with the good stuff!  We get a nice burst of not only Easter but St. Patrick’s Day right off the bat, as we zoom into the sky during the familiar opening credits and the Easter Bunny and a Leprechaun suddenly appear, battling it out and then exploding in a burst of Easter eggs and shamrocks.  Presumably this is because the episode aired during a year when Easter fell in March, which is a terrible, horrible, no good thing.  I resent March Easters on so many levels.  For one, if Easter comes in March we’re left with an almost holiday-less April (save for April Fool’s Day), thereby rendering the entire month of April useless and boring.  Also, as someone with a late March birthday, I’ve had to endure a couple birthday-Easter combos and I am not a fan.  Every holiday and birthday should gets it due!  Easter I love you (my third favorite holiday!) but stick to April where you belong.  End of rant.

Anyhoo, after the leprechaun and bunny battle there’s a Jesus-related chalkboard gag AND an Easter egg couch gag in the opening credits.  This is full-tilt holiday theming and I was loving it!  After the credits we open on the Springfield town square in the throes of an Easter celebration. The women are strolling around in their lavish Easter bonnets (Marge’s hat features framed photos of the Simpson kids).  There’s a giant, melting chocolate bunny.  There’s even a lovely rendition of the song “Easter Parade” playing, and later an instrumental version of “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” courtesy of the Springfield Elementary band.  One of the best gags involves Moe slinking into a coin-operated booth for a “Peep Show” only to discover it’s just a bunch of candy Peeps lined up for display.

It’s the kind of holiday episode I live for, only everything sadly comes to a crashing halt after the band blows eggs out of their instruments, pelting the crowd and bringing the festivities to an end.  With that, the Easter theme disappears and the episode quickly goes off the rails.  The two storylines involve Lisa defending Bart, the accused prankster, and Mr. Burns being a superhero named Fruit Bat Man. Sigh. 

And because this is a late-in-life Simpsons episode, of course there must be a celebrity guest star.  In this case it’s a surprisingly classy one: Janet Reno, who presides as judge of the kid courtroom.  I really like Janet Reno but she can’t save this episode from suffocating under its own goofy premise.  It’s shame because the opening Easter scene was really charming, but it feels tacked on to an otherwise hodgepodge of an episode.  Plus, what law says we must always have both an A and a B story?!  I could have so done without the whole Mr. Burns-as-superhero silliness.

Easter Quotient: A 5 for the first 5 minutes; 1 thereafter

Own It, See It, Skip It?: Definitely watch the opening five minutes for a dose of Easter fun, then quickly shut off your TV.

THE CANISTER

Everybody Loves Raymond
Season 5 (2001)

Easter-themed episodes of sitcoms are a rare and beautiful thing. Who knows exactly why there is such a scarcity of Easter episodes?  Perhaps it’s because Easter is a relatively religious holiday and sitcoms generally avoid religion.  Maybe it’s just because the holiday falls rather late in a typical sitcom season, and shows tend to be wrapping up and can’t devote time to the holiday.  Maybe Easter just isn’t as popular as Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving (thought it ranks as my third favorite holiday).  Luckily Everybody Loves Raymond provided us with not only more than one Easter episode, but this truly amazing one.

I can almost smell the vinegar and hear those color tablets fizzing...

The plot is simple yet brilliant: on the day before Easter Debra insists that she returned a canister to Marie, even earning an apology from Marie after she accuses her of losing it.  Moments later Debra discovers that she had the canister all along, and in order to avoid years of Marie rubbing the mistake in their faces the family goes to great and hilarious lengths to prevent the truth from being discovered.  Despite their frantic efforts, on Easter Sunday the canister keeps showing up at the worst possible moments, leading to a last-minute rescue from an unlikely source.

The canister that wouldn't die

“The Canister” is a much beloved episode of the show and deservedly so; it’s one hilarious scene after another.  When the infamous canister comes clunking down the stairs after Ray and Debra thought they’d throw it away, their genuine terror is a sight to behold.  Other great moments include Ray smuggling the canister in to Marie’s house under a puffy jacket and Ray and Robert’s deliciously awkward, extremely long hug (an effort to conceal the canister clutched between them).  The ending of the episode is even surprisingly poignant.  It really is sheer sitcom perfection from start to finish, equal parts comedy, horror movie, caper, and slapstick—all that plus a holiday backdrop!  

Holidays are for hugging

Easter with the Barones reminds me a lot of my many family holidays, including the squabbling.  The opening scene shows Ray dying eggs (with newspaper spread over the kitchen table, naturally) and we also get all sorts of fun Easter shout-outs: chocolate eggs, ham, daffodils, Easter outfits and subtle decorations in the background.  At one point the camera focuses on Debra and I noticed Easter gel clings in the window behind her.  All hail the gentle yet knowing touch of the Everybody Loves Raymond set decorator!  Details like these make the show—and the holiday.

Subtle over the shoulder and to the right Easter decor alert!

Easter Quotient: As much as I adore this episode, it’s prevented from earning a 5 since the story doesn’t actually revolve around Easter—it just takes place on Easter.  Still there’s plenty of holiday trimmings so it rates a 4. 

See It, Skip It, Own It?
Mandatory Easter viewing, year after year!