I want to start by saying that I enjoyed the tone of the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's presentation of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. I left Saturday's performance with a warm feeling of Christmas cheer, which seems to me the point of the play, so... Christmas mission accomplished! Yet while there are some notable performances in the piece, it pains me to say that I also have a lot of minor issues with this Showboat production, and particularly with playwright Jamie Gorski's script.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the one-act play Barbara Robinson adapted from her beloved book, is set primarily in a church that stages a grade-school re-telling of the Nativity story - the exact same pageant, we're told, that the church puts on year after year after year. And after attending Friday night's hilarious, intensely charming production of Robinson's show, I, for one, would be totally on board with the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre opting to stage The Best Christmas Pageant Ever year after year after year, at least if director Jalayne Riewerts wouldn't mind making it an annual commitment.
