An intense alarm system cannot stop The Guy
(Michael Johnson) from entering the apartment
of Karol (Lisa-Marie Newton) to try and convince
her that he is Santa Claus. Photo by Vera Sloan
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
No stockings were hung on the chimney with care,
There was no hope that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
You get the idea.
Welcome to the world of 40-something burnt-out social worker Karol Elliot. Karol lives in that jaded world of a grown-up – burned by life so many times that an entire fire station should be assigned to her. And when it comes to the joyous holiday season known as Christmastime, with the smells of tapioca and cinnamon filling the celestial air, well, let’s just say that the magical aromas of a burnt turkey might capture her mood a tad more accurately.
As Karol leaves a Christmas party and heads to a lonely apartment for another lonely Christmas, she runs into a homeless man and shares her groceries. In a gesture of undying gratitude, the man breaks into her house and attempts to convince her he is Santa Claus.
Is he? Or is he just Quixotically crazy? Either this man should be arrested for burglary, or he is attempting to do the noblest thing he can – to return to her a slice of her childhood she was robbed of many years earlier. He may be just the thing to make sugar-plums dance in Karol’s head once again.
With plenty of holiday entertainment officially kicking off the day after Thanksgiving, San Jose’s City Lights Theatre Company is offering a production that neither focuses on cracking nuts nor Bah-humbug. The West Coast premiere of “Another Night Before Christmas,” running through Dec. 20th, is a show that challenges its audience to find their inner-child, and return to the idealism of what Christmas used to mean before “big-people” issues got in the way.
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The Guy (Michael Johnson) accepts food from
Karol (Lisa-Marie Newton) in "Another Night
Before Christmas." Photo by Vera Sloan
“This show is about always staying true to your youth, learning and changing and developing,” said the show’s director Daren A.C. Carollo. “Karol had no childhood, her parents wanted her to be an adult, her childhood was sort of stolen from her.”
To further illustrate the point, Carollo deemed an example that was critical in understanding where Karol’s journey took a wrong turn – her loss of the concept of “loud joy.”
“Loud joy is a very important thing in our lives, it’s important at every age,” said Carollo. "Whether a person is six-years-old or 89, you always want to be experiencing loud joy, strong emotion, strong feelings; you should always be playful and feed your inner soul.”
The burden of the two-person play falls squarely on actors Lisa-Marie Newton and Michael Johnson, who are also given a chance to utilize their vast musical talents. Newton, a trained opera singer, and Johnson, a Bay Area musical theatre veteran who doubled as the show’s vocal director, have embraced the challenges that come with their respective roles.
“Karol has had a lot of disappointments in life and the world around her,” said Newton. “She is someone who would really love to believe in things, but people have not always followed through, so she has to take care of herself.”
While Newton has had the luxury of building a character from scratch, that was not exactly Johnson’s reality. With the ubiquitous nature of Santa Claus in every aspect of the American holiday season, Johnson’s challenge was to bring freshness to the mysterious homeless man with the big beard and even bigger belly.
“Because everyone knows Santa, people have visions of their own Santa,” said Johnson, who has played Santa Claus in some form since the sixth grade.” I wanted him to be realistic, modern, hip. Santa Claus is 1600 years old. I wanted him to be the old guy you would like to have in your front room on Christmas Eve.”
Johnson may have acquired veteran Santa status for his many years on the job, but it is a much bigger leap to play him in a full-length production. While mall Santas need to be well-versed in “ho-ho-ho’s” and “What would you like for Christmas?,” this was only the starting point in character building for Johnson.
“All of a sudden you have real multi-leveled character, instead of the basic Santa,” said Johnson. “This is a character that is fleshed out. It is still Santa, and it’s the spirit of him that I’m trying to portray honestly.”
That honesty goes beyond the respective parts of the show, and delves deeper about the true meaning of the holiday season, a time that goes way beyond commercialism and the madness of Black Friday.
“The beautiful thing about this show is rediscovering the belief of the idea of Christmas, the idea of miracles,” said Newton. “It’s wonderful to play a character who goes back to that childlike joy and believe in miracles.”
That miracle manifested itself during the opening weekend of the show. As Johnson tells it, after the show, a man in his 80’s brought Newton over to him, and told her, with a sparkle in his eye, “This is Santa.”
“Seeing childlike sparks in the audience is really touching,” said Johnson.
Go to any mall in America and watch Santa Claus in action. Parents and children alike seem to maintain a fascination and awe with the fat man in the red suit. The universal nature of the joy that Santa Claus and the Christmas season brings is something that has never been lost on the cast, especially Carollo.
“Ideally, think about what it was like when it was still simple enough believe that Santa can go to every house on a sleigh led by a reindeer with a bright red nose,” said Carollo. “Audiences can relate to that. I got to believe in Santa for a really long time, and it’s a part of who I am today.”
EXAMINE IT FOR YOURSELF
City Lights Theatre Company presents the West Coast premiere of “Another Night Before Christmas”
Book and Lyrics by Sean Grennan
Music by Leah Okimoto
Directed by Daren A.C. Carollo
Starring Lisa-Marie Newton as Karol and Michael Johnson as The Guy
Running Thursdays – Sundays through Dec. 20th
City Lights Theatre is located at 529 South Second Street, San José, California 95112
Call (408) 295-4200 for tickets, or visit their website at www.cltc.org
Email David John Chavez at dchavez04@att.net
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