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The Legend Continues…and It’s a Musical Comedy!
The legend of Joan Crawford. It has inspired countless books, articles, television documentaries, and… a musical comedy? Yes, Christina, a musical comedy. Artfull Circle Theatre’s drag romp, Christmas with the Crawfords, opening November 20 at Theatre Rhino, is sort of a Mommie Dearest the Musical with a holiday theme, and has been packing houses for the last ten years (first in San Francisco, now in its third year in New York). Why the continuing popularity of both star and stage show? “We really don’t know,” states Richard Winchester, ACT General Manager, “but as long as they both are, we’ll be bringing Christmas with the Crawfords back to the stage.”
It’s a legend that would have horrified Miss Crawford. After all, she made 70 movies. She was glamour personified. She won an Oscar. So why is she remembered today as the bitch who beat up her adopted children, drank too much, and was forced to marry a Pepsi executive to save her from a failed movie career? Chock that up to her daughter Christina, whose infamous book “Mommie Dearest,” and the eponymous movie starring Faye Dunaway, changed the course of the public’s perception of Joan forever, fairly or not.
It is this view of Joan Crawford that Artfull Circle Theatre showcases in Christmas with the Crawfords, of course in a lighthearted fashion. Creator Richard Winchester and writer Mark Sargent have fashioned both a parody of and a tribute to the “Golden Age” of Hollywood, when movies stars were the most important people on earth, and virtually the whole country flocked to their local movie palaces to see the next offering from MGM, Warner Bros., Fox and Paramount. So there’s a little Hollywood History 101 in the show which many find interesting.
Christmas with the Crawfords takes place on Christmas Eve, 1944. Joan has recently been “fired” from MGM, and is looking forward to the live radio broadcast from her Brentwood mansion, to be hosted by her friend Hedda Hopper, as a way of keeping herself in public eye as she vies for a role in a film noir piece entitled “Mildred Pierce” offered to her, somewhat reluctantly, by Warner Bros. Suffice it to say the broadcast does not go well. Joan is plagued by problems, including the never-ending arrival of uninvited celebrity guests who take over the spotlight to sing their favorite holiday song. The broadcast itself ends in disaster, and a surprise present from the children puts Mommie Dearest over the edge. The final mother/daughter confrontation will likely make many of those watching reconsider their familial relationships and long for the bosom of their own family and home.
Directed and choreographed by Donna Drake, and starring New York New York drag superstar Hedda Lettuce as the Diva herself, Christmas with the Crawfords features a top notch cast, and as in any musical, there’s a lot of singing and dancing which anyone can enjoy, even those unfamiliar with the people and era covered. The fact that it is men impersonating Hollywood’s leading ladies adds a certain “extra dimension” to the roles. And there are all the bitchy lines one would expect in a show like this. Don’t we all love a good comeback or two?
Perhaps the show’s main appeal is that it is just a lot of fun. Christmas with the Crawford” is a refreshing antidote for the anxiety-prone times that the holidays are for so many. Where else these days can you see the likes of the Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland, Gloria Swanson, Hattie McDaniel, Carmen Miranda and Ethel Merman all in one room, singing their hearts out as if there wasn’t a care in the world? Whatever the appeal of Christmas with the Crawfords is, it seems to be broad. Young, old, gay, straight, suburban and city dweller alike show up for a Christmas Eve with Joan and the children that they will never forget. Wire hangers? Forget about them. It’s Christmas…after all. And the legend continues…
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