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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Mrs. Santa Claus

I was watching some of this on YouTube tonight. The songs are up there but not the dialog, so it goes a bit quicker and jumps ahead in the story. For those who are unfamiliar with it, this was an original musical that premiered on TV in 1996. The songs were written by Jerry Herman and the book was by Mark Saltzman, whose Tin Pan Alley Rag was off-Broadway in 2009. I believe Rob Marshall choreographed, paving the way for the ABC-TV versions of Cinderella and Annie and the movie version of Chicago. The musical stars Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Santa Claus whose sleigh crashes into the Lower East Side of New York in 1910. Her introduction to the neighborhood, the song "Avenue A" is one of the highlights of the show, showcasing the Irish, Italian, and Jewish factions (each with their own dance sequence) as well as the odd Chinese food vendor. The main story-lines consist of Mrs. Santa Claus becoming involved in the women's suffrage movement as well as interfering at a shoddy toy sweatshop run by Augustus P. Tavish, played by Terrence Mann. (Why does he only have one song?? There's about eight or nine songs total in this production, and he only gets one for himself?) He is pretty funny in that cheesy/gleefully evil villainous sort of way he has, singing and dancing with a cane around moping kids in a gloomy toy factory.  He looks like he is having quite a bit of fun, and gets a human moment in the second half when it's revealed that he's still mad at Santa for not bringing him a teddy bear when he asked for one as a child. A Beast/Chauvelin character combintion, which fits chronologically in terms of Terrence Mann's musical roles.

Other Broadway veterans pop up too: Michael Jeter plays the head elf in a wonderful role for his talents, and the secondary elves are headed by Jamie Torcellini (Billy Elliot, Beauty and the Beast, Cats) and Kristi Lynes (Cats, How to Succeed).  Rosalind Harris, who played Tzeitel in the film version of Fiddler on the Roof appears as the boarding house matron Miss Lowenstein, and Linda Kerns (Wicked, Big River, Beauty and the Beast) appears as an Irish neighbor. David Norona, who played Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys's pre-Broadway tryout at La Jolla, is featured as your friendly Italian stable boy who first befriends Mrs. Claus and apparently knows how to take care of reindeer.  Charles Durning plays Santa Claus himself, and Lyndsey Bartilson, who later starred in the sitcom "Grounded For Life" has a large role as an Irish girl who misses her mother and is mentored by Mrs. Claus. Future Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan appears somewhere too, as does Alon Williams (Peter Pan, "Sid the Science Kid")

Which brings me to the question I have for anyone who knows the answer- Who is the ensemble for this production? The IMDB cast list is incomplete, and I am curious to know who the adults and kids dancing in this production are. If you have any information, please help me out!

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