The Clubhouse Podcast

iTunes Exclusive Episode Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

August 7, 2016 Season 5, Episode 103

Don Ford reviews the live stage production of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at the Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas. The production faithfully adapts the classic TV special with costumes matching the original, though Don notes concerns with the pre-recorded singing tracks, some character performances, and the physical appearance of the actor playing Santa. He recommends the show for families, especially young children, and would see it again at mid-balcony ticket prices.

About this episode

Key takeaways

  • The Majestic Theater is a historic downtown Dallas venue with good acoustics and old-school architecture featuring two tiers and VIP boxes
  • Costumes closely resembled the original TV special, with puppeteers in white suits operating some characters and moving scenery to denote different settings
  • Jeremiah Johnson received praise for playing both the boss elf and Yukon Cornelius with an engaging performance and memorable mustache
  • Pre-recorded performance tracks were used for singing rather than live orchestra, and Don found the actor playing Hermie too loud and high-pitched
  • The production targets younger audiences more than the original special did, with Sam the Snowman serving as a storyteller to engage children

Q&A

How did the stage design support the story?

The stage had a sunset-colored backdrop with fixed mountain props and movable trees and windows to transition between locations like the North Pole and Santa's workshop.

Was the music performed live?

The singing and dialogue were live, but performance tracks were pre-recorded rather than a live orchestra.

What was Don's biggest criticism of the cast?

He found the actor playing Hermie too loud and overly excited, and felt the actor playing Santa was too thin and didn't fit the character's appearance.

What ticket price would Don pay to see it again?

Mid-balcony seats at moderately priced levels, not the cheapest or most expensive options.

Read Transcript

The following is a sooner orgator production. The following is a sooner orgator production. The following is a sooner orgator production.

The following is a sooner orgator production. Welcome Empire member and or members. If you are hearing my voice it probably means one of a couple of things.

We hope it means at least once in your lifetime you've listened to the clubhouse podcast which we greatly appreciate. And also may mean you subscribed to the clubhouse podcast on iTunes because it is time for another. And if you don't you should.

All the cool kids are doing it. My name is Rob and I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast your one-stop shop for all things sports and entertainment. Live every Sunday night 70's during four Pacific or subscribe on iTunes you can listen whenever you want to.

I'm not here to judge you outwardly. But I am not alone in the studio at this particular moment. Joining me across the desk as he tends to do is a man who cannot get enough rank and bass in his life.

He is Chad welcome sir. Kid anybody get enough rank. I must say it's a bad thing I'm just saying.

Also joining us really the featured performer in this particular episode. Sitting right across from me he is the official fact checker in this show and a man that maybe enjoys Venice in a little more than he should. He you may know him is fun don go but his mom and even Don Ford I'm going to call him Don Ford welcome sir.

Come from Montana I was going for the stand-up thing but I had to work iTunes exclusive and still it's dear time didn't realize that it was from Transylvania but okay. We are here to talk about today a stage production because when you when you have your attention disclosure that means we're reviewing something and this is no exception. Recently Don had to go on a bit of a solo adventure to see the local production at the majestic theater in Dallas of Rudolph the Red Nose reindeer.

Let's talk about the facility first I've never been to the majestic so if you had to subscribe to majestic to somebody like me who's uneducated such things how would you describe it. Before we get I first up think speaking of the majestic we got to think them for let me see this a little bit. Oh absolutely.

City Evans thank you so much last up this month with her but we can't thank everybody there for that let us let me see this thing being the king of bowling was my plus one for this one. The majestic theater is in downtown Dallas it's a very old building I don't even know how old the building is but it is it's basically historic and it's even in the downtown area with connected between the other old buildings right when you go inside the building it's a basically a two tier the regular level and then about and they got those little side boxes like VIP box so it's an old school it's a very historic looking venue when you walk even walk in there you see like the old architecture on the walls there and in the sound of the place is very very good I mean it's the acoustics are good but they built it right back then you know you can tell it's older it's not like the new windspirer something like that but still it's a good place good acoustics just if you want to go till old historic place like going to the Texas theater in some ways all right so you've got to see root off the red nose reindeer I did a tradition every year you watch the ranking bath special which we all know and love but this was this was live action yes right there right there in the thick of it tell me about this particular I guess you could call it interpretation it's basically based off the show then you know if you don't watch it every year like you say you're communist you know exactly exactly the play is basically following the story like you see on TV that was it was the look of it reminiscent of the ranking bath special or didn't kind of take on its own look I will say this the costumes I which is going on my written review on the clubhouse podcast calm that's our website all right I talked about the costumes were incredible they look just like what you remember seeing from from the show the only thing that was kind of different was the reindeer except you see their faces but where the neck is but beyond that root off had the red nose the elves look like the elves they had their parents by the bomenals still man look just like the one from TV cool I mean all the costumes looked like the you know what you remember from the TV the snowman the the Sam the snowman it's a guy coming out with like a snowman costume who's like moving under it you know so he's floating or whatever very nice but you see his face there which is all white it out they have the characters they have the toys in this look of this they had puppeteers wearing white suits on some of the puppeteers okay which in some ways kind of distracted for me I thought maybe if they did wiring that might be a little bit better but I'm not here you know here to complain they had all the animals all the characters like you can imagine the the toys from the land where the toys that kids that kids do not want like the wine and stuff oh the island of misfit toys there you got misfit toys okay I apologize that's why we're here to back you up sir the stage itself is basically it was like a sun setting color on the back of the stage okay I kind of like that you know orange yellow which kind of look they had about three or four kind of mountain things which were them which stayed there the whole time okay so then they had trees that come in and out and moving out so if you're outside you see the little trees and everything like that if you're in Stan's workshop the windows would come down they put a couple benches there and move the trees out and stuff like that but basically it was a simple stage where the mountains say the same but if maybe had that feel like maybe you're in you know the norm pole or something like that you know artic area yeah it was at that white kind of look kind of feel all right so do you feel they told the story well as well as you can remember it do they omit some things that they put some extra things in basically it has all the characters you can think of it has the Stan the still man who does narration throughout their root-off donner root-off-stead it has um you con Cornelius as him he makes it that it has the king of the island of misfit toys the lion do and appearance there it has a hermie the yelp there hermie hermie he wants to be a dentist so when you read it I was wrong musical sorry so basically the the place basically follows basically the show I didn't really see any differences or can't remember anything major that was omitted or not omitted in there okay currently playing at the majestic theater through the Sunday any any performances that you thought maybe stood out for yeah Jeremiah Johnson he is wasn't he in a rubber redford felt that I thought he's a one who played two characters first off he played the boss elf when they were in like uh hermie was wanting to talk about this you got to work you got to work then later he came back and he came in as uh you con Cornelius okay and he was from you con for the rest of the rest of the play and he was very good he come out do the you know put the thing nothing yet nice nothing yet nice he had a mustache which kept on moving the whole time it's like an ammo and a truck must have nice the mustache kept on moving up and down up and down the whole time whenever you saw now kind of that the thing you get from the special okay route off of course he had the route off there the bomb no snowman didn't say much but it was you know because it's just a war right I will say this on on the the the sound it was not live it was so you come up the the the the user performance tracks yeah performance though it was pre-recorded performance tracks now live orchestra but the singing was live the talking was live good um route up seemed a little older because you think a big younger voice up front but then he kind of got used to it I'll say that uh Jeremiah Johnson playing Yukon he had up to the tea all the other reindeer Santa if I have a gripe the person who played hermie okay he just turned me off for some reason he just seemed too loud too excited just like you know like just like two like he you know drink about six pack about and do a six pack of jolts and talk about 10 no does Marta that's that's that's the the talking the way he was high pitch voice that was my big turnoff the other one I have to say unfortunately the guy who played Santa he was very thin maybe it was a young Santa no he was an older guy but he he was very thin had no no girth no girth whatsoever if I'm not mistaken wouldn't that a part of the storyline though and and I wrote off that you lost a lot of weight and you had to put it all on at the end I won't have the concern or didn't I need to watch that because I remember he got really really skinny yeah but the whole time just so you know cookie monster now a vegetarian so maybe just worked out until Christmas Eve you didn't see him in the Santa suit either he saw him a part of it one time he comes out with like a red jacket and a red hat and I'm going you know what if that was a yellow jacket and a black cat he looked like the Gordon Spishman you know how he had an unfortunate face so I that that that doesn't that doesn't were probably my two-graded hurt me just just didn't do it for me and the last thing to say I'm the snowman kind of talk with the yes here we go just you know not like to happy so lucky but so you thought maybe his his his interpretation to draw now to quite need to long talking but young at the singing I thought was very good can I complain the acting the moving even the elves when they move they moved in that kind of robot even move so it's kind of like they're like the animatronics just the antenna so a lot that was really really impressed on that part there but if I have to give a shout out it's Jeremiah Johnson and you can't email that just through the roof he is my happy go lucky guy Chad has his hand up I'm curious though you know we are so spoiled as to what our memories are of this of this animated feature that we've grown up with for the past gosh we've been born indeed what anniversary are they celebrating this year the 50th I give me a second because they've been advertising it like crazy on CBS that's like that's their one running promotion on CBS I want to say 50's right but let me look at it but I mean all of us fall into that we've we've basically never known a life without it yes it's been a part of our lives ever since we've been old enough to watch television yeah 50 years 1964 right okay so that makes sense so I think we have an idea that that is so imprinted on our subconscious we can it's hard to remove that image of it yeah and so do you think this might be more tailored to a new generation I do I really do I think actually no I mean look at it the character say all look the costumes were just like on the show well but yeah the way they're telling us like you said the way that sand the snowman told the story I think just kind of that that's just one my turn I think I had someone like he's aiming at towards a young audience that passed and hasn't grown up with it before I think it's he's he's taking it like a story time for kids to wear the everybody else was on top though yeah but the way burrow lives told the story when we were growing up it didn't really feel like he was talking to children he felt like he was talking to everybody yeah and I think maybe this one they were talking more towards a kid audience well see this there were a lot of kids there at this event I think that's part of what they're doing that Sam is doing Sam is someone's doing so wrinkle he says come around start singing singin you know and then by the end the kids are clowns are not dancing or singing I mean Rob gave me that look of like I know it's just they again I know we're going with that it's such a local reference but by the end I really saw by the end of it in the second half especially the last half of the second half the last quarter of the show the kids really get into it the kids were singing the kids really yeah so really from for really their target demo actually yeah but still it had the look for the adults it's it I thought the costumes and everything were just spot on and stuff it's just those not the live music kind of got me and her me out sorry dude you struck out three times on it I apologize but you can't he hit for no apologies it's your pain sir but you kind of hit three grand silence all right so something you know let's get to the final analysis we do the final analysis on this show we don't give you thumbs up thumbs down we don't give you letter grades we don't give you scale from one to ten because our empire our audience is better than that but since this is a stage show we kind of have to alter it a little bit the first question is still would you see this again if the answer is no then we're done here if the answer is yes since this is a stage production the question becomes what kind of ticket level price would you be willing to pay to do so so don this is all on you sir would you see this production again okay let's put kind of put it like upper balcony the or balcony you're not upper floor mental for first front floor I would see it again okay I would recommend it I hate to say but mid balcony okay yeah exactly because you know I moderately priced seats you would say not the cheap those seats not to cheap yeah you're not a little so close to I'm so close to the top that you can turn the the ball but it's no yeah it's going through this Sunday at the majestic here downtown Dallas and you of course this is kind of gore your towards the empire people here in DFW but if it hits your town sometime yeah keep this review and everybody does a production of this or yeah but I would recommend this is of course it's great for the entire family even the young kids because I remember there are some people behind me going this little girl going oh there's all the rest of the rain here there's only 12 you know there she's in a long clap and everything so of course it's great for the family to get together on holiday especially with the little kids who will just love it so and if you do meet this man he is not Donna the reindeer he is just done Chad pointed that out to me earlier tonight he's like you could call him Donna this time of years like you know what you mean yeah fun Donna but then he oh wow wow that just happened that just happened he just took what you did and he put like another layer on top of it's there just scolded my brain but you have to recommend it take the family to all right outstanding works sir great job let's do the plug visit our website www.theclubhousepodcast.com find out everything you need to know some stuff you don't like our Facebook page look up the clubhouse podcast put the word podcast on the end or it's something completely different follow this show on Twitter at clubhouse show you can follow me on Twitter if you'd like I'd appreciate that I am at yes that Rob Irvin that has spelled ERV IN am at Chad in VG69 I bet far on don't go and you can email me at dawn at theclubhousepodcast.com We love doing live shows from anywhere you'd like well we're not going to go to Alaska unless you're paying for it but contact Donford details on that you can email me questions comments concerns tell me to go pound sand I am Rob at the clubhousepodcast.com I am Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say that and Jill's vomit believe me she's chilling she was like I know I know where I'm saying it to our normal show is every Sunday night 70's from for pacific we are your one stop shop for all things sports and entertainment or just keep subscribing to our iTunes and listen whenever you want so until the next time we talk for Chad for Don for the empire my name is Rob the clubhouse is closed Brittany Palmer sand is helper I'm just saying

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