iTunes Exclusive Episode A Christmas Story The Musical

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, Mam member and members.
If you're hearing my voice right now, we hope it means at least one of the following items.
Maybe you've listened to the clubhouse podcast at least once in your life.
We would be greatly appreciate that.
Or maybe you subscribe on iTunes.
We appreciate that as well.
Why didn't I just turn into like a late night DJ from 1963?
We welcome you because it's time for another.
Ah, Tunes exclusive.
My name is Rob and I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast.
You're one stop shop for all things sports and entertainment.
Live every Sunday, night, seventies or four Pacific.
And I don't know if I've ever asked for anything reasonable that I didn't get for Christmas.
I mean world domination.
I never got that.
But there's that.
We also have other people joining me because you don't want to hear my voice.
How much fun would that be?
Not much.
But joining me across the desk as he tends to do is my co-host and a man who for fun.
Where's his cowboy costume.
He is Chad.
Welcome to the show sir.
You got nothing on this.
I want to just work that in somewhere.
Also joining us for this particular edition is a man who himself has been kicked down a slide by a Santa
and it is scarred him for the rest of his life.
He is friend of the show Dave Scott.
Welcome sir.
I'm here and your your fridge is running out of here.
Is it I will have to tell you to restock itself.
You will have to.
And to my right is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man who will only own a leg lamp if he gets a matching pair.
You may know him is fun.
Don go.
But his mom and even don Ford.
I'm going to call him.
Don Ford.
Welcome to the show sir.
I have been waiting to see this production.
Because.
Let's hold on.
That's very little bit.
Because we get there.
But I'm looking forward to this one.
Oh, I'm looking forward to this one.
Whenever we do.
And I'm just going to say.
It's always to review something.
And this is no exception.
But today.
We're going to do something we haven't done in a long time.
And it's review a stage production.
It's been a while since we got to see any stage productions.
It's been like nice work.
We can get it.
That's probably the last one we saw there.
But yeah.
First off, we got to think.
Joe and Holt and everybody at the.
Tell some of our musicals for inviting us to this event.
Tell us some of musicals celebrating its 75th season this year.
And this is our kickoff production.
And they said it was.
No, no, no.
If you can give that thought.
No, no, this was a kickoff.
This is a new season.
Yeah.
You can start with this one.
Yeah.
And way kick it off over 11,000 performances.
Oh, yeah.
Music college fair park.
They announced.
Yeah.
At the beginning.
Again, everybody at fair park.
Tell us some of musicals.
Everybody.
Joe and Holt.
I mean, Joe and Holt.
Thank you so much for inviting us to this event.
We always enjoy whatever she gets.
Let's get to do stuff like this.
And you're probably saying yourself.
Rob.
All these things you're describing aren't really matching the music you're playing.
The coming of is because what we got to see recently is the opening night at fair
Paul at music.
Fair fair park music hall.
A park park.
You got to see our man.
No, we did not.
Although that that will be coming to fair park in January.
The Marvel experience.
We got to see a Christmas story, the musical.
Now.
I'm going to say going into this thing.
I was prepared to be hyper critical because there are two movies.
I watch every Christmas season.
A Christmas story and Christmas vacation every year.
Not screwed.
Sometimes.
But it's not those two every year without fail.
I love a Christmas story so much.
And when I heard they were making a musical out of it, I was like,
easy killer.
I'm the same way.
I had very, very high expectations.
My one Christmas tradition is watching that show on TBS during the 24 hours.
And Christmas Eve starts Christmas Eve and goes to Christmas day.
Oh, that's all I do.
That's my tradition.
If you are like the friend of mine I ran into at the musical and have never seen the film,
let me give you a quick synopsis.
It is the 1940s.
It is Indiana.
And a young man by the name of Ralphie is getting ready for Christmas.
And the only thing he wants for Christmas is a red rider BB gun.
He is the only one that wants him to get a red rider BB gun.
He is meeting resistance on all levels.
His parents, his teachers.
Everybody does not want him to have this gift.
Why is that?
Because he'll choose that.
That's what everybody's talking about.
That's what everybody's talking about.
So basically goes through his life in the month of December leading up to Christmas.
It's not intended originally as a musical.
So to make it into a musical was an interesting kind of a deal.
So Chad, we're going to start with you.
How do you think the story translated into the musical production we saw last the night before we recorded this particular podcast?
Quite well actually.
How's it?
Well, Christmas stories and not to make a pun out of it tend to translate very well in the musical medium anyway.
They just do.
They've got a long story history.
We grew up watching root off and frosty and all of those were musicals.
But they were intended that way.
They were intended that way right.
But they just.
I don't know.
I don't know if it's because of the time of the year that it's set in.
And it's really easy to.
You tend to get a little bit more sing songy around Christmas anyway.
As is evident by the multitude of holiday music that permeates through our speakers.
Unfortunately, starting November 1st, but for me, it starts the day after Thanksgiving.
And I'm Christmas music intensive until the day after Christmas.
But it's in its own genre.
Right, you know.
You know, I mean, most people were raised on Christmas musicals anyway.
You know, being cross be pretty much taught you from the get go.
Whether you liked it or not, brother.
And if you didn't like it, bank is wrong with you.
You're a communist.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, it's just.
They probably said that back then, too.
Yeah, but yeah, that this was Taylor made.
I think for a musical production of some sort.
I don't you were there as well.
I thought they did a great cross over to a musical from that from the movie.
There was a couple scenes that were left out of the musical that were in the movie.
Which were kind of important in the movie.
Or I agree with that.
I agree.
Yeah.
And we'll go ahead and say it.
They left out to soap poisoning sequence.
So having blind.
Yeah.
They also left out the getting the tree getting the tree.
Yeah.
They also left out the little or for any storyline.
And maybe because of who knows of, you know, rights and all that.
Maybe they weren't able to say well.
But they still could have done it in kind of substitute.
Yeah.
But then they add what they did add one thing at the very end.
I like how they did the ending with the music and how they the story at the end.
Not giving spoilers.
Right.
That wasn't in the movie.
But they were how they closed it.
It really made you think Christmas time is here.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So it's a great cross over.
I cannot complain.
All right.
So done.
We'll go back to you on this one.
We all three agreed that we thought it translated well from the movie to the stage.
Talk to me about what your opinions were on the presentation itself.
Okay.
If you read my written review, which is on a clubhouse.com.
That's our website.
The thing I said that blew me away the most was the lighting in this show.
Okay.
How's that?
It starts off with just as incredible lighting for the night time and stuff like that.
With the stars at background, how they move this light.
She'd done which had the lights, LEDs in there.
The set with the house.
They were perfect on the setting with the house set that they had.
It improvised well for the school.
Well, and what I dug about it, the sets weren't like we've seen musicals where they just had all these elaborate sets.
The sets were not that elaborate for this, but they were mostly functional, which I had.
Except for the house.
I thought the house set was incredible if you ever see it.
But how the lighting.
That is hand up.
Okay.
Simple, but very effective.
Agreed.
But I love the look of that house.
Do you have the Christmas lights and the snow on?
Mm-hm.
And how the lighting fit in with every kind of event.
It was just mind-blowing how they just had the shimmering different colors and everything with the mood at the time.
That blew me away.
Chad.
I got to have a special tip of the hat to the lighting crew myself because, you know, you always knew that we were going into a dream sequence whenever the lighting got really surreal.
It was kind of like your visual cue.
For me, it was more how well-oiled of a machine this thing was.
Because although the sets were simple, there was still a lot going on.
And at no point did I feel like, oh, that person missed their mark.
Or that transition was a little wunky for me.
Everything moved like a well-oiled machine.
And there was never a point where I was just like, okay, this is awkward.
Like they knew how to do the transition.
The seamless transition in a way that didn't make you think, oh, we're doing a transition.
I think you and I both commented that one of the things that I got to kick out of is when they were in the car.
Yeah, they would move the tree.
Yeah, the car.
The car stayed by itself.
But there were people that had the trees on like casters.
And they would just fade backwards as if they...
And it's slightly off to the side.
Yeah.
Or in the scene where they were going to buy the tree.
And the guy that was playing Gene Shepherd, the narrator, Chris Carson.
He was holding the legland up like he was in the window.
And when the car, when they pulled out of the driveway, quote unquote,
he actually backed up as if they were passing the pipeline.
Settle, subtle, but very effective.
I just thought the presentation of this thing was so strong that I mean,
you couldn't help but be entertained unless you have no soul.
Which then leads us into the performances here.
Be advised that if you go see this because this is the national touring production.
This is not just a Dallas production.
By the way, Dallas will have this for the next 40 years every December.
For zero.
For zero.
For decades.
This will be in Dallas.
And it plays this year until the 14th of December.
Correct.
This is a call for a park.
But if you go see it, it might be one of two people playing Ralphie.
It's not an understudy thing.
They've just kind of split the duties because the role of Ralphie in this,
this kid's on stage all the time.
Beginning to end.
And you can't have somebody do that seven to eight times a week.
Now, we did actually get a peek at our at the other Ralphie.
Yes.
He was, he wasn't.
He was goggleskin.
Which really freaked me out when I read that.
I'm all my god.
That kid.
The one we saw.
I just lost my place here.
Colton Mauer.
Was the actor we saw?
And they, they tell you right to be getting who's going to be playing Ralphie that night.
Okay.
Strong performances all the way through.
I mean, everybody, there was never a point.
I was like, everybody was dead on the whole time.
The only thing that took me out of it.
And this is, you may call this nitpicking.
And we'll talk to the one guy in the room that can truly be objective because he didn't get to join us this day.
That's right.
Both of the kids playing Ralphie.
Neither one of them are blonde.
But that, but that my review to that.
So they're both darker haired.
And that kind of took me out of it a little bit.
When you got your kid on the cover of the play building.
And he was a classic blonde like Ralphie that we saw in the film.
But the kid we got.
And it, that didn't take away from his performance.
He was still strong.
He was very, very elastic.
Lesses.
He had the glasses.
And when he had the two gone, that covered his hair.
I was back in.
Right.
But what I saw him as a brunette because you always think of his brother Randy being the brunette.
And then him being blonde.
So there was a start contrast there.
And that kid was good too.
Yeah.
And we're going to get to that here in a minute.
I have to add in on this.
Please do.
I totally agree.
I always think of the whole time through that film.
I mean, through the show that, you know, him being brown haired.
That really took away from it.
The old man his performance.
I loved it.
The mother I thought wasn't credible.
The old man played by Christopher Swan.
Yeah.
And the mother played by Susana Jones in Randy.
I have a gift shot up to him.
Calox and her.
I thought he was incredible.
But for Ralphie, I.
Not including just not being blonde haired.
I thought for being the lead role in this whole thing.
He has seen was a little short in my opinion.
I thought he just wasn't totally strong enough for the lead role.
I personally played this.
And that's just my personal opinion.
Sorry, Chad's laughing at the background music.
I was wondering why it took him.
Either one of you have her way into it.
I agree with you on a certain level.
I think it was a strong performance.
I think he carried it well.
I thought he lacked a little.
His vocal was a little thin.
His vocal was a little.
That's right.
And that's what really kind of took.
You can tell he was really trying to reach and grasp for some of these notes.
Like they have the infamous fudge.
He did that perfect.
The singing, I kind of, I thought, lacked a little bit for the lead role.
And you know, I just, I didn't see that.
But that's an excellent observation.
That's my personal opinion.
That's why we do it into the music.
Your musical and fair park.
There is not probably a better place in our area to see a Broadway show or musical.
We've got some strong, some strong venues in the town.
There's one in the middle of downtown.
It's one of the best.
It's one of the best to see a musical.
And we're very lucky to see it.
The history of fair park alone.
Yeah.
I thought the music was great.
I thought the orchestra level was a little bit lower.
You said that to me in the intermission.
That's just my personal opinion.
Right.
And that's another one where you and I disagree.
Where we've gone to certain productions where I felt that the orchestra was too much.
I really felt.
I thought it was a little under.
Yeah.
I really felt the mix here was was dead.
Yeah.
So did I.
But you know, I can see where Dom would think that because there were times where for me
to kind of faded because I was so concentrated on the performances that the orchestra was
what it was supposed to be.
And that was just kind of enhancing what was going on.
But I could see how you would say.
It sounded great.
Great place to hear a musical production.
You can't complain.
And Chad, any standout performance is for you.
Oh, gosh.
Yes.
Bring it.
Mom brought me to tears.
The mother played by Susanna Jones.
If you're sort of happier or crying, she's really good.
She hit you where you live.
If you're expecting Melinda Dylan dumped.
Yeah.
Because in my opinion, and I'll say this in my written review as well,
they she takes a role that in the film version was kind of one dimensional.
Yeah.
She didn't really have a lot of depth to her, but she gave this woman so much heart.
Well, that's that's the beauty of a musical, though, because you get to really
explore the people as characters a little more than you can in a 90 minute film.
I mean, the two numbers that she did.
Well, there's a lot more music to attach yourself.
And there's one scene after the lamp breaks, which was not in the film,
but added in the musical.
That's where she really opens up as a person.
Yeah.
Talk straight into the mic.
Yeah.
Go off to the side.
Okay.
That argument got a little bit more.
Yeah.
It wasn't something to expect, but that's where you really see her character flow.
Yeah.
And you see the boys, you know, make some really interesting strides to try to become
better kids kind of, just because they feel like it's what their parents need.
And the number, she sings after he gets into his fight with Scott Farkas.
That's what really hit.
And also, that's a great point.
And what are the best characters?
The leg lamp.
And if you go see it at a musical affair park, they've got one of the original
leg lamps from the film in the lobby.
I saw your picture with that.
I did take a picture with it.
One of three.
One of the three.
Stand up performances for you, Don.
Like it's the old man, the leg lamp.
And actually Randy, I thought he'd get for being able to live by Christopher Swan.
I will agree with you on that one.
What I loved about his performance was he was just enough like the old man in the movie
that you could see the homage there.
But he was also enough of taking the character in his own direction that it didn't
seem like he was just copying what was in the film.
I also agree with Chad.
Susanna Jones as the mother.
Very strong.
Very, very strong.
Ralphie.
Good.
But I also agree with you guys Randy.
You know what I said, Randy, under the sink a couple times.
Right.
But what really kind of, I wish they could have done more with the character, because
you really don't get to see the performance from this kid until the second act.
When he's doing the duet with Randy, and he does a lot more singing in the second act, and
he doesn't the first act.
And then I would have liked to see him have his moment in the sun.
And he didn't really do it.
But he really doesn't really have that big moment in the sun, less he falls down, or
the eating on the plate as a, you know, the trough.
I agree.
Yeah.
Show me how the piggy's eat.
Yeah.
And that's in there.
That's in there.
Because you know, because dad got his own number.
Mom got a couple.
I really would have liked to have seen Randy.
What's his fragile moment?
I really thought.
There, fragile was in there.
Oh, it was in there.
Yes.
They did change it a little bit where it wasn't him sending in the crosswords from the
paper.
It was actually he had gotten a letter in the mail to do the contest, which, well, but he had
to do the crosswords in order to get right.
Right.
Right.
That would be a slightly annoying.
The bumpers dogs are involved.
What just makes me happy?
What just makes me happy?
I do love that.
One of the other things that I think, what I, and I don't know that this is on purpose,
but there's no way that it can't happen.
There are a couple of moments in the, in the musical where the crowd just goes insane,
especially like number one, oh, fudge.
And as soon as it happens, the place exploded.
You know, it's coming.
They even sell a t-shirt out there.
Yeah.
It's got it on your shirt.
But the fact that it happens and we're all in on the joke.
And it's still effective.
And there's a single long.
Let me get there.
Let me get there.
Let me get there.
Uh, and you could actually hear people around us after he says it all going,
but I didn't say fudge.
And as Donna alluded to, there is a scene towards the end.
And if you've seen the film, you know what I'm talking about.
Where Chad looked at me and said,
I'm going to be real interested to see how they do this and not be racially offensive,
which takes place in the restaurant.
And there's only one guy.
There's not three.
But when he starts singing the song,
the entire audience was singing right along with him, including me.
Yeah.
I was there too.
And it was just like, and he did like, he didn't do it and stop and start again.
He did almost the entire song.
And I looked over my daughter and she was falling out of her chair.
That entire part of the entire audience.
Right.
Auditorium was singing along.
And it was just that feeling that you can't replicate.
It was just.
And it was, I really, really, really, really enjoyed myself.
I really feel like I need to see this.
Yes.
And then I said, way to that.
Because now we can get to the final analysis.
We're normally, we would do this as it's true to prompt question because we're not giving you letter grades.
We're not giving you stars anything like this because you're our empire and you're better than that.
Normally, we would say, would you see this again?
And if so, how would you see it again?
Well, this is a state production.
So it's not like you have a lot of choice of how you see it.
So an interesting concept that we're going to change it to this time,
brought to us by Dawn when we were seeing this.
Number one, would you see this again?
If the answer is no, then we're done here.
The answer is yes, if you were to go see it again,
what level of seat pricing would you be willing to go to for this?
Well, played, sir.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
So Dawn, this was your idea.
So we'll start with you.
Would you see this musical again?
Yes.
Yes, I would in a heartbeat.
And this, you know, this is for the people in the DFW area.
Because it's going to the fourth.
But if it comes to everything.
But it's a national travel.
It comes to the national company.
If it comes to your area, keep this in mind.
I would say probably the most expensive or second tier, right,
below them, second most expensive.
Chad, would you see this again?
Absolutely.
All right.
And I would try to take as many people as I possibly could to go with me.
Get a party bus and let's do this.
Yeah.
I can actually chime in on this.
Okay.
Well, let Chad finish this answer first.
Okay, good.
I don't know if I'd want to set up extremely close,
because you kind of lose your perspective of the stage.
Yeah.
I agree with you.
There's a sweet spot where you can see what we talked about that a little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I wish I could describe where we were sitting.
Which you said you wanted to sit again.
Which you said the second.
Well, we were kind of the most expensive.
We were kind of stage right probably about two-thirds of the way back in the lower section.
And in the center, like close to the back of the front section.
Right.
Second most expensive levels.
Which you'd say.
Yeah.
Okay.
I would definitely see this again in a heartbeat.
My bar was set so high going in because this movie is so dear to me.
You heard me talk to you saying that I was by the time we were gone.
I was like, I had the best time with this.
I'd want that sweet spot.
Middle of the of the of the row right in front of the orchestra.
I don't want to be down front because like we talked about there.
And we just talked about being that close.
You lose perspective.
And you act like you kind of feel like you're watching a tennis match the whole time.
Yeah.
I want to totally deny the process.
Right.
I want to sit back a little ways so we can see everything that's going on.
Dave, you said you want to pipe in.
Yeah.
Well, I went to go see wicked at Fair Park.
Oh, I haven't seen that.
I haven't either because I got tickets for my wife at the time.
Her birthday.
Well, I went there during the day of the show.
And they put my name in a fishbowl.
Okay.
To buy tickets of family members who would.
They have reserved seats.
Oh, show.
So you can buy the tickets for $25 a piece.
Nice.
Okay.
This is one of this.
This from what I understand.
This is what they do at every musical.
Mm-hmm.
So if you want to go to go to the musical and you can't really afford to buy the upper echelons.
Indeed indeed.
You can buy the night.
You can buy the parent seats.
You can buy the family seats.
Which it takes a little bit of a drawing time situation.
Right.
Right.
But I got my seats for $25 a piece.
And it was a great deal.
Now, unfortunately, my ex took her friend at the time.
I think we've all been through that.
But it should you have this opportunity.
You are interested enough to go see it.
I'm going to run down there.
I'm going to go see if I can get these tickets.
Just like they told me to.
And I'm going to see if I can get into it.
Check it because really sounds fantastic.
This is incredible for the whole family.
Absolutely.
Even if you can only afford the balcony upper balcony.
Because you're still going to enjoy yourself.
Yeah.
Do what it takes to see this thing.
Dalsimer musicals, people fair park.
You know, Joanne Hall, thank you so much for letting us see this thing.
This was a treat for all of us.
Because most people always feel like they're stuck with Nutcracker and no other alternative.
You can go out and look at Christmas lights.
You go see the Nutcracker.
Now you got this for the next 40 years.
You're welcome.
Dallas.
So thanks again everybody for letting us see this thing.
This was a treat for all of us.
I'd say.
That sounds so.
Check out a Christmas story.
The musical.
You will not regret it.
And if you do, then I'm shipping you to Russia.
I'm going this weekend.
I'm going this weekend.
Go out.
I don't believe we'd be brother.
It's totally worth it.
Touch base with this and let us know what you're supposed to do.
And take the family.
Take the family.
All right.
Gentlemen, we ready to do the plugs.
Absolutely.
Alrighty.
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So until next time we talk,
we are wrapping up iTunes exclusive 64.
For Chad.
For Dave.
For Don.
For the Empire.
I'm Rob.
The clubhouse is closed.
And you know what?
Britney Palmer's best range of it.
Probably sitting in the audience with me.
I'm seeing it.
The preceding was a sooner or greater production.
Get a go!
Why?
Because I have to.