‘A Christmas Story The Musical’ @ Winspear (ATTPAC)
Photo courtesy of AT&T Performing Arts Center
—Martha Heimberg
Are you up for a nutty, high-kicking chorus line of table lamps (shaped like legs) in fishnet stockings? How about a hilarious western shoot-out featuring pint-sized protagonists galloping to the beat on hobbyhorses? All this and more comes with A Christmas Story, The Musical, the upbeat and nostalgic Broadway hit making the rounds this holiday season (and presented in Dallas by AT&T Performing Arts Center).
Before the show even began at the Winspear, we were reminded of how rapidly the experience of growing up has changed: An announcer reminds young and old alike to turn of their phones, and then adds that cell phones weren’t even around in 1940 Indiana, when this story is set. Do the math without your cell phone, I double-dare you!
The musical, based on the popular 1983 film about radio personality Jean Shepherd’s childhood, debuted on Broadway in 2012, and features an upbeat, catchy score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land) with a stage-savvy book by Joseph Robinette. The touring production closely mirrors the original Broadway production., with tour director Matt Lenz modeling his approach on original Broadway director John Rando. Scenic design, costumes, lighting design, and choreography in the show are also “based on” the Broadway parent. That said, the adaptation works smashingly, whatever the genealogy.
Kids rule—and sing, and tap dance their hearts out—in this evocative show that happens inside Michael Carnahan’s set design, a kind of wreath-shaped wintry arch framing a gingerbread-style house with a 40s-style stove. Vintage school desks bring it all back to many of us, and the ambieance can be either nicely warm or briskly chilly, depending on Charlie Morrison’s adroit lighting.
Nearly half the 25-member cast is made up of young actors between 9 and 12, and all are energetic, talented and living their dream on the stage, night after night. Reading their bios in the program, it’s clear that all these enthusiastic young actors share the same determination and high hopes as the show’s bespectacled hero-wimp of yesteryear, Ralphie Parker, a role shared here by McCager Carver and Torben Mularski. (I saw Mularski on opening night.) Imaginative Ralphie schemes and dreams his way through December, conjuring all the tricks in his fevered nine-year-old brain to compel his parents, and/or Santa, to bring him a Red Ryder carbine-action BB gun (now available on the Internet for $49.90, excluding shipping).
Nobody worries about the implications of kids and Guns with a capital G; nobody, that is, but anxious Mother (Kristen Bleu Kaiser) who tells Ralphie “you’ll shoot your eye out.” His dad, always referred to as The Old Man (Gregory White), grouses about the failing furnace, swears like a sailor, and obsesses about one day winning a crossword puzzle award. White’s Old Man is a bland middle-aged grouch for the most part, which makes his joyful eruption when he actually does win all the more fun. The opening night audience cheered him on in the hilariously absurd song and dance number, “A Major Award,” featuring lampshades, leg lamps and the ensemble kicking it up in celebration of that grand prize when it finally arrives in a fridge-sized crate.
All the episodes familiar from the movie are here. Ralphie descends the stairs wearing the ridiculous pink bunny pajamas made for him by a nutty auntie, and must confront a cranky department store Santa and his prankster elves. From taking on the double-dog-dare to lick a frozen flagpole, to the hopes he has for an A+ from his stern teacher Miss Shields (Kristin Greve), we witness our boy’s attack plan to get what he most desires at Christmas, all of it played out in song and dance. Greve’s Miss Shields is hot stuff when she drops her schoolmarm persona for a red sequined dress and leads the troupe in a toe-tapping finale, with the kids all dancing up a storm.
Mark Stoddard is a warm and wryly humorous Jean Shepherd, the narrator of the show, telling stories of his boyhood from an adult perspective—and clearly proud of his younger self when he beats up the school bully.
Mularski is a bright-eyed and admirably stubborn Ralphie. He delivers his songs and dialogue in a big boy voice with a pro’s timing and clear enunciation. He’s a totally adorable hero outfitted in costume designer Elizabeth Hope Clancy’s glowing furry white chaps in the fantasy number “Ralphie to the Rescue.”
Kaiser is a wistfully loving Mother, comically delivering wordless clues to her befuddled crossword-addict husband, but also standing her ground when push comes to principles. She brings strength and parental wisdom to the show’s most melodic song, “Just Like That,” advising her son about the ways that time and incidents sometimes collide all at once. Now it’s his job to put the dreaming and fighting and wins and losses together, to see how it all adds up in the big scheme of things. Ralphie gets it.
The flashiest number in the show, “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out,” happens midway through Act II, when choreographer Warren Carlyle gives his crackerjack tap-dancers something to heat up about. And these kids land it. Ralphie’s hopes are dashed when he gets a mere C+ on his paper declaring his passion for the BB gun. He was sure his theme was so terrific, Miss Shields would beg his parents to reward him with his wish. Forget it. On with the next scheme.
There are no be-careful-what-you-wish-for warnings in this show. Ralphie knows exactly what he wants, and in a holiday show we’re pretty danged sure he’s gonna get it, even though he dropped the f*** bomb under stress. In the family’s happy song “It All Comes Down to Christmas,” reprised from the opening ensemble number, we’re assured that all this Christmas stuff is truly about giving. Look over in the corner!
Merry Christmas, Ralphie! I’m hoping for a table-size leg lamp myself.
WHEN: November 21-23, 2025
WHERE: Winspear Opera House, Dallas Arts District
WEB: attpac.org
