I caught
Just Us Theater's new Hallmark holiday movie spoof Mistletoe & Mayhem on their final weekend. I wasn't sure I could fit it in during this busy #TCTheater holiday* season, but my fellow Twin Cities Theater Blogger
The Stages of MN assured me it was worth it. So I drove to the Phoenix Theater in snowy Uptown, got a decaf mocha from their extensive concessions counter, and settled into the theater for some festive comedy. I found it to be charmingly goofy and delightfully spoofy, poking fun at all of those holiday romance tropes, and even includes an original song!
Mistletoe & Mayhem would be a great 70-minute-no-intermission show, if not for the unnecessary intermission, with only a couple shows left before it closes on Sunday.
The plot of M&M is... the same thing you see on a constant loop on the Hallmark Channel this time of a year. Big City business lady Victoria (Dawn Krosnowski) is sent to Charming Midwest Small Town to scope out some business, and through many festive activities, ends up falling in love with the town and its people, including one specific handsome and handy widow, here named Nick (Samuel Poppen). Which delights Nick's parents (Sarah Broude and Tim Uren), who turn out to be more than they seem. There's an eccentric grandma (Lana Rosario), quirky townspeople (Christopher Harney, Mickaylee Shaughnessy, and Samantha Fairchild Poppen), and the Big City Boyfriend (Jared Reise) who is so obviously wrong for our heroine. The predictability is part of the appeal of these movies, they're comforting and non-threatening, and it's part of the fun of a spoof - we laugh at what's so familiar.
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Victoria (Dawn Krosnowski) and Nick (Sam Poppen)
(photo by Steve Aggergaard) |
Playwright Jami Newstrom directs the play with a tongue-in-cheek playfulness, and also designed the adorable two-dimensional set with backdrops of all the town's locations, the walls literally wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper, the tables overflowing with holiday stuff of all kinds. The characters are dressed in a way that immediately tells us who they are - Victoria in a smart suit, Nick in a Midwest man's uniform (plaid shirt and puffer vest), and more Christmas sweaters than you can count. And perfectly timed dramatic lighting punctuates some of the jokes (costume design by Heajo Raiter, lighting design by Andrew Vance).
