Last night I saw the MAT-Great Falls production of "Every Christmas Story Ever Told," and overall wasn't that impressed.
I will add a few qualifiers before getting to that, though. The story has some potential. There were a few moments that made me laugh and I wouldn't say it was completely worthless. It wasn't.
I also should add that I left at intermission. Out of respect to Dana, Josh and Aisha, I offer my sincerest apologies for leaving early. I experienced a circumstance beyond my control that made me unable to return.
But, I will, however, offer my thoughts on what I saw.
The good
I enjoyed watching Aisha's enthusiasm for her role. Connie, too, had lots of enthusiasm and almost childlike wonder. This was her first experience acting, and it showed, but she was indeed full of energy and life. I also liked the light show as the first half was ending and seeing the three actors, the previously mentioned Aisha and Connie along with Josh Wendt, dancing silly-like on stage to the music while the Christmas lights flickered in sequence.
Finally, the scenes where they asked someone from the audience to get up and help with the scene worked wonderfully. The person asked to get on stage often added something quantitative to the show that garnered some of the biggest laughs.
The bad
Firstly, I understand why Josh had a script in his hand as they had an actress drop out at the last minute forcing him to fill-in. I understand that.
However, when I saw the show it was Josh's third weekend performing it. Granted he did not glance at the script much at all, probably the least he had of all the weeks, but the fact remains he was up there with a script.
It might not be fair to compare local actors, but I think this comparison has merit.
When Krystine Wendt, Josh's niece, was asked to step in at the last minute in I Hate Hamlet, and in Steel Magnolias, she did so without a script.
Maybe that shows how well Krystine is at memorizing her lines more than anything against Josh, but well, there's just no way this aspect of the show can be construed as anything but a distraction, however small or big depending on your preference.
Like I said, I didn't notice Josh looking at the script hardly at all, but he did still have it and did still look at it so it's always going to be something I'll mention.
Secondly,
I think what made the end of the first act work for me, like I said earlier, was the decorations. The rest of the time the set was plain black. Perhaps some garland or some colored lights, even a Christmas tree, might have added to the atmosphere. I kept wishing there was any kind of small Christmas decoration during the entire show.
I also had a hard time following the plot during several of the skits. The Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer skit was all sorts of confusing because for some reason they made the reindeer have a green nose and made him not a reindeer. There were several other instances where the plot seemed to be so convoluted I wasn't sure quite exactly what was going on.
Thirdly,
The lighting at times didn't quite spotlight all of the actors on stage. The opening scene, in particular, was troublesome as you could see Josh and Aisha fine but Connie appeared to be standing in the dark for a good majority of the scene. It would have been nice to be able to have lighting on each person. It wasn't noticeable for the whole show, but I did notice it now and then.
Lastly,
There were times where it seemed like someone would just be talking without any reason to be talking. Between a few scenes, Josh had a voice-over where he listed off names of Christmas characters and songs and a whole slew of other things that I wasn't sure why they were being mentioned.
If it was funny, that would be one thing, but I'm afraid to me it just seemed like someone listing off things.
Since the show's run is over, I'm writing this more as a recommendation about some of the things I noticed for next time.
Theater is hard. Producing a good show is even harder.
This one might not have worked as well as it could have, but, everyone involved still put in the time and effort to make it happen and give the community an artistic endeavor to attend.
Despite my thoughts and the thoughts of some others involved in the theater community here, there were still people who were laughing and having a good time at the show. That's really what it's all about.
I'll be watching for the next show sometime later this spring. My hopes are that some changes will be made and the people who care about getting better will improve and the theater will experience another insurgence. Great Falls will be a much better place for it.
