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Home - Theater
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Silence of the Spoofs
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Blue Blue delivers
another delightfully naughty noel
by Warren Francke
The least traditional of traditions returns to the Blue Barn this weekend. Director Hughston Walkinshaw is back and preparing another antidote for anyone suffering an overdose of holiday sweets
The tradition started with Reform School Timmy, and who can forget (try as we may) Little Nellie’s Naughty Noel? This time yuletide naughtiness borrows from Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer and Hannibal Lecter in Silent Night of the Lambs.
The Lecter-like villain is none other than Santa Claus, who gives new meaning to “Santa Claus is coming.” If that isn’t non-traditional enough, the nasty Santa is played by a man viewed widely as one of Omaha’s most accomplished actors: Bill Hutson.
He faces off in his prison cell with Randall Stevens as Clarice Starling. Yes, he/she is dressed like Jody Foster from the film Silence of the Lambs, but Clarice is the daughter of Rudolph, so she has antlers and that neon proboscis.
Sound wacky and campy enough? It’s all that, Walkinshaw agrees, but “it’s very much an homage to the movie. When Santa and Clarice are together, you’ll see some terrific acting.”
So with all the spoofing, “We’re really trying to follow the flavor and the vocal patterns, so they’ve been watching the film over and over.”
But don’t take it too seriously. Not when a cast of 14 plays about 50 characters, from President and Michelle Obama to a pair of Eskimo hookers and a semi-nude Live at Five news team. Plus reindeer cadets, “gorgeous young men in spandex shorts and very little else.” And a SWAT team. And Jimmy Durante. And Sarah Palin, of course.
More than the middle name is changed when Jeremy Earl plays Billy May Cyrus. No Miley? “I can’t speak to that,” Walkinshaw ducked. “Don’t want Disney coming down on the Blue Barn.”
The show originally had Joan Rivers. Updated, it’s got Ellen Degeneres, among changes approved by playwright Ryan Landry.
“It’s a spectacle,” the director promises, “with dance numbers, songs, audience participation. The songs are recognizable, but I don’t want to give too much away.”
And it’s a first for Walkinshaw, one of the Blue Barn founders, in one respect. “I’ve directed many, many plays, but this is the first time I’ve never had to do anything else.”
He’s been absent from Omaha while helping ailing elders in Kansas City. There, he’s recently done five shows with the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, including The Crucible and Galileo.
We talked about this one after he huddled with Carol Wisner, the show’s lighting designer. He’s worked with her on such weighty projects as Vieux Carre by Tennessee Williams, but “she’s completely versatile.”
The famous early scene where Clarice visits Hannibal/Santa in his prison cell “resembles the movie, but it’s broader, cartooned up,” the director explained. But it’s still “kind of moody.”
When Walkinshaw and others began cooking up these spicy meatballs to counter the holiday lollipops, television was tamer. A penis was always a penis on “Saturday Night Live,” but primetime didn’t have Charlie Sheen cracking wise about oral sex.
“Here’s how we deal with that sort of stuff: It can be funny and naughty, but it can’t just be naughty. Everything must go toward humor and not be vulgar.
“We like to skirt that line in a most entertaining way.”
Not to mention in a gender-bending way. Not only does Randall play Clarice, Mary Kelly plays the Scott Glenn character, head of the FBI behavioral unit that’s tracking the serial killer known as “The Skinner.”
And who might be the Skinner? They’re not saying, but hint that it’s another famous Christmas cartoon character.
On the less lethal side, the cast includes Little Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep, the dancing dolls you’re used to seeing in A Christmas Carol. Something tells me they’ll be a little naughtier than the Omaha Community Playhouse versions.
Silent Night of the Lambs runs Nov. 27-Dec. 19 at the Downtown Space of the Blue Barn Theatre in the Old Market, at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sundays Nov. 29, Dec. 6 and Dec. 13. Tickets are $25, $20 for students and seniors. Call 402.345.1576. |
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