A Warm and Fuzzy Yule at Lamb’s

With the fine detail of a Norman Rockwell painting, “Lamb’s Players Festival of Christmas” (through Dec. 24) portrays an all-American family yuletide celebration.

From the father who always gives everyone socks to the guy whose flashbulb fails every time the group has posed for his photo, playwright Kerry Cederberg has drawn a Christmas Eve gathering that is as real as mistletoe and as recognizable as a new tie.

This is Cederberg’s sixth original Christmas play in 11 years to be performed under the “Festival of Christmas” title. And again, she has devised a seasonal savory, stuffed with family conflict, infectious humor, unabashed sentimentality, a message about Christmas, delicate singing and some irresistible dancing.

This particular “Festival” takes some risks that don’t always work. But, if you’re looking for a G-rated evening in the warm and fuzzy spirit of Christmas, “Festival” is the ticket to buy.

One of the risks that does work is relying on a 14-year-old actress to narrate the play. Young Julianne Arnall, who is on stage the entire play, gives an absolutely assured performance as teen-aged Shirley Weisser. Shirley notices that her aunts and uncles and even her father always want a “perfect” Christmas, but human family frictions, including Shirley’s troubled relationship with her father, always get in the way.

Cederberg’s setting is 1951, in the Midwestern living room of Grandma and Grandpa Weisser. The stage teems with a huge and impressive cast of 11 adults and four children as the three generations of the extended Weisser family gather to celebrate Christmas.

This family has characters as colorful and familiar as Christmas tree ornaments. There’s Billie (Teres Byrne), the grown daughter, and her bashful boyfriend Albert (Greg Adams), love struck but too dumbstruck to pop the question.

Trixie (Cynthia Peters) and Bobby (Kenneth Wagner) are the rebellious, dark-sheep couple--they’re just different, not bad enough to be real black sheep. Peters gives a sense of a girl from the other side of the track, and Wagner casts Bobby as a lively hail fellow well met.

Kurt Reichert creates an irresistibly rollicking Grandpa Weisser as just the right foil to Darlene Trent’s German battle-ax Grandma Weisser. One of the risks that Cederberg took, which only works partially, was having Grandpa read the popular St. Luke’s version of the Nativity in German. Then again, although it’s not easy to follow, the reading does convey Christmas’ broad appeal. Ted (Robert Smyth) and Barbara (Pamela Turner) are a pair of too-cutesy lovebirds. Smyth plays Ted as pious and milquetoast. Turner’s adoration for her growing brood of babies reaches the dangerous consistency of treacle.

The friction between Grandma and her independent-minded daughter, Betsy (Cederberg), was enough to drive Betsy away to San Francisco to work as a riveter during the war.

The remarkable Deborah Gilmour Smyth, virtually silent for most of Act I, pulls out just a few of her considerable dramatic stops in a fine performance as Marta, the German chanteuse, brought home after World War II by Shirley’s widowed father. Gilmour gives a wonderfully soothing rendition of an Appalachian folk carol.

In the role of Shirley’s father, Bubba, David Heath sets up a man who is petrified at the prospect of getting to know his daughter. Bubba was more comfortable flying fighter planes and abrogated his fatherly duties during the war to his own father.

The music in the play, from a romping version of “Juke Box Saturday Night” to J.S. Bach’s chorale, “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light,” sung a cappella, is performed simply and skillfully and is one of the highlights of this show.

If the endings of both acts lack point--they are quite understated--the latest version of “Festival of Christmas,” directed with elan by Cederberg and Robert Smyth, is performed in a manner that will bring seasonal cheer to all but the flintiest of Scrooges.

“LAMB’S PLAYERS FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS”

Written by Kerry Cederberg, directed by Cederberg and Robert Smyth. Choreography by Pamela Turner. Scenic design by Mike Buckley. Costume design by Veronica Murphy Smith. Lighting by Jerry Enos. With Julianne Arnall, Pamela Turner, Kurt Reichert, Darlene Trent, David Cochran Heath, Cederberg, Deborah Gilmour Smyth, Robert Smyth, Teres Byrne, Nicole Turner/Carrie Heath (double cast), Arielle Turner/ Allan Heath (double cast), Molly McMurry, Greg Adams, Cynthia Peters and Kenneth Wagner. Performances continue through Dec. 24.