Stage : Lamb’s Players’ Holiday Show Another Winner

Smooth and easy.

Kerry Cederberg Meads’ newest script for the “Lamb’s Players Festival of Christmas”--the name always given for Lamb’s Players Theatre’s annual and usually new Christmas play--goes down like a glass of unlaced eggnog: thick, sweet and creamy.

Don’t look for anything challenging, cynical or ironic here. But like a good TV sitcom writer, Meads, who has written eight new scripts for the 13th annual “Lamb’s Players Festival of Christmas” (five have been repeated), has developed a deft hand at keeping the laughs and tear-jerk sentiment flowing.

All “Festival of Christmas” shows have this much in common: they are set on Christmas eve (the year and the place can be anywhere), they work in a full sampler of Christmas carols, they deal with Christmas and the Christmas spirit, and they are designed to leave audiences with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

In this year’s show, set on Christmas Eve, 1952, an amateur singing group from Dubuque, Iowa, wins a spot on a live television broadcast in New York City much to the television director’s dismay. When all of the director’s stars, guest stars and supporting cast are snowed out, the amateur singing group ends up doing the entire show solo.

And because “A Festival of Christmas” always has a happy ending, no one should be surprised when--surprise--the amateur group does a terrific job. One of the female singers becomes an overnight sensation. The other female singer, given the chance to leave her job as a checkout girl at the Piggly Wiggly in Dubuque for a starring spot on this series, turns it down because she doesn’t want to leave Dubuque or her boyfriend. And nearly everyone else finds their true love and the true spirit of Christmas in the course of the show.

And because Meads does such a top-notch job at leavening the cliches with nearly nonstop verbal or visual humor (just try not to laugh at the commercial jingle with three of the actors playing a giant dancing toothbrush and two dancing teeth), she gets away with it. The direction of Robert Smyth, Lamb’s artistic director, is similarly sure--moving quickly from punch line to punch line in Act I, slowing the pace to lard the jokes with the required messages, morals and Christmas sentiment in Act II.

Many in the audience even pulled out their handkerchiefs and cried when one of the characters made an impromptu speech about missing her father who was off fighting in Korea. With many local families missing a husband, son, father or brother in the Persian Gulf this holiday season, this scene may well have struck a responsive chord.

The acting is usually a dependable pleasure at Lamb’s, where the company relies upon a year-round ensemble and guest artists familiar to the company. This cast, which adds a few talented newcomers, is no exception.

As the amateur singing group, Deborah Gilmour Smyth, Tom Stephenson, Leigh Scarritt and Arthur Morton, do a terrific job as the rubes overwhelmed by their big break in the big city. Gregory Adams is delightfully oily as the show’s singing star, Steve Fairfield, a man passionately in love--with himself. Darlene Trent is sweetly overbearing as the commercial sponsor’s wife whose bright-eyed ideas drive the theater director (a spluttering, anxiety-wracked David Cochran Heath) to distraction. Ted Deasy has some choice moments as Frankie, the beaten-down technical manager who, when pushed to the breaking point by the director, gives back some of his own--with interest.

The cast’s voices are lovely and do well by the dozen Christmas songs in the show. Vanda Eggington, who is credited with composing some memorable melodies, provided the excellent musical direction and many of the arrangements.

Mike Buckley did the simple, satisfying set design and Veronica Murphy Smith gets the nod for some of the outrageously funny costumes--dancing sugarplums and, of course, that marvelous toothbrush and teeth.

But one of the most remarkable elements in this production is the show’s demonstration of how well Lamb’s knows how to give its audience just what they want. By the time this review appears, tickets will only be available for five of the remaining 33 performances: the Dec. 18-21 matinees at 2 and a Christmas Eve performance Dec. 24 at 7:30 p.m. Yes, even the 10 a.m. Saturday performances are already sold out.

That’s because most “Lamb’s Players Festival of Christmas” fans don’t sit around waiting for the reviews. Even when the script is brand new, like this one, they know what to expect. And once again, they won’t be disappointed.

“LAMB’S PLAYERS FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS”

By Kerry Cederberg Meads. Director, Robert Smyth. Musical direction, Vanda Eggington. Choreography, Pamela Turner. Sets, Mike Buckley. Costumes, Veronica Murphy Smith. Stage managers are Jerry Reynolds, Ted Deasy and Cynthia Peters. With Greg Adams, Diane Addis, Ted Deasy, David Cochran Heath, Arthur Morton, Cynthia Peters, Leigh Scarritt, Deborah Gilmour Smyth, Tom Stephenson and Darlene Trent. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Fridays-Sundays, with matinees at 10 a.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, through Dec. 24. Tickets are $15-17. At 500 Plaza Blvd., National City, 474-4542.