STAGE REVIEWS : Season’s Readings : A Battle of Wits With ‘The Ho-Ho-Hilarions’

How did Rudolph really get the top job? Was it his red nose or the brown nose he used to flatter the Clauses? Did the other reindeer really learn to love him?

These unsettling questions are answered in the opening sketch in “The Ho-Ho-Hilarions: Gladiators of Christmas,” at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood. It’s a show for those who like witty as well as merry Christmases.

Not that everything is Christmas-oriented, or wholly successful. A couple of the early sketches need stronger punch lines. A Jewish mock-rap duo is funny if not exactly original. “All About Christmas Eve,” a clever parody of “All About Eve” with a dash of “A Christmas Carol” set in a Beverly Hills restaurant called the First Nouvelle occupies the second half of the show--a bit too much.

Michael Caldwell and Rachel Winfree produce the Hilarions and do well in many of the best roles, but a number of their colleagues also shine. The material is often scintillating, with funny little jabs at “Cop Rock” and “The Heidi Chronicles,” a Kabuki version of “I Love Lucy,” and a nifty take on “America” from “West Side Story,” with the San Fernando Valley filling in for Puerto Rico while a gang of cosmopolitans sings “I Like to Be in the 2-1-3.”