A Gift of Stage Magic

With the natural allure of a storyteller at a campfire, writer-director Octavio Solis manages the seemingly impossible with “La Posada Magica,” back for its third season at South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage: He delivers a genuinely fresh Christmas play that retrieves the essence of Christian holiness.

In its own simple, direct manner, “Posada” reminds us why the Bible, with its extraordinarily evocative narratives, is a powerful spiritual tool.

But the purpose of the play is much less profound than saving souls; in a practical way, this show saves local theatergoers from wasting their time on yet another drippy “Christmas Carol” or yuletide pageant. “Posada,” like all fine stories, means to make a human connection, in this case by showing how the disconnected among us get plugged in again.

Las posadas, adapted by Mexican culture from Spanish Roman Catholics, is a humble piece of street theater, in which locals in a community restage Joseph and Mary’s search for an inn and their creation of the Nativity. (The distinctly non-humble “Glory of Christmas” at Crystal Cathedral is a kind of posada gone ape.) The posada Solis depicts is yet another adaptation from Mexico to Chicano America, where the procession includes a wiseacre guy like Refugio (Thom Rivera), itching to perform his rock ‘n’ roll Christmas number, and Josecruz (Marco Rodriguez), embarrassed to be playing Joseph in sandals and what he terms a “dress.”

Solis’ posada players also include two women, Consuelo (Renee Victor) and Caridad (Vetza Trussell), who stray from the nighttime procession and junk out on a box of chocolates. Eli (Benito Martinez) is the high school security guard helping make sure the posada doesn’t get lost as it wends its way through town. These are devoted, churchgoing Christians who are also comically flawed, amusingly warm characters.

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And then there is Gracie (Crissy Guerrero). Unable to get over the death of her baby brother, Ernesto, and seeing in it a sign of God’s silence, Gracie wants nothing to do with Christmas, let alone the pesky posada participants who knock on her door. In one of those plot points that this good-natured show just makes you accept, Gracie joins the posada, only to sabotage it at every turn as posada leader and narrator Horacio (Jorge Galvan tries to get things back on track.

The hidden genius of Solis’ play is how it combines elements of “Christmas Carol” (Gracie as Scrooge), the biblical Nativity story, St. John of the Cross’ “Dark Night of the Soul,” the Day of the Dead, Chicano culture and Mexican mask theater. Oh, there’s more--especially the strikingly elastic mood swings and joyously light touches that are Solis’ own.

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In the increasingly large body of theater work infused with Chicanismo and magic realism, “La Posada Magica” is neither angry agitprop nor corny folklore, but an authentically humanist Christian fable with salsa in its bones. The last is the gift of versatile composer Marcos Loya, who haunts the stage with his strumming guitar and fills the show with a rich blend of canciones, mariachi, folk, rock and stunning ballads. “La Posada” is a play with music, rather than a musical with book, but the music is what gives it a large part of its magica.

That, plus a uniformly enthusiastic cast led by the charismatic Guerrero, Lonnie Alcaraz’s crafty lighting design and Cliff Faulkner’s deceptively complex set design. (Be sure to look up at the ceiling, decorated with dozens of holiday doilies and tiny brass lamps.) There is simply no more original Christmas show in the L.A. area than this, and if the angels are with Solis, it will become a holiday standard.

* “La Posada Magica,” South Coast Repertory Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 12:30 and 4:30 p.m. (Special holiday performances Dec. 23, 8 p.m. and Dec. 24, 12:30 and 4:30 p.m.) Ends Dec. 24. $10-$25. (714) 957-4033. Running time: 2 hours.

Crissy Guerrero: Gracie

Jorge Galvan: Horacio

Benito Martinez: Eli/Lauro/Bones

Teresa Velarde: Mom/Mariluz

Marco Rodriguez: Papi/Josecruz

Thom Rivera: Refugio/Buzzard

Renee Victor: Consuelo/Widow

Vetza Trussell: Caridad/Widow

Marcos Loya: Musician/Ensemble

Lorenzo Martinez: Musician/Ensemble

Mundo Armijo: Musician/Ensemble

A South Coast Repertory production of Octavio Solis’ play. Directed by Solis. Music by Marcos Loya. Set: Cliff Faulkner. Lights: Lonnie Alcaraz. Costumes: Shigeru Yaji. Choreography: Linda Kostalik.