So wacky, yule be of good cheer

‘Twas the night before Christmas and the elves went on strike, for imperial Santa wouldn’t grant a pay hike. That is all one needs know about “Santasia Episode V: A Holiday Comedy,” which concludes its shamelessly entertaining run Sunday.

Produced by certifiable siblings Shaun and Brandon Loeser, “Santasia Episode V” represents a high point for this annual holiday howler. In concept and execution, “Santasia” resembles what could happen if the “Kids in the Hall” crew got into Grandma’s kitchen and laced all the fruitcake with LSD.

The Easy-Bake Oven-light premise, created by its daft cast, strings together diverse leitmotifs -- George Lucas, “Pulp Fiction,” the Rankin/Bass animated specials, family dysfunction, ad infinitum -- into a yuletide blowout that plays by and on its own crazed terms, with hilarious results.

Art Oden’s robust Santa shifts into Brando’s Don Corleone, while director Shaun Loeser’s union-organizing elf becomes a Rudolph-nosed Joe Pesci. Brandon Loeser’s piano bar elegy to the snowman that got away is priceless; so are Michael Alvarado and R.C. Ormond as Santa’s Tarantino-flavored hit men.

They and colleagues James Elden, Andrew J. Hillis and David Mattey fearlessly throw their elfin selves into Tania L. Pearson-Loeser’s hysterical choreography and costumes, only to deliver real-life anecdotes with immense personal warmth.

The by-committee technical effort demonstrates high wit, especially the remarkable video segments, and the wonderful toboggan-ride finale fractured me. Some R-rated language makes “Santasia” dubious for preteens, and that’s about the worst thing I can say for this demented, delightful seasonal display.

-- David C. Nichols

“Santasia Episode V: A Holiday Comedy,” Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center, 11006 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m. today and Saturday; 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $15. (818) 907-7242. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

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Love revealed at ‘Christmastime’

When a seasonal show is touted as featuring “festive nudity,” it gets your attention. And indeed, the formidably fleshly “Christmastime Is Queer 3,” presented by Playwrights 6 at the Celebration Theatre, is subtitled “Naked Christmas” for obvious reasons. What you don’t quite expect is the production’s essential sweetness, the genuine holiday cheer that raises it above the level of crass novelty.

To be sure, craft occasionally falls short of sentiment, as in the first piece, “Little Drummer Boys,” which concerns three gay porn performers preparing to do a live feed on Christmas Eve. The fault lies not so much with Larry Dean Harris’ script as with Sharon Rosen’s direction, which never puts the cast at ease with the material.

In Laura Black’s “The Doctor Is Out,” a lesbian doctor (Kimberly Elaine Crowe) performs a torrid examination on a female patient (Lily Sauvage). Deftly directed by Black, that soft-core premise is expanded into the delightfully nonsensical.

Also charmingly nonsensical is Amy Tofte’s “The Naked Truth,” a lighthearted yarn about hired department store elves involved in a hilarious love triangle. In director David Watkins’ adroit hands, the play evolves into a piquant examination of self-acceptance and personal identity. Mona Eadington, Robert R. Manning Jr. and Eric Jorgenson play the elves in varying states of conflict and nudity.

Director Sarah Nina Phillips has a tougher time with Amy Heidish’s “My Date on Christmas Eve,” a playlet in which three gay roommates learn that the hot new guy they are wrangling over is none other than Satan himself. Here, Michael Gabiano’s Satan lacks the sexual sizzle that would have made him a truly formidable tempter.

Yet Gabiano also delivers the brightest performance of the evening in G. Bruce Smith’s “The Pleasure Pod,” directed by Jonathan Levit. Gabiano’s character travels into the fundamentalist future to inspire two chemically neutered gay men (hilarious Joshua Grant and Morris Nash) to rediscover and embrace their forgotten gayness. Under the laughs, Smith’s play contains a serious message as well as a profound affirmation of human love.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Christmastime Is Queer 3: A Naked Christmas,” Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursday and next Friday. $20 and $25. (323) 860-6625. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

*

A ‘Carol’ that forgets its tune

Even when you are drastically revising a classic, you are well advised to stay true to the essential tenor of your source material.

That concept eludes Tom Bottelsen, adaptor of “A ... Christmas Carol,” a profanity-laden adaptation that takes Dickens’ sweetly uplifting perennial deep into David Mamet territory. Under Eric Mofford’s uneven direction, Bottelsen’s initially witty interpretation degenerates from tongue-in-cheek to slack-jawed.

Produced by Theatre Neo, this world premiere production at the Stella Adler features several droll innovations. The action is set in present-day Los Angeles, where Scrooge (David St. James) deprives his clerk, Bob Cratchit (Bottelsen), not of coal but of air conditioning. Marley (Damon Standifer) is a Sinatra-esque hipster whose ponderous chains festoon his plunging neckline. The Ghost of Christmas Past (Virginia Schneider) is a lap-dancing stripper with a steamy secret. And Tiny Tim is actually Tiny Tina (Sherry Mattson), a cheerful moppet with an inexplicable Cockney accent. A running gag revolving around a comically omniscient narrator (Patrick Thomas Gorman) wears a bit thin, and certain subplots, such as one in which Scrooge’s nephew (Michael Merton) schemes with his venal gay lover (Michael Miranda) to inherit Scrooge’s estate, seem underdeveloped. However, where Bottelsen errs most grievously is in completely violating the broadly comic tone that he himself has established. When Bob Cratchit castigates Scrooge about Tiny Tina’s slow and painful death from cancer, the fraught emotionalism of the scene seems weirdly out of joint, especially considering that Tiny Tina is an extreme comic caricature by anyone’s standards. And when the “reformed” Scrooge awakens Christmas morning and prepares to commit suicide, his defining transition from curmudgeonliness to joy -- in short, the entire redemptive thrust of the story -- is lost. That fatal omission bleeds this “Carol” of any lasting significance.

-- F.K.F.

“A ... Christmas Carol” Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. $15. (323) 769-5858. Running time: 1 hour.