‘Tuna’ and more on Christmas menu

It’s been more than 25 years since Jaston Williams and Joe Sears debuted “Greater Tuna,” the smash comedy, co-written by Williams, Sears and Ed Howard, that first introduced the colorful characters of Tuna, Texas, a fictional backwater where family values collide head-on with regional eccentricity. That original production, which featured Williams and Sears playing a dozen or so roles apiece, went on to a long off-Broadway run and has been touring widely ever since, as have the show’s two sequels, “A Tuna Christmas” and “Red, White and Tuna.”

Acerbic in the extreme, the comedy is a lacerating satire on small-town mores. Those who like a dash of bitters with their holiday libations will likely find “A Tuna Christmas,” starring Mindy Sterling and Patrick Bristow in the roles created by Sears and Williams, a satisfying snort. But those familiar with the well-oiled “Tunas” starring Williams and Sears may find Stan Zimmerman’s staging at Theatre Asylum occasionally lacking.

The slender plot serves up an array of eccentrics from the local lunatic fringe -- which is to say, everyone in town. It’s Christmastime in Tuna, and planned festivities include a sale on “Christmas weaponry” at the local gun store, and a community theater production of “A Christmas Carol” that has been expurgated by the local Smut Snatchers society. But the Christmas Phantom is at large again, vandalizing holiday yard displays and throwing the outcome of the annual decoration contest into doubt.

Perhaps best known as Frau Fraubissima in the “Austin Powers” series, Sterling is a proven hoot whose years with the Groundlings, L.A.’s premier improv company, have made her a comic force to be reckoned with. But opening weekend, Sterling frequently flubbed her lines, particularly in the first act.

Fortunately, Sterling’s vivid characterizations compensated for those lapses, while Bristow is consistently uproarious, particularly in his campy portrayal of Bertha Bumiller, a long-suffering matron with colossal hair and a dysfunctional family. As for those rough edges, including a sluggish scene change or two, they may smooth out during the run. Meanwhile, this “Tuna” remains a hilarious holiday entertainment.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“A Tuna Christmas,” Theatre Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Jan. 6. $25. (323) 960-7753 or www.plays411.com/tunachristmas Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

-- Retro radio days from Sacred Fools

In Sacred Fools Theater Company’s amiable holiday time capsule, “Retro Radio Christmas Cavalcade,” it’s Dec. 24, 1944, somewhere in war-torn France. As bombs fall nearby, Biz Billingham (smoothie David LM McIntyre) and his intrepid band of radio players put on a Christmas show for local troops and those listening overseas.

The fetching Ringer Sisters (Supatra Hanna, Stacey Jackson and Kathi Copeland) sing a carol or two, and the gang nimbly performs a few old-time radio tales. Mentally challenged bandits hijack a sleigh of holiday gifts in “The Perilous Christmas Journey,” and Midwestern vowels are lampooned in “The Oconomowoc Mock Amok.”

Nothing you haven’t heard on “Lake Wobegon,” but it’s fun to see the stories presented live on stage with unpretentious pleasure. Writer-producers Lisa Anne Nicolai and Paul Byrne (who directs) keep the pace up and shift moods with ease, aided by a charming cast that doesn’t take it personally when pianist Richard Levinson (who also wrote the original music) slyly steals the show.

There’s a faint political critique here: A bad guy is named Hal E. Burton, and one character exclaims, “I’d have to be a fool or a criminal to ignore military intelligence.” It’s clear the Sacred Fools long not so much for the relative innocence of those bygone radio days, but for a war that unified the country. These days, that seems about as likely as a white Christmas in L.A.

-- Charlotte Stoudt

“The Retro Radio Christmas Cavalcade” Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope Drive, Hollywood. 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Ends Dec. 19. $10. (310) 281-8337 or www.sacredfools.org. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

-- Santa Claus, sevenfold

Continuing his satirical skewering of yuletide cheer, playwright Jeff Goode’s new “Seven Santas” is a companion piece to his popular “The Eight: Reindeer Monologues.” Although independent of each other, both employ a series of revelatory monologues to unearth dark secrets behind the seemingly benevolent doings at the North Pole toy factory.

Previously, Goode invested each of Santa’s reindeer with a distinct personality and agenda to conduct a “Rashomon”-like inquiry into the unseen Santa’s misdeeds. Here, he pursues a similar end by a more metaphysical route: With Santa now the onstage focus, seven actors portray different facets of the Big Man’s fractured identity. The result is a witty collision of myth and very adult issues as the performers take turns tracing the events that led to Santa’s court-mandated participation in a detox program.

Director Darin Anthony effectively guides his versatile cast as each personality fragment sheds new light on Santa’s character. The iconic bearded Red (Michael Patrick McGill) begins in a surly state of denial. Businessman Klaus (Frank Ensenberger) coolly dissects the capitalist engine that keeps his enterprise solvent. Saint (Michelle Lema) tries to take the high road (the drinking is purely sacramental) while NiQ (Tisha Terrasini Banker) is a haughty, materialistic fashionista. Jolly Old Elf (Rod Sell) is the problem-solving pragmatist, Kringle (Bjorn Johnson) takes fondness for children to unhealthy extremes, and Big S (Chris Erric Maddox) is a hilariously pimped-out hip-hop gangster. Outside perspective comes courtesy of the ex-Mrs. Claus (Samantha Bennet), who now runs the North Pole rehab program. Sherry Linnell’s costumes are a hoot.

The lively, increasingly outrageous serial monologues slyly weave in elements of sex, drugs and other unsavory topics. However, some further tuning is needed. All Goode’s verses and all Goode’s pen haven’t yet put Santa together again.

-- Philip Brandes

“Seven Santas,” Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Dec. 22. $20. (323) 882-6912 or www.openfist.org. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

-- A gay-garbed ‘Christmas Carol’

Considerable intelligence and a same-sex sensibility refurbish “A Christmas Carol” at Celebration Theatre. Adapted and directed by Jason Moyer, this no-frills gay take on Charles Dickens’ classic recasts Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Taylor Gray) as a ruthless design mogul, embittered after the death of partner Jacob Marley (Bobby Reed), the “M” in “S&M; Fashions.”

A dress form in a black haute-couture skirt is at the center of Moyer’s blue-tinged Victorian modernist set design. Rolling wardrobe racks and key furnishings conjoin with Marjorie Lockwood’s pret a porter costumes.

Long-suffering employee Bob Cratchit (Jason Beogh) has an ailing uncle (Carl Moebus) to fulfill Tiny Tim’s function. Scrooge’s nephew (Christopher Grant) doubles as young Scrooge, here called Ben (he balks at “Ebenezer”). The Ghost of Christmas Past (Ronn Jones) becomes a Sylvester-flavored transvestite. Christmas Present (Matt Marsh) is a club satyr in bell-bedecked overall shorts. Christmas Future (Michael O’Hara) is the dress form, maneuvered in Mummenschanz fashion.

Gray tirelessly works each last “P’shaw,” this version’s “Humbug!” His colleagues, including Juliette Angeli, Jacob Hibbitts and Thia Stephan, dig into multiple roles, with Beogh and Grant notably versatile standouts.

Yet for all its sincerity and inventive intent, “A Christmas Carol” doesn’t really coalesce, the overall tone too somber by half. It is not that this well-meaning “Carol” is bad, but it’s not particularly festive or consistently affecting, either. Devotees may be more charitably inclined.

-- David C. Nichols

“A Christmas Carol,” Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Dec. 23. $25. (323) 957-1884 or www.tix.com. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.

-- A new twist on Dickens

In a season ripe with Charles Dickens adaptations, why sit through “A Christmas Carol” and “Oliver Twist” when you can get them both in a single dose?

Evidently such was the reasoning behind Ark Theatre Company’s homegrown satire, “A Christmas Twist.” While I applaud the commitment to efficiency, the execution is tough to swallow.

For this double-cast collaborative groaner-fest, authors Doug Armstrong, Keith Cooper, Maureen Morley and Tom Willmorth marry the two Dickens stories through the composite character of Tiny Twist (Quincy Miller). The iconic crippled tyke has here mutated into a full-grown orphan pickpocket adopted by the Cratchits (Douglas Leal or Andy DeCarlo, Tracy Elliott).

Twist’s haunted past with Fagin (Dee Sudik or Peter Ross) catches up with him through Mr. Bumble (Zack Foulkes or Matt Saxe), who turns out to be Scrooge’s nephew. For reasons too tedious to go into, Twist poses a threat to Bumble’s inheritance of Scrooge’s fortune, and a murder plot ensues.

All of this is layered onto the traditional “Christmas Carol” story, along with puns, potty humor and sight gags, far too few of which are funny. Following in the footsteps of the illustrious ghosts of Scrooges past, Richard Tatum proves a much better actor than the material warrants. Caroline Sharp likewise makes the most of her dual stage roles as Scrooge’s lost love and a ditsy Ghost of Christmas Present.

-- P.B.

“A Christmas Twist,” Ark Theatre Company, 1647 La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Jan. 5. $15 to 20. (323) 969-1707 or www.arktheatre.org. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

--

‘Pirate’s Christmas’ no hidden treasure

If your duty as a parent compels you to seek out family entertainment this holiday season, you’ll find no shortage of yuletide cheer in “Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate’s Christmas,” currently at the NoHo Arts Center. Written and directed by James J. Mellon, the show is a bright, colorful but artistically bland package of kid-friendly diversion.

On Christmas Eve, a little girl (played alternately by Daisy Bishop, Nora James and Courtney Mauss) prays that Santa Claus will deliver her dream gift -- a toy pirate ship. As she falls asleep, a gang of pirates led by Black Eyed Johnny (Jonathan Zenz) materializes out of thin air, whisking the pigtailed tyke away from the warm safety of her bedroom.

Navigational bumbling soon lands their ship at the North Pole, where the scurvied bunch must contend with an onslaught of cheerful elves. Eventually, the pirates meet Santa (Michael Catlin) and Mrs. Claus (Jo Jordan), who teach the nasty group the true meaning of Christmas.

Even by the standards of family entertainment, “Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate’s Christmas” is rather weakly scripted, with plot holes large enough to swallow up Santa and his sled. The songs, written by Mellon and Scott DeTurk, are unimaginative and instantly forgettable. The actors project a mildly infectious mirth, with J.R. Mangels and Alex Robert Holmes outshining the other cast members as a pair of dimwitted but endearingly goofy pirates.

-- David Ng

“Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate’s Christmas,” the NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Dec. 30. $15 to $25. (Children 6 and under: free.) (818) 508-7101 or www.thenohoartscenter.com. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.