On the town: The Christmas story, including the kitchen sink
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A long time ago in a stable far, far away, Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa ran a small Bethlehem inn.
What’s that you say? You think a too-heavily-spiked egg nog may have someone confusing the events of this season? If that’s your thought, you are clearly unaware of the annul presentation of “Nativity! The Musical” staged at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Burbank.
For the past 11 years, this highly unconventional Christmas pageant that runs the week prior to the big day has gotten audiences used to the von Trapp family, with their adopted son, Charlie Brown, taking them back in time via the “Time Warp” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” to see Caesar Augustus performing with showgirls at (where else) Caesar’s Palace.
Only in a WestPres Christmas pageant would Mary and Joseph, played by Matt Bond and Rebekah Maynes, and other far-less-than-traditional creche characters pause to take a group selfie.
Or, King Herod parodying the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” Mormon Magi, unexplained cowpokes and a rag-tag Scout troop of shepherds, or “maggots” as they are called by their gruff leader, finding their search for a newborn babe to lead a hard-knock life.
Traditionally a show that stops just short of incurring a crashing lightning bolt to put an end to it all, this year’s performance, written and directed by the husband-and-wife team of Greg and Melissa Baldwin, also included a cameo by a campaigning Hillary Clinton courting support from Mary and Joseph, and Donald Trump demanding to see the birth certificate of the swaddling-clothed child lying in the manger.
Asked for his yearly disclosure on this production that blends heartwarming moments from the true Christmas story with outlandish pop culture references and characters, Pastor Paul Clairville, who believes (or at least hopes and prays) that God has a great sense of humor, threw his head back in laughter.
“We don’t take ourselves seriously, but we do take our faith seriously,” he said. “We are living in a world and a time where there is a lot of fear and uncertainty. But we believe love and laughter can cast out all fears and that God is in control — that he’s got this.”
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DAVID LAURELL may be reached by email at dlaurell@aol.com or (818) 563-1007.
