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The Santaland Diaries
By David Sedaris
Produced by Theater Wit
At Theatre Building Chicago
1225 W. Belmont
Chicago, IL
Tickets: 773327-5252, $25
Thu-Fri at 7:30, Sat at 7:30 & 9:30, Sun at 2:30 & 7:00
Running time is 75 minutes with no intermission
Through December 30th
Santaland is Holiday’s Funniest Show
Humiliation, dysfunctionality, abusive language and way-weird Santas – yep, it’s Xmas time in the city…New York City to be precise and the Santaland at Macy’s to narrow it a bit further. Mitchell J. Fain portrays Santa’s elf, Crumpet, in this one-man exposé of what really goes on behind the scenes in Santaland – or is it Satanland? These and other questions that you’d as soon not have answered are addressed in side-splitting detail in Theater Wit’s holiday offering of The Santaland Diaries, now playing at Theatre Building Chicago.
Fain is funny and deliciously watchable in this campy, off-colour tale of one struggling writer’s attempt to maintain some semblance of dignity while working as a Xmas elf at Macy’s. From the military-like Santaland indoctrination to the final bitchy goodbye, Fain delivers playwright David Sedaris’ autobiographical insights with precise comic timing. The humour is adult, but never ventures to the obscene and while a send-up of Xmas at Santaland might seem a bit trite, in Fain’s entertaining hands, the show is simply good-natured fun. Joey Wade’s candy cane set is simple, but effective and Mary Blumenfeld has captured the essence of elf-dom in Crumpet’s jester leotard. Santaland Diaries is not art, but it is the funniest one-man show in town this holiday season. Mitchell Fain is magnificent.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Randy Hardwick
randyontheglobe@yahoo.com for comments
Date Reviewed: December 8, 2007
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