There will always be an England, and its people will always tell bad jokes. If you draw a strange warmth and comfort from that, boy, do I have a show for you.
MetroStage’s Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush is less a musical than a musicale, a voyage to an early 20th-century pub where not only does everybody know your name, they insist you sing along with them. And you do, unless you are Scrooge or some other bahhumberger, and if you are, what are you doing there?
Our pub is populated by uniquely British characters with uniquely British ridiculous monikers, such as Mr. Bertie Ramsbottom (Albert Coia), a perpetually tipsy but invariably polite gent dressed in a ghastly brown checkered suit (Michael Sharp did the genius costuming;the George Mason Costume Shop was of assistance), and Mr. Percival Pennyfeather (Jimmy Mavrikes), a Bertie Wooster-like character who courts Miss Daisy May (the operatic Katherine Riddle) with as much panache as — well, imagine Bertie without his Jeeves, and you pretty much have it.
The production is also graced with the musical ministrations of Miss Florrie Forde (Sherri L. Edelen), who sings — as the entire cast does — with the backing of the constantly-smiling Maestro Peabody (Joseph Walsh) at the piano. The Chairman (Brian O’Connor) presides over it all, and is principally responsible for the spectacularly awful jokes (sample: “I was in King Lear. I played his brother, Chanda.”)
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And, not to put too fine a point on it, you are also in the cast. I do not mean that you participate in the sober, self-conscious style of 600 Highwaymen. I mean you sing — you sing the old songs, like “Let’s All Go Down the Strand!” and “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”, along with Miss Florrie and the rest of the gang. Sometimes you will sing competitively. For example, the men take on the women to see who can sing the louder for a rousing “Good King Wenceslas”; all eight verses of it. (You will get a copy of the lyrics with the program. As for the musical phrasing, you’re on your own.) And, if you are particularly bold, you act and dance too — as did David, last name unknown, in the production I saw. David, a young, athletic-looking fellow with a good full beard, stepped down from the audience to do the Lambeth Walk with Miss Daisy May, and later performed the role of Tiny Tim in a tearjerking production of the penultimate scene in A Christmas Carol. David, your Equity card awaits.
Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush has been around for a long time — at MetroStage most recently, but at Arena Stage back at the turn of the (last) century. Created by the fine actor Catherine Flye, who also directs, the production is slightly different from year to year. This one features some terrific harmonies, no doubt due to the presence of newcomers Edelen and Mavrikes, both specialists in the performance of musicals. The veteran Edelen, famous for her Helen Hayes-nominated Mrs. Lovitt in Signature’s production of Sweeney Todd, here gives us a Florrie which might make you wonder what Mrs. Lovitt might have been like had she turned her talents to the music hall, instead of making pies out of human beings. In Edelen’s hands, Florrie, like the Cannibal Chef, is an old-school belter, brimming with a cheery optimism no matter how preposterous her dilemma or situation.
Mavrikes, who was terrific (and also nominated for a Helen Hayes Award) for his performance as the tortured Burr in Constellation’s The Wild Party, gives us a Pennyfeather made familiar to us by other actors, but with an extra twist of self-assurance which makes his obliviousness all the funnier. Both he and Edelen have wonderful voices, and you can recognize their pitch-perfect harmonies in the choral parts, if you sit near the front.
But the others are everything they’re supposed to be as well. Coia in particular seems made for the part, particularly when, mimicking a ventriloquist’s dummy, he sits on The Chairman’s lap for a rendition of “Sonny Boy.” (“Your keys!” he scream-whispers every time he sits down on the ventriloquist’s lap.)
As this production marks the one hundredth anniversary (more or less) of the Armistice which ended World War I (more or less), there is a somber overhang. This is specifically the Christmas of 2018, and the Bull and Bush, cheerful as it may be, is full of survivors, and the shadow of death is still upon them. Mavrikes breaks character to recite a letter home from one of the soldiers, recounting the oddest incident in the history of warfare — the Christmas Eve in which two enemy camps decided to call off the war, and sing songs, drink booze, and play soccer instead. (Also the subject of WNO’s Silent Night, recently closed).
Look, this is a visit to an English Pub in 1918, which is not an experience which was ever open to you unless you are very old and could afford portage back then. If you are Mr. Snootyface, or Ms. Fancypantstheatregoer, this may not be for you. But, with all the misery flying around us now, if you are comforted by the thought that there will always be music, and always be a tavern, I think you’re going to have fun.
Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush, Created and directed by Catherine Flye, featuring Brian O’Connor, Sherri L. Edelen, Albert Coia, Jimmy Mavrikes, Katherine Riddle and Joseph Walsh, and also David, whoever he is, who played Tiny Tim . Set consultant: Carl Gudenius . Lighting design: Alexander Keen . Costume design: Michael Sharp, who also is the stage manager . Scenic artist: Nancy Bundy . Movement consultant: Linda Garner Miller . Produced by MetroStage . Reviewed by Tim Treanor.
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