Playwrights: Tony Lewis, Aaron Michael Adamkiewicz and Karla Meyer. At: MidTangent Productions at
Hydrate, 3458 N. Halsted St. Tickets: www.hydratechicago.com; $10. Runs through: Dec. 22
Chicagoans aren't at a loss if they're looking for a strong dose of camp theater this holiday season. Just to name a few, Hell in a Handbag Productions is reviving Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, About Face Theatre has its world premiere of We Three Lizas and MidTangent Productions is offering new musical double bill at Hydrate: Santa's Dead and Dirty Carol's Christmas.
Now as a company famed for its drag-filled productions like Snow White and the Seven Drag Queens or Twinkie and the Beast, MidTangent might confuse some of its audiences with Tony Lewis' Santa's Dead! since it contains no drag queens.
Instead, Santa's Dead! is centered around a wonderfully over-the-top performance from Katerina Papadatos as a wholly untraditional Mrs. Claus. Instead of being the background pie-making matron, Papadatos' Mrs. Claus is an all out buxom blonde bimbo whose voice mews with Marilyn Monroe-like sultriness. She also harbors a murderous intent to gain power at all costs.
Papadatos is the main reason to sit through the so-so one act that is Santa's Dead!, since her fellow actors aren't up to her level of camp comedy (Edlyn Griffin as the sarcastic elf narrator Boppy and Karla Meyer as the 1930s chorine elf Moppy come the closest). Lewis' murder-mystery script with songs is also serviceable rather than being truly something that's high-end camp comedy.
Luckily the vicious camp comedy takes off in Dirty Carol's Christmas, co-written with plenty of panache by two of its stars: Aaron Michael Adamkiewicz (as the lusty lush title character in glitzy glamour drag that brings to mind a whacked out version of Broadway diva Christine Ebersole) and Karla Meyer (who plays the resentfully beautiful goth daughter Xmas Tina).
Like a second-rate celebrity holiday special, Dirty Carol's Christmas focuses on its hostess and guests who drop in to sing and exchange banter. Rather than being incapacitated by cascades of booze, the liquor only fuels Carol's ability to snap out insults and one-liners about her often spiteful guests.
In Dirty Carol's Christmas, the main supporting cast is firing on all comic cylinders. Katerina Papadatos once again shows off her vital comic skills Carol's pushy Christian fundamentalist sister from Texas, Candy Cane, while Noah Lederach and Nick Rinhart make for a great gay May-to-December duo of Dean and Sugar. Danny Piechocinski also provides a visually pleasing hunk of beefcake as the FedEx Delivery Man who gets ensnared in Dirty Carol's booze and sex-filled world.
As in many MidTangent productions, the costumes are fabulous (a great credit this time to Mimi Monee) while the sound design is unsatisfactorily patchy. But for $10 and a few drinks, you can't complain too much for these consistent creators of pop-culture camp and drag. THEATER REVIEW
Santa's Dead!;
Dirty Carol's
Christmas
Playwrights: Tony Lewis, Aaron Michael
Adamkiewicz and Karla Meyer
At: MidTangent Productions at
Hydrate, 3458 N. Halsted St.
Tickets: www.hydratechicago.com; $10
Runs through: Dec. 22
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Chicagoans aren't at a loss if they're looking for a strong dose of camp theater this holiday season. Just to name a few, Hell in a Handbag Productions is reviving Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, About Face Theatre has its world premiere of We Three Lizas and MidTangent Productions is offering new musical double bill at Hydrate: Santa's Dead and Dirty Carol's Christmas.
Now as a company famed for its drag-filled productions like Snow White and the Seven Drag Queens or Twinkie and the Beast, MidTangent might confuse some of its audiences with Tony Lewis' Santa's Dead! since it contains no drag queens.
Instead, Santa's Dead! is centered around a wonderfully over-the-top performance from Katerina Papadatos as a wholly untraditional Mrs. Claus. Instead of being the background pie-making matron, Papadatos' Mrs. Claus is an all out buxom blonde bimbo whose voice mews with Marilyn Monroe-like sultriness. She also harbors a murderous intent to gain power at all costs.
Papadatos is the main reason to sit through the so-so one act that is Santa's Dead!, since her fellow actors aren't up to her level of camp comedy (Edlyn Griffin as the sarcastic elf narrator Boppy and Karla Meyer as the 1930s chorine elf Moppy come the closest). Lewis' murder-mystery script with songs is also serviceable rather than being truly something that's high-end camp comedy.
Luckily the vicious camp comedy takes off in Dirty Carol's Christmas, co-written with plenty of panache by two of its stars: Aaron Michael Adamkiewicz (as the lusty lush title character in glitzy glamour drag that brings to mind a whacked out version of Broadway diva Christine Ebersole) and Karla Meyer (who plays the resentfully beautiful goth daughter Xmas Tina).
Like a second-rate celebrity holiday special, Dirty Carol's Christmas focuses on its hostess and guests who drop in to sing and exchange banter. Rather than being incapacitated by cascades of booze, the liquor only fuels Carol's ability to snap out insults and one-liners about her often spiteful guests.
In Dirty Carol's Christmas, the main supporting cast is firing on all comic cylinders. Katerina Papadatos once again shows off her vital comic skills Carol's pushy Christian fundamentalist sister from Texas, Candy Cane, while Noah Lederach and Nick Rinhart make for a great gay May-to-December duo of Dean and Sugar. Danny Piechocinski also provides a visually pleasing hunk of beefcake as the FedEx Delivery Man who gets ensnared in Dirty Carol's booze and sex-filled world.
As in many MidTangent productions, the costumes are fabulous (a great credit this time to Mimi Monee) while the sound design is unsatisfactorily patchy. But for $10 and a few drinks, you can't complain too much for these consistent creators of pop-culture camp and drag.