Playwright: Julie Hill
At: The Chicago Red Line at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: $20. Runs through: Dec. 22
The playbills hadn't left Santa's shop on opening night, but that's just another part of the hey-kids-let's-put-on-a-show charm of this holiday revue by the troupe calling itself The Chicago Red Line, whose fluid aesthetic owes as much to Glee as to Forbidden Broadway in its enthusiastic effort to ensure a good time for everybody.
The plot revolves around George Gayly, who resides contentedly in Boystown with his partner, Harry Snatch. This holiday season, though, their cozy domesticity is threatened by massive debts resulting from the city's red-light ordinances and the kickbacks engendered thereby falling into the hands of the rapacious Fancy Cotch-Rotter. One night, following a melancholy pub-crawl, George prays for deliverance from his despair. Heavenly benefactors, hearing his plea, dispatch his two guardian angels, Clarence and Terence, to restore his faith in the future.
All this is merely a clothesline upon which to hang a jukebox musical with a score ranging from sweet solo renditions of country ballads like the Zac Brown Band's "Colder Weather" to a raunchy spoof of the Beach Boys' "Kokomo" incorporating middle-school euphemisms for female genitalia, concluding with a full-frontal I-See-London flash of white spandex. ( This selection is promptly followed by a scrappy cover of Beyonce's "Girls Run the World" to forestall feminist ire. ) Gay-male cultural references include a parody involving "Mary Poppers" offering advice on sexual enhancement devices, with choreographydespite being mostly executed in silhouette behind a screentemporarily pushing the Red Liners' PG-13 burlesque sensibility into R-rated territory.
The program also encompasses clever mashups of sacred and secular ditties ( Come All Ye Faithful" with One Republic's "Love Runs Out" ) and medleys united by theme or lyrical keywordfor example, a collection of "Believe" songs segueing from Cher's "Believe" to the Book of Mormon's "I Believe" to the Monkees "I'm a Believer" and many, many more.
The opening-night performance was somewhat hampered by shaky amplification and occasional wobbling harmonies, and the two-hour running time ( "Go buy alcohol" an angel exhorts us at intermission ) could use some trimming. If an evening that includes "Waving Through a Window" ( from Dear Evan Hansen ), "It's Raining Men" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" sounds like your cup of eggnog, however, then this gloriously goofy neighborhood revel may be exactly what is needed to rest you merry amid the pressures of this busy season.