When it comes to the holiday season, anyone would be hard-pressed to find a Christmas-themed story that hasn’t already been told. Santa’s had so many makeovers in the past year that an E! True Hollywood Story could fill the channel for hours.
That’s why playwright and actor Jonathan Van Dyke is so excited about his new production, Holiday Inc, which runs Dec. 18-20 at the Friday Morning Musicale in South Tampa’s Hyde Park.
“Holiday shows have certainly been done since the beginning of time,” Van Dyke says. “So we wanted to come up with something that was going to be new, interesting, exciting, good for all ages and still sentimental. We wanted all the feelings from a holiday show but with a different twist.”
Holiday Inc. is the brainchild of Van Dyke and Doreen Collier, who runs Event Show Productions. Collier, according to Van Dyke, brought the glitz and glamour to the show. With a cast of 16—including eight dancers—Van Dyke feels like the show could become a holiday staple. He estimates that six or so cast members, including himself, are part of the LGBT community.
“Our music lineup is across the chart,” Van Dyke says. “We have disco, pop songs and some new contemporary holiday songs mixed with traditional songs. We’ve been able to parody a lot of the lyrics to make them relative to our story.”
Holiday Inc. has a Shrek-like quality that Van Dyke believes will make the production fun for children and adults.
In this holiday tale, set in the North Pole, we never meet or even see Santa Claus. Instead, the audience meets Santa’s board of directors, who must share the true meaning of Christmas with a teenage elf.
“This girl sees everyone running around on Black Friday and she thinks that time is wasted on making things and making it appear you’re having a good time even though your feeling stressed,” Van Dyke says. “Each character represents an aspect of the holidays.”
“Tinsel Garland,” for example, represents gift-giving while “Figgy Von Nog” is associated with food and merriment. The actors portraying the six members of the Board of Directors are all local professionals and many appeared in Van Dyke’s Totally Electric musical a few years ago.
“We’re an eclectic little group,” Van Dyke laughs. “Doreen has a core group of dancers and entertainers that she uses on a regular basis. I was able to cast all the actors. There is just so much untapped talent here; it’s working out great.”
Creating a brand new holiday musical can be stressful, and Van Dyke says he and Collier have been working on the production for nearly a year and a half. The two began collaborating in earnest over the summer.
“Creating something joyful and exciting and entertaining for everyone can definitely pile on the stress,” Van Dyke says, “but it comes along with the stress of wanting to make it as good as it can be.”
Van Dyke started as a New York theatre actor and will have a role in Holiday Inc. He has starred in national tours of Bye Bye Birdie, Oh! Calcutta! and Off-Broadway as Jesus in the revival of Godspell. He has directed regional productions of West Side Story, The Wiz, Grease, Seussical, and taught master classes in musical theatre around the country.
His new project is big, by local theater standards, and incorporates indoor snow, a fog machine and a cast of 30-plus local children.
“Big New York productions are great when they come into town,” Van Dyke says. “But you don’t have to have a tour like that and $70 tickets to see good stuff. We have so many creative minds right here. It’s just finding that compatibility and creative collaborator to bring the community something worth watching. I feel like that’s what Doreen and I have done.”
The show is slated to bring the audience into the story, Van Dyke says, and costumed characters will be wandering throughout the theater. He says the audience will also find surprising laughs throughout the production.
Despite a struggling economy, Van Dyke is hopeful that the community will support the production and that it can eventually go on tour.
“We wanted to this tryout to be small but mighty,” Van Dyke says. “We’re only doing it for a weekend and if it goes according to plan, we’re that far ahead for next year. We thought this would be just the right amount to give us a taste of it. Maybe next year we can bring the production to more cities.”
Van Dyke also hopes the production will bring more attention to the historic Friday Morning Musicale, which seats 350.
“It’s an underutilized facility that is just amazing,” Van Dyke says. “We’ve transformed the interior into the North Pole and people will get into the Christmas spirit the minute they walk through the front doors.
The Friday Morning Musicale is near South Tampa’s Old Hyde Park at 809 Horatio Street in Tampa. Tickets are available online at HolidayIncTheShow.com and at the theater’s box office.
