Krampus: A New Musical (Stage 13, La Cité francophone)

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

There is something quintessentially Fringe about the midsummer madness of watching a packed house watching a macabre new Christmas musical comedy. At noon. In August. It’s a sight that would send Santa into deadline anxiety, and the Grinch into therapy.   

Christmas is, of course, a perennial top draw for connoisseurs of family dysfunction. And it seems to bring out the best in the wicked Straight Edge Theatre team of Stephen Allred and Seth Gilfillan.

With Conjoined, their original rock musical of last year, they twisted a classic coming-of-age/ sibling rivalry story into a macabre and hilarious new shape. In Krampus, they take on the classic Christmas heartwarmers — togetherness, hospitality, family bonhommie — and cuts right through them (Straight Edge, right?) to the insight that the heart of the season is the lethal spirit of competition. Allred’s direction (and choreography) goes for the grotesque in style and weight, and the production is a lot fun.

The songs are spirited musical theatre numbers, cleverly rhymed, with amusing goth barbs (musical director/arranger Michael Clark). The opening number is a riot of one-upmanship in the household of the “perfectly perfect” family. Their Christmas lights are brighter, the Jesus in their Nativity is hotter…. It’s a vision led and enforced by the perky authoritarian who runs things: matriarch Rhonette, in a fierce and funny performance by Amanda Neufeld. Her perfect flip of a ‘do bounces murderously whenever she’s crossed in any way.

And mild-mannered Dad — Jacob Holloway makes excellent comic work of nerdiness — knows better than to try. His mantra? “Don’t talk back to your mother,” he says constantly to the two kids. “If your mother says Grandma is a judgmental bitch Grandma’s a judgmental bitch.”

The sibling interplay is delightful. Billy (Damon Pitcher), the starchier one, presses his luck with objections, but in the event of getting caught out in a kid misdemeanour favours subversion. His song Just Lie is a spirited ode to the solution. His sister Tilly (Victoria Suen), a dimbulb kewpie always a beat or three behind proceedings, has showbiz aspirations. She’s perpetually ready to rehearse her number for the Winter Pageant.

Something sinister is happening, it being Christmas Eve and all. C’mon that’s not the Amazon Prime delivery guy knocking at the door. Could it be a giant Christmas demon, impressively scary? The one Nanny Verla (Nicole English), has been warning everyone about in a spooky foreign accent? Yes, this is a family riddled with dark secrets and built on lies.

Crisp direction, smart funny songs sung by a cast who can sing, a band from the Edmonton Pops Orchestra (with a French horn!)…. and, holly jolly, the seasonal repertoire has a new Christmas musical.