Evan Dowling, David Findlay, Mhairi Berg in Die Harsh The Christmas Musical, Grindstone Theatre. Photo by Adam Goudreau

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

This is the week that two original bona fide homegrown holiday musicals return to the stage — both unconventional, both expanded and enhanced from their 2023 editions — to deck the hall (well, two different halls).  

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Friday’s a big festive opening night. Grindstone Theatre’s Die Harsh: A Christmas Musical launches a run at the Orange Hub, and Straight Edge Theatre’s Krampus: A New Musical opens in Workshop West Playwrights Theatre season at the Gateway. Both musicals sit, with give-‘er comic gusto, outside the Christmas tradition mould. Both musical-writing teams are soaked in musical theatre.

First, Die Harsh, Grindstone’s contribution to the villain redemption season (stay tuned for 12thnight.ca interview with the Krampus creators Stephen Allred and Seth Gilfillan).

It was the inspiration of Byron Martin and Simon Abbott, Grindstone artistic director and composer/ resident music director, respectively, to marry their “absolute favourite Christmas movie ever,” the action thriller Die Hard, to everyone’s absolute favourite Christmas tale (you know the one by Charles Dickens, Esq.) in a seasonal double-helix. Who would even think of doing this? Short answer: the team that brought the world Jason Kenney’s Hot Boy Summer and thunderCATS.

Mhairi Berg and Evan Dowling in Die Harsh The Christmas Musical, Grindstone Theatre. Photo by Adam Goudreau

“A Frankenstein of an idea!” Martin declares cheerfully. “Out of our short list of ideas for a Christmas musical, Die Hard had the most legs,” he says. “If it’s a Christmas movie, how Christmas can it be? There ’s a lot of comedy in turning up the volume on the Christmas part.”

It started small. The first incarnation of Die Harsh, in 2022, was at Grindstone’s little comedy theatre, and instantly sold out every performance, two shows a night. An action movie with an extremely busy cast of five playing at least five characters apiece and the live squeezing an action thriller onto a teeny stage, is the very definition of low-budget ingenuity, or a housing crisis depending on your point of view. “No set at all, no room,” laughs Martin, who directed the premiere. “It felt very improv…. You get away with anything if you’re imagining every location. You know you’re in an elevator because everyone’s standing close together. The actors shouldn’t quite have their costumes on when they’re coming onstage.”

Last year, Die Harsh expanded for the season. The 2023 incarnation of Martin’s production moved to the 200-seat Varscona Theatre, with two-acts, a full set — OK, cardboard and tinfoil figured prominently — a lighting design, a couple more characters, a four-piece band led by composer Abbott. And the tickets again flew out of the box office.

In the interim Grindstone, a veritable magic bean of a company, has grown. For its new mainstage season the adrenalized little indie company has taken over the Orange Hub in the west end, with its 350-seat John L. Haar Theatre. And come Friday that’s where you’ll find the German terrorist Hans Schmuber (David Findlay), the Bruce Willis cop character John McWayne (Evan Dowling) and his estranged wife Holly (Mhairi Berg), the rapping Ghost of Christmas Present, the tap-dancing FBI, et al.

The five-member cast is now six (Rain Matkin is the new ensemble member who plays “a bunch of characters”). And the stage manager will get to be … the stage manager. “Before, the stage manager called the show from offstage, took off her headset, and went onstage and played the Teddy Bear and the death puppet and a security guard,” says Martin, with a rueful laugh. “We’re moving toward a new level of professional theatre.”

Evan Dowling in Die Harsh the Christmas Musical. Photo by Adam Goudreau

Because of his expanded producer duties Martin has given over his director’s gig to Sarah Dowling for this show. He and co-creator Abbott, brothers in satire, parody and pastiche, have done “a couple of little rewrites here and there. We’re trying not to rip it apart too much; the danger is you pull out a couple of threads and you have to sew it together again….  It’s all about balancing the clarity of the storytelling with the sketch of the theme or the joke you’re satirizing, I guess….” The real focus this time is enhancing the production values to fit big stage.

“The Book of Mormon is the gold standard of what we shoot for,” says Martin, a musical theatre graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. “Not just telling the story but also taking the piss out of an existing musical. When we’re writing Die Harsh we’re not just doing the confrontation scene, we’re (referencing) the confrontation from Les Miz. Or the death moment that riffs off Hamilton…. We’re putting Die Hard on top of Christmas Carol on top of Les Miz. Or (pause) maybe it’s the other way around.”

“We love musicals. And we like making fun of musicals.”

That spirit, which Martin and Abbott share, infuses Grindstone’s weekly show The 11 O’Clock Number, which by now has a history of more than 1,000 improvised musicals. That show was Abbott’s introduction to Grindstone. Soon he was at the keyboard playing for the theatre’s Shmoozy Boozy Singy Thingy, a musical theatre karaoke show. And, as Martin says in appreciation of his musical satire partner, “now Simon is Edmonton’s go-to musical director! He works non-stop, everywhere, an insane amount of work. And I’m honoured he prioritizes Grindstone projects. I couldn’t do these shows without him.”

Abbott is the kind of collaborator, as Martin describes, who “says he’s going to update some of the music. And all of a sudden, there are new arrangements, re-worked vocal parts for different voices and all the harmonies…. Incredible!”

The Orange Hub venture is a new stage in Grindstone’s development. “It means a lot to take over that space,” says Martin, who reports that of an inventory of 7,000 tickets 3,500 people came out to see the mainstage opener The Rocky Horror Show. “That’s the scale we want to be producing and creating on. Multiple scales, actually,” he amends. “I really like the way the Citadel operates different streams of programming on different stages.”

At the Orange Hub Grindstone can produce on the 350-seat mainstage or the black box theatre downstairs, plus the company’s home base, the little Strathcona comedy theatre and bistro where Die Harsh began.

“It’s a fun project,” says Martin of Die Harsh 2024. “The cast is slightly bigger, the set design is being expanded to fit that stage…. And it’s such a funny show!

PREVIEW

Die Harsh: A Christmas Musical

Theatre: Grindstone

Created by: Byron Martin and Simon Abbott

Directed by: Sarah Dowling

Starring: David Findlay, Evan Dowling, Mhairi Berg, Hal Wesley Rogers, Mark Singongco, Rain Matkin

Where: Orange Hub, 10045 156 St.

Running: Friday through Dec. 29

Tickets: grindstonetheatre.ca