"Christmas With Elvis" at the Chopin Theatre feels like a trip back to fearless off-Loop theater, circa 1992 - Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune 12/1/23 - "Watching "Christmas With Elvis" on Monday night at the Chopin Theatre, two competing thoughts entered my head. And, no, "Don't be Cruel" was not one of them.

Actually, one was fascination at how transformative a really great Chicago actress like Brenda Barrie can be in an otherwise fair-to-middling show. To say that Barrie throws herself into the role of a sad-sack single woman, ready to pop pills and drink her way through a lonely Christmas Eve, does not even remotely describe the intensity of her work here. Barrie apparently has decided she is doing Eugene O'Neill and she proceeds accordingly. She's very funny, too.

My second thought, or rather feeling, was a great wash of nostalgia for the fearless off-Loop theater of the early 1990s, especially the wacky, politically incorrect but invariably amusing homegrown holiday entertainments that typified the era. This show put be back in mind of "Hellcab," the smash-hit Will Kern play that I used to enjoy seeing every year and that made glorious comic play of the lot of the ordinary, working-class Chicagoans, invariably freezing half to death.

During that era, I was particularly fond of a venue called the Halsted Theatre Center (located at 2700 N. Halsted on that great theatrical thoroughfare), home of some truly memorable and outré commercial productions, not the least of which was "Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love," by a Canadian writer named Brad Fraser, of whom I was especially fond.

The Halsted Theatre Center, along with the back of the Beat Kitchen, represent the origin story of "Christmas With Elvis," which is bizarrely back in business at the Chopin Theatre in Wicker Park after a 32 year interregnum and, one might reasonably say, a recession in the seeming commercial viability of a show wherein the roles of Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future are basically all filled by Elvis.

As now amusingly played by Victor Holstein, the King returns from the dead to offer the show's heroine company, music, seduction, spiritual guidance, therapy and even a whiz-bang sexual favor with just a touch of dead-celebrity remove. And Barrie acts out all this nonsense like it's "Long Day's Journey Into Night."

Aptly enough, the remount of "Christmas With Elvis," as quite lavishly produced by the playwright, Terry Spencer Hesser, and friends, is directed by Dexter Bullard, an important figure in 1990s off-Loop theater. I don't know the entire back story here, but I gather Hesser (who went on to a highly successful career as an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker) had long dreamed of working with Bullard and I think she basically just decided, what the heck, I can afford to hire him now and give this lovable crazy show another outing, replete with a very cool Milwaukee Avenue setting created by Eleanor Kahn.

Nobody would write this thing now, frankly, given its premise of Elvis - yes Elvis - as a potential cure for bulimia, alcoholism and depression. That said, if you can get past that and see it for what it was, and is, this truly is an enjoyably campy throwback to a vanished era of Chicago theater, when single, professional urbanites who were a bit lonely in the city could find gutsy entertainment to match up with their seasonal needs.

At one point, the young woman worries that her dalliance with Elvis might verge on necrophilia.

"I don't speak French," Elvis replies.

Not funny? Then you don't want Christmas with this Elvis, anyway. But if you're cracking a smile ...

 

 

Things to do in Chicago Nov. 23-29, Chicago Suntimes - "In Terry Spencer Hesser's dramedy "Christmas Eve with Elvis," a lonely, anxious and slightly angry woman discovers, on Christmas Eve, that her ex-husband is getting remarried, but before she can wallow in her misery, Elvis' ghost appears in her apartment. Brenda Barrie and Victor Holstein star; Dexter Bullard directs" From Nov. 24-Jan. 7 at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division. Tickets: $60+. Visit brownpapertickets.com"

"No need for a Blue Christmas if you can spend it with Elvis - Karen Topham, ChicagoOnStage.com, 11/2/23 " - Back when CDs were king...and before that when records were...I would spend part of Thanksgiving weekend making little piles of the ones with Christmas themes so I didn't overlook any of them. Every December, I played the Carpenters, Willie Nelson, the Beach Boys, Phil Spector's ‘A Christmas Gift For You," and Mannheim Steamroller, along with many other perennial favorites that jumpstarted the season in my house. But my ex and I agreed that there was One Album to Rule Them All: the 1957 Christmas album by the King, Elvis Presley. When we put on what we lovingly called "your Elvis"-after what some relative once said-then everything was official. We didn't need to have snow or a tree yet, but "your Elvis" signaled the inescapable beginning of Christmas.

So when I received an invitation to a new play called Christmas With Elvis, well...that was a no-brainer. After ascertaining that the main space at Chopin Theater was wheelchair-accessible (because the more used basement space is not), I was determined to see a show up there for the first time since the late House Theatre shut down. I really had no idea what I was about to see. I figured there would be Elvis music because how could there not be?-but otherwise? When the author, Terry Spencer Hesser, defines the play in her program note as both "a sassy comedy" and "an examination of loneliness," it's hard to know what to expect. Besides, Hesser has self-produced her script, which is often not a great sign.

Happily, the Dexter Bullard-directed Christmas With Elvis turns out to be a very well-acted, inventively conceived, and beautifully directed production that deserves a place on the list of strong annual Chicago holiday offerings that fill our theatres each December. This high-concept play is both silly and poignant, original and schmaltzy (in the best Christmas ways), and as full of the magical spirit of the holidays as it is of sex, drugs and booze, and death. (This is not one to take the kids to see.)

The plotline: It's Christmas Eve, but Trudy (Brenda Barrie) is not celebrating. Instead, she is on a serious bender, mourning the loss of her latest relationship and reflecting on her own perennially miserable existence. Arriving home with a bottle in a paper bag, she finds that her empty fridge and cabinets devoid of anything not booze-related taunt her, as does the tiny fake tree only partially covered in lights, which is about as sad as the tree on "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Reflecting her mood, she puts "Blue Christmas" on the turntable, and then...something happens. The iconic opening music of an Elvis in Vegas show starts playing loudly, dense smoke appears in the hallway, and out of it comes Elvis himself (Victor Holstein) in all of his spangled, jumpsuited, hip-swinging glory.

This is a very dead Elvis, though. He's a ghost who doesn't quite understand why he keeps getting summoned back to Earth to help put people on the right track. It is in fact a conundrum; the hard-drinking, pill-popping, pizza-gorging spirit doesn't actually scream "Christmas" or even "salvation." (More like "horrific overindulgence.") As the two of them start having a real conversation, though, we start seeing that they complement each other well...and maybe, just maybe his presence will help her in some way.

Holstein (though his program bio doesn't mention it) is actually a very good Elvis impersonator. Throughout the show, he treats Trudy (and us, of course) with versions of many iconic songs. Sometimes he accompanies himself playing chords on a guitar or piano; sometimes he's acapella, sometimes he sings to a pre-recorded soundtrack, but his deep, rolling singing voice-even if he were not wearing a bedazzled white jumpsuit (costumer Lori Hall-Araujo has outdone herself)-instantly takes Trudy and us back in time. (Jeffrey Levin's sound design here is outstanding.) He happens to have died the day after she was born, so she has always felt somewhat connected to him. (By the way, Hesser does not try in any way to soften or mitigate the often-debauched way Elvis lived; we do get a clear description of many of the sadder things about a man who died at only 42.)

Barrie's Trudy is pretty much a mess from (way before) the start. She has a history of eating disorders and other psychological issues (which are all new for Elvis, who died in 1977), and in the present seems to have utterly given up, her alcohol abuse substituting for a life. (Eleanor Kahn's scenic design, lit beautifully by Bridget Williams, fits this empty soul perfectly, but it does hold a few fun secrets.) Barrie begins with this out-of-control, self-destructive person wallowing in her own misery and gradually, throughout the two acts of the play, evolves her into someone we can recognize and care about. It's a fun contrast: as Elvis gets more over the top, Trudy comes down to earth. Still, it's the quieter, more honest, more contemplative moments between them that make the play really work, allowing whatever "it" the King has to work its magic on Trudy.

The play is a two-hander, but Hesser has embedded within it the sensation of multitudes, even if they appear to be the multitudes of hell. Bullard uses brilliantly unsettling line animation projections all over the set (projection designer Steve Labedz is almost a second director) to play off of what Beetlejuice lyricist Eddie Perfect called "the whole being dead thing." The spectral outlines and wraithlike arms and hands we see are a persistent reminder that this character has been dead for decades, at least partially due to his own proclivities. (The afterlife as he experiences it is a bit confusing: Elvis only knows whatever those who summon him tell him about life on earth, which means he is stunned to discover here that his daughter Lisa Marie married Michael Jackson and that she died earlier this year.) Labedz' projections add much depth to both his story and our perceptions of what might be likely for Trudy if this direction doesn't change. She may hate It's a Wonderful Life, but without her rock and roll self-indulgent Clarence she might not make it much longer.)

Bullard, a director that Hesser "dreamed of working with 30 years ago," does the playwright proud. Some of the staging-Trudy dancing with abandon on a futon while Elvis sings comes to mind-is just wonderful and exudes joy overlaid with the initial melancholy, leaving us with (dare I say it?) hope. This is the kind of play that could have gone either way, but it ultimately reinforces a magical sense of possibility that is always a major element in any Christmas show. Watching this play, you are transported beyond the world that Trudy has inhabited; you find yourself in one in which "your Elvis" pulls the magic out of the air and the snow starts to fall".

"Christmas With Elvis" - Julia W. Rath, AroundTheTownChicago.com - " A creative idea taken to its dramatic extreme, "Christmas with Elvis" is a two-character play where a divorced woman who is incredibly down on herself happens to meet up with Elvis Presley in her apartment-46 years after he died! At first, she's not sure what she's seeing: Is it a ghost? But the man is apparently in the flesh! The contrast between her mundane existence and his fame and flashiness could not be any more polar. But what they share in common are their reflections on a life that did not go well for either one of them.

Billed as a dramady, if not also a romantic comedy, the show is actually quite sad. While there are a few funny lines, it is only a comedy in the Shakespearean sense of the word in that everything ends up okay for both.

Written by Terry Spencer Hesser and directed by Dexter Bullard, this play with music is about the interaction of two very vulnerable people who use drugs, alcohol, and overeating to dull their emotional pain. The script was originally written 32 years ago and recently updated and now revived. While the show starts out a bit too slowly and contains a good deal of unevenness, it does feature entertaining music and a worthwhile ending.

The first on stage is Trudy Davis (Brenda Barrie), who feels unloved and thinks she is forgettable. Trudy is all alone now that her former husband has left, and now she receives a phone call that Harlan is engaged to marry another woman. This only adds to her depression, and she totally doesn't know what to do with herself. In her despair, she puts on an Elvis Presley record-and poof! To her surprise, Elvis (Victor Holstein) comes alive in her living room! He has been living in purgatory for a very long time, and now he is walking the earth again!

Elvis is constantly checking the medicine cabinet for drugs and orders a case of Jack Daniels and several pizzas at once. Trudy is like a female Woody Allen character, who suffers from neurosis, having to do with feelings of inadequacy especially when it comes to her sexuality. Plus she has all sorts of sensitivities and aversions that define her personality. She says that she gave up drinking but actually drinks too much; she says she gave up eating but secretly binges on fast food in the middle of the night; and she says she suffers from bulimia, more or less. I found myself losing interest in Trudy when I listened to all of her monologues and saw her overexplain so very much of herself to Elvis. A lot of this should have been handled with more acting and close contact and less talking. We need to see more physical and emotional closeness and even debauchery for this story to work. But what adds warmth and charm to the production is the music. Elvis is at his best when he is being Elvis, that is, when he is entertaining Trudy and (by extension) the audience. Listening to Elvis's hits and watching his body motions helps to balance out the storyline with just the right songs at just the right moments. What a fine performance by Holstein as an Elvis impersonator who can sing, act, and play the piano! Most impressive is the fortitude that both Barrie and Holstein exhibit in their roles. As the only two actors on stage, they have to perform each night for two hours straight (with one brief intermission).

Nicely done are costumes by Lori Hall-Araujo. The audience was especially thrilled with Elvis's glitz and glamor and liked the costume change between acts one and two. Scenic design by Eleanor Kahn is more than appropriate. Trudy's apartment is laid out decently, and I liked how the audience is privy to Trudy's bathroom and medicine cabinet. Props designer Amanda Hermann makes the great room seem modestly realistic. I did feel, however, that the piano should have been oriented differently. Elvis should have mostly faced the audience when he sat down to play; seeing his back was not a wise choice. Lighting by Bridget S. Williams is good, and projection design by Steve Labedz gives us a hint about other spirits and purgatory.

Some of the funnier lines have to do with differences in life today in 2023 versus 1977, the year when Elvis passed away: for example, the nonexistence of cell phones back then. Yet somebody else with a different sense of humor might enjoy watching this show more than I did. It didn't tickle my funnybone to observe such an overly neurotic person like Trudy. The more drinking that she and Elvis did to excess, the less I cared about both of them, and I found it hard to watch both of them portrayed as being spiritually bankrupt. Now having said that, the show is better in the second act when it begins to accomplish its primary goal, that is, to provide some type of useful message from the netherworld as expressed by the King of Rock. One of Elvis's lines: "You need to take risks to get some rewards" is a major takeaway. Spoiler alert: The good part is that Trudy takes Elvis's advice to heart. Through her interaction with him, she learns how to become the best version of herself and allow herself to live life rather than dwell on her sorrows.

The Christmas theme behind this play cannot be minimized, as all the action takes place on Christmas Eve. Like the show "A Christmas Carol", Elvis shows up as a ghost, like the story "It's a Wonderful Life", Elvis saves Trudy, as Clarence the Angel did for George. But Elvis is no angel: He is flawed like the rest of us. And that is important! Who knows if he can or ever will escape purgatory? However, by dint of personality plus his music, Elvis feels he can help out those currently living on earth. Maybe that's why his words-his song lyrics and his underlying philosophy-will resonate with a lot of theatregoers who might be experiencing their own loneliness, heartache, and agony this holiday season"