'Shoot your eye out,' catch 'A Christmas Story'

Richard Carter
For the Times Record News

What: A Christmas Story: The Musical

When: 7:30 p.m. tonight and 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov 18. They are taking Thanksgiving weekend off and then doing 7:30 p.m. Fridays and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays from Dec 1 through December 16. There are 2 p.m. Saturday matinees on December 2, 9 and 16.

Where: Wichita Theatre, 10th and Indiana

Tickets: Adults $21 to $24; children (12 and under) $12.

Info (940) 723-9037 or www.wichitatheatre.com or (800) 275-2889

       

There’s really wanting something for Christmas, and then there’s the story of a bespectacled 9-year-old Ralphie and his Red Rider BB gun.

His parents are not on board, nor is the Santa Claus at Higbees’ Department Store or even his third grade teacher. What’s an imaginative kid to do?

Ralphie's mother (Adrian Cargal); his Old Man (Dr. Jonathan Williams) and Ralphie (Mastalsz) with the infamous leg lamp in "Christmas Story: The Musical" which opens at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Wichita Theater and also plays at 3 p.m. Saturday.

The answer is to be found in the musical version of one of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time. “A Christmas Story: The Musical” returns to town at 7:30 p.m. tonight and 3 p.m. Saturday to the Wichita Theatre. The production takes Thanksgiving weekend off and plays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays from Dec 1 to Dec 16. There are 2 p.m. Saturday matinees on December 2, 9 and 16.

Long-time theater director Lynn Marshall was so excited about its return that he gave up his cherished narrator role to direct it.

“Christmas Story” is based on the extremely well-loved 1983 film that’s been run as a 24-hour marathon on WTBS every Christmas Eve since 1997. The movie in turn was based on author Jean Shepherd’s 1966 novel “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash” and a story Shepherd would tell on NYC radio station each Christmas Eve.

“The musical is not significantly different from the movie except they break into song from time to time,” Marshall said. “The songs are very well written, and they are catchy and progress the story along.  

Basically, he said, everyone knows the movie backwards and forwards about Ralphie (Ashton Mastalsz) wanting a Red Rider Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle and almost everyone telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out.”

Other characters include Ralphie’s younger brother, Randy (Korbin Coker); his mother (Adrian Cargal); and his father, or Old Man, (Dr. Jonathan Williams), the latter who comes close to stealing the show.

Marshall is very pleased with his cast. Mastalz, who plays Ralphie, has been involved in numerous productions. The actors who play Ralphie’s mom and dad are back from the first production, and the large children’s cast is excellent, he said.

The director said it was also critical to find the right narrator to play Shepherd telling the story. In Casey Osbourne, who is also the theatre’s set builder and production coordinator, the director found someone who is as big a fan of the movie as he is.

Osbourne said he was honored to perform in his first-ever play. “I had a great childhood growing up, and the Old Man reminds me a lot of my dad. He did the same kind of thing that they did in the show. You think Christmas is all over and he asks, “Didn’t we have something else. Wasn’t there something in the garage we forgot?”

Osbourne said that scene in ‘Christmas Story’ always hits his heart. He also admires Shepherd as a radio storyteller along with Paul Harvey and Garrison Keillor. “I have listened to a lot of Shepherd’s broadcasts on Youtube. I hope I can capture some of what he was able to do.”

Marshall said Osbourne is building the sets and collecting the proper props as a labor of love. “He is ensuring everything is authentic. We have the Red Rider BB gun and an authentic leg lamp. Everything is as legit as it can possibly be.”

The big window for the department store and the inside with Santa Claus and the big slide are there. Osbourne even located a copy of the ‘40s Western magazine that Ralphie read, and scanned the front and back cover to make it authentic.

The director said that every time the theatre brings a show back, “we try to make it bigger and better and more elaborate than the last time. We, as a theatre strive to do that, and I hope that we have succeeded.”