The Chance Theater - The Eight: Reindeer Monologues

SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION

November 30 - December 21, 2010
The Eight: Reindeer Monologues
by Jeff Goode
directed by Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen

More Press on The Chance

THEATER REVIEW

'Reindeer Monologues' puts adult spin on holidays
by Eric Marchese, Orange County Register

[ Link to Orange County Register l Post your own review ]

Emily Clark as Vixen
Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio

For the anti-"Christmas Carol," for the anti-"Nutcracker," for any theater lover burned out on typical seasonal stage fare, there is no better antidote than "The Eight: Reindeer Monologues."

Jeff Goode's satire is at once a spoof of Santa's famed octet and other characters from the annual 1960s claymation TV special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and a scathing diatribe aimed at the commercialization of the winter holidays. The 1994 script also takes stabs at the media, pop culture, politics, you name it.

For the Chance Theater, "The Eight" has become a cottage industry, with a first staging in 2004 and a new production or remount every year since. And as in recent winters, this year features different actors rotating in and out of nearly every role, meaning that practically no two performances will be alike.

That factor combines with Goode's raunchy text and director Oanh Nguyen's encouragement of off-the-cuff improvisation to yield a show that plays like Santa's Workshop meets The Comedy Club.

Several actors approach their monologues like a stand-up comedy routine, a course that pays off handsomely. And even those who take a less potent comedic path still veer pleasingly close to the mark.

It would be a cinch for Bob Simpson to portray Cupid, an openly gay buck, as a clichÃ©d flamboyant. Instead, he adds layers of subtlety and an arch, knowing delivery befitting a seasoned veteran stand-up comic skillfully working a room with ease.

Adding to the merriment of this well-scripted monologue are Simpson's glittery red-and-gold robe, his French/quasi-Cuban accent and a quizzical expression that goes miles in garnering laughs.

Thankfully, Emily Clark takes a similar route with Vixen – thankfully in that her character is the focus of Goode's Vixen-raped-by-Santa back story.

As her Playboy centerfold-like Vixen scoffs at the notion she invites sex because she craves male attention, Clark's Valley Girl inflections give Goode's lines an absurdly whimsical ring. Like Simpson, her accent, delivery and personality traits blend seamlessly into a credible whole.

Alex Bueno works successfully in the same general mode in her startlingly effective cross-gender portrayal of Comet, one of the few star reindeer to fiercely defend Santa, who helped him kick drugs, get into rehab and get clean.

In Bueno's hands, Comet's a tough, saucy Chicano with a black mustache, baggy shorts and plaid shirt over a white tee-shirt. Her pungent dialect puts a bizarrely funny comic twist on the young buck's effusive praise of Saint Nick.

Jocelyn A. Brown's reading of Blitzen runs counter to a stand-up comedy style but is strikingly original. While underscoring the doe's militant brand of feminism ("Why are we treated like a piece of venison?"), Brown adds a fresh spin to the character by using a tart, piquant Irish accent, suggetive of the Irish Republican Army, and a costume that mixes the Gaelic with contemporary Goth/punk/heavy metal.

Kyle Cooper also adds new breath to "Hollywood" (a.k.a. Prancer), His blue eyes blazing with cynicism, Cooper's Prancer is endearing despite his vanity, his prima donna embittered by Rudolph's fame and success while he vainly seeks the spotlight in uninspired big-budget Tinseltown flops. His workout garb, shades and designer bottled water mock celebs everywhere.

The challenge for Casey Long, who has cornered the market on the role of Dasher ("first reindeer"), is to find new shadings therein. This year's version features macho bluster, three-day stubble and a raspy good-old-boy accent. Still, his biggest laughs come courtesy of the character's trademark swagger.

Sarah Moreau and Lewis Crouse garner considerable mileage from soliloquies whose tones run slightly counter to the rest of Goode's script. Dancer is an ex-ballerina who stumbled into her current North Pole job, and Moreau's m.o. is to make her sunny, cheerful and adorably clueless.

Like Vixen, Crouse's Donner, the evening's penultimate monologue, gets at the more serious, meditative heart that beats beneath the script's surface. Rudolph's dad, he tells us, was "an out-of-work herd deer" when he parlayed Santa's desire for Rudolph's glowing proboscis to lead the team into semi-careers for himself and his only child.

With his cracking voice, stogie and seedy appearance, Crouse's Donner is one part protesting crackpot, one part vaudeville comic, and all parts once-hopeful, now-bitter parent who lived vicariously through his offspring.

Nguyen wisely keeps things current with references (among others) to Meg Whitman, "Glee," "Avatar" and "Jersey Shore." However you take this brisk, breezy staging, be sure to savor it as an often vulgar, very adult spin on some Baby Boomers' most-beloved Christmas characters – the spice on a menu of often otherwise bland holiday fare.

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THEATER REVIEW

'Eight' a jolly good crime
by Hannah Petrak, OC Arts & Culture

[ Link to OC Arts & Culture l Post your own review ]

Bob Simpson as Cupid
Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio

Spin-offs are notorious for flopping; but no matter the amount of precedence, Joey still got his own short-lived show. And the only thing worse than a “Friends” spin-off is the deformed offspring of a holiday tradition, a myth that’s been tampered with for ages, that great symbol of Christmas joy and the gift-giving fable: fat St. Nick and his reindeer posse. It’s always been my personal opinion that just because a character of a famous tale doesn’t have his or her own story it is just fine to leave it that way. Once in a while, though, a misconstrued, unnecessary back-story can be just tasteless enough to be a riot worth having.

The Chance Theater’s 7th annual production of “The Eight: Reindeer Monologues” by Jeff Goode is more vulgar than your average Christmas story but not at all shoddy. Each monologue was cruder than the one before as the reindeer hashed out the rumor that a certain jolly, bearded man tried to rape one of his faithful, sleigh-pulling livestock. Although the night that I attended the crowded was rougher than a cat’s tongue, by the end, the cast had the whole audience laughing and shaking their heads at the absurdity.

Because of the, at first, quiet crowd, Casey Long as Dasher had the difficulty of warming them up. Luckily, Long was funny. Bob Simpson played Cupid, the only openly gay reindeer and clearly most peoples’ favorite. A well-endowed Kyle Cooper played Prancer, who tells his side of the story of the Hollywood film, “Prancer.” Blitzen was played by Jocelyn A. Brown, who had one of the best and funniest Irish accents I’d ever heard. And yes, that was a girl playing Comet. Alex Bueno did a good “yob”; I was seriously double-taking. Dancer was my favorite reindeer, played by Sarah Moreau. Moreau took on the most unique character, which made her stand out. (It seems many people when playing a comic role will just be loud, crazy, and SNL-ish. Moreau was contained and quirky.) Lewis Crouse played Donner, Rudolph’s father. The red-nosed schizo was unable to attend. And Emily Clark played Vixen, the slut that caused the whole hoopla. Clark perfectly straddled, ahem, the ditzy blonde and vicious hothead, winning many deserved laughs without being too cliché. Because, you know, every time someone plays a Playboy modeling reindeer, they all do it the same.

“The Eight” has established itself as more than just a spin-off, especially at this theater. It is ferociously funny and not sloppy in the slightest. The Chance always handles its productions with a keen amount of professionalism. But to pull off this piece with that amount of concise vulgarity is a triumph all in itself. Hopefully next winter, The Eight will be as punctual in its trip to The Chance as it is every December 24 in its trip around the globe.

The Eight: Reindeer Monologues runs at The Chance Theater till December 21st

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THEATER REVIEW

'The Eight: Reindeer Monologues'
by Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA

[ Link to StageSceneLA l Post your own review ]

Kyle Cooper as Hollywood
Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio

Jeff Goode’s The Eight: Reindeer Monologues has been entertaining Orange County audiences at the Chance Theater for the past seven Decembers. In my review of last year’s production, I called it “the funniest (and filthiest) Christmas show in town.” As for its plot, “one by one, Santa’s eight reindeer weigh in on the sex scandal that’s been rocking the North Pole. Is it true that Jolly Old St. Nick (aka ‘that fat fuck’) sexually molested Reindeer Number 8 (aka Vixen), or is the sexiest of The Eight merely looking for her fifteen minutes of fame?”

This year’s Chance production of The Eight: Reindeer Monologues allows theatergoers the opportunity to savor the work of as many as three different actors in each of the eight reindeer roles. For this reason I gladly returned for the 2010 edition, last night’s performance featuring seven out of eight different cast members from those reviewed here last year.

In a number of cases, this year’s and last year’s actors’ takes on the roles are as different as night and day. Where Dimas Diaz had played openly gay reindeer Cupid with street girl sass, Bob Simpson’s Cupid is a flamboyantly over-the-top Latino drama queen. Instead of Alex Bueno’s gender-bending cholo boy Comet, Carter Mason plays the former bad boy-turned-good (thanks to Santa) as a karate-robed student of the martial arts. Sarah Moreau’s sweet-and-ditzy Dancer becomes a “like buttah” Jewish matron when Jennifer Ruckman sinks her teeth into the role. If last year’s Vixen (Emily Clark) was kissing cousins to Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods, then this year’s Zoe Simpson is her distant San Fernando Valley Girl relative (with not quite so many IQ points). (Note: Bueno, Moreau, and Clark are once again performing on certain nights this year.) Ben Green, Kyle Cooper, and Jeff Hellebrand too put their own personal stamps on Dasher, Hollywood, and Donner. Returning from last year’s cast is Jocelyn Brown, whose angry feminist Blitzen is straight out of Northern Ireland, a concept entirely Brown’s own (as are all the other actors’), Goode’s script featuring not a single character description or stage direction.

Oanh Nguyen once again deserves highest marks for his inventive direction, from the hoof stomps which accompany each mention of “The Eight” to the “international” flavor he’s added to Goode’s ethnicity-unspecific script. This is unrestrained, imaginative, total-body acting, with (Bob) Simpson scoring highest for what can only be described as a seven-minute tour de force, with Ruckman’s “Oy vey!” Dancer coming in a close second. It’s never less than a pleasure to see StageSceneLA Discovery Of The Year Green on stage, Cooper’s teen idol-gone-bad version of Hollywood could give Zac a run for his money, and (Zoe) Simpson’s first of two performances is a total delight. Mason and Hellebrand score points for originality as well, and Brown continues to dazzle as Blitzen.

Scenic/lighting designer Masako Tobaru has skillfully transformed the Secret Garden set into one that fits The Eight quite nicely indeed. Courtny Greenough is stage manager.

Click here to see who’s performing during the remainder of The Eight’s 2010 run. Then reserve seats this very minute or you may find yourself having to wait till December of 2011 to find out what really happened behind closed doors on the night everyone’s been talking about.

Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. Click here for current performance schedule, closing date, and reservation line. www.chancetheater.com

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PATRON REVIEWS

It was a riot!
posted by Peggy on 12/20/10

There was a total of 8 females that attended the show and we all thought it was a riot!!! Now that we know about it, we plan to go next year, possibly with a larger group.

Great fun!
posted by Nate on 12/6/10

As we have in previous years we greatly enjoyed seeing the Reindeer Monologues. Costumes, attitudes and salty language were great fun!