My Christmas Story Essay Example
My Christmas Story Essay Example

My Christmas Story Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (728 words)
  • Published: August 22, 2021
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OK so musicals are certainly not my thing nor are they in my wheelhouse. Had I not been taking this class I likely would have found another way to spend my Friday night. That being said my wife and I both love hilarious classic 80’s Christmas movies and the scenes that make them great. Classics like Cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation showing up unannounced to the Griswolds Christmas to Kevin being left Home Alone to defend his home from crazy burglars. So spending an evening together at the Ovens Auditorium watching a musical from the team behind Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land not only seemed exciting but turned out to be a great night after all.

A Christams Story, The Musical brings Ralphie, Flick, a gaudy plastic leg lamp, 2 hounds next door and a triple dog dare with a

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flagpole all to life on stage. It was in a word, bizarre. The musical performances covered scenes from Counting Down to Christmas to You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out and certainly Sticky Situation, Flicks triple-dog-dare to lick the flagpole. As always the one overriding constant is whether Ralphie will get his official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200 shot Range Model Air Rifle.

It’s certainly not just a BB gun and Ralphies performance singing about all of the raccoons he could fend off and girls he could impress if he just got his Christmas wish was hilarious. Another great performance was the scene with the leg lamp. It was over the top and very showy which is what I found so funny about it. Ralphie’s dad performs with approximately 15 other cast members each holding a leg lamp

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like a cane from an old Fred Astaire dance number.

One thing that struck me was the humor lost in the jokes and one liners from film to musical. The audience we joined applauded at the end of every musical performance however rarely laughed at any of the jokes, just an observation. This I feel was one of the main reasons I call the musical bizarre, it just seemed to miss the humor mark.

Effort Made to Gain Better Understanding

In order to gain a better understanding of the show, I read the reviews, and looked at YouTube videos of the Broadway performance before I went to see it. This prepared me for what to look for and helped me to better understand the show. I also took the time to re watch the movie which is always fun. The scene with Ralph and his little brother are getting dressed in winter wear for school is hilarious.

Response and Evaluation of Experience

While I found the musical in and of itself unappealing, the performances were impressive and flamboyant. The scenes, costumes and set were amazing and fit the stage well and the sound was very professional although I found it hard to make out all of the words sung instead of when they were spoken. The cast was wonderful and what they do on a nightly basis is impressive to me as I am simply not a theatrical person.

They did a great job of following the movie and not missing anything of importance. The fact that they followed the story so well however caused the performance to be quite long. The musical was about an hour longer than the movie.

It’s one thing to watch a minute long movie scene but when a six minute song has to be performed to cover the same scene it makes for a drawn out performance in my opinion.

Conclusion

A Christmas Story will never be my favorite Christmas movie thanks to those previously mentioned. However the time frame of the story being set in the depression era 1940’s Indiana seems to make it personable to me. Even though I was born well after the tail end of the era there is something that feels nostalgic about Christmas time in a small town where a boy could walk past a five and dime store window and see something to really long for. I left with the same thoughts of going to see a musical. I don’t want to go back to a time where the stage is predominate over the movie theater but it was fun to enjoy it for one night.

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