The Midnight Train Crossing

This was the second time I've seen A Christmas Story performed, so I couldn't help but compare it to the last time I saw it. It was just as funny as last time.
The set was pretty much the same as last time – so much so that I wondered how much of it they had kept in storage.
It was meant to be a typical home in the late 1930s (1939 according to the playbill) so, there was a kitchen, a living room and a staircase leading up to Ralphie's room.

Adult Ralph, the narrator of the story, was played by Bo Johnson. He played the role the last time I saw it and I'm glad he was doing it again. He was very funny as Ralph, Red Ryder and the delivery guy. There wasn't really any attempt to disguise him when he was pretending to be someone else, but it worked out fine.
He was the one that came out to give the opening "No food or drink, no recording, turn off cell phones" etc spiel, and he added a few little twists to it that made it amusing.

Young Ralphie was played by Zach Seher and I couldn't help but compare him to the kid I saw play Ralphie two years ago. He looked a bit different from the image of Raphie that I've always had – that's the danger of doing a play based on a movie – but after a few minutes I got used to it. I still couldn't quite see how he would grow up to look like his older self, but oh well. Physical appearance aside, he did a good job at the part. He and his older self worked well together, as they often did the same motions or mouthed the same words.

The mother was played by Tami Workentin and the father – the "old man" by Norman Moses who has been in many things that I have seen. Some that I've reviewed, some that I haven't. Again, these people had the bad luck of being the second cast that I've seen – so they automatically got compared to the first. Initially I liked the original parents a bit better, particularly the mother.
That isn't to say that this mother wasn't good. She definitely had her moments.
Tami Workentin also played the teacher Ms Shields and I think she was better at that. Especially when she assigned a theme and firmly told all of her students to "watch your margins!"

Part of the story is that the father – the Old Man swears a lot. They had some pretty clever ways of swearing – since they couldn't actually swear. It's a children's theatre after all. It was just as funny as I remembered it. He didn't seem to get as angry as the one in the movie does, he was more funny than anything else. For example, when the furnace would have trouble he would have to go down and fix it, and he always seemed delighted to go down and do battle with the furnace.
It was more of a challenge than an annoyance.

The other part of the show where the parents shined was with The Lamp. The Old Man wins a contest, and he gets a Special Award: a lamp shaped like a fishnet stocking clad woman's leg.
This creates great controversy in the house. The mother hates it – especially since her boys seem to have developed a habit of stroking it. The Old Man is proud of it – it's his Special Award after all. He doesn't seem to understand that it is tacky and very risquι indeed.
They have all sorts of battles where they keep turning it on and off, until finally, while dusting, the mother accidentally-on-purpose knocks it over and breaks it.

This show, however, mostly belonged to the kids. All of the young cast did an awesome job.
Ralphie's friends, Flick (Garrett Hanson) and Schwarz (Kevin Back) both did a really good job – particularly in the infamous flagpole scene. (For those not familiar with the story, Flick decides to answer the question "If you lick a metal pole in winter, will your tongue freeze to it?" And the answer is yes)
He did a very good job pretending to be stuck, and an equally good job pretending to talk like his tongue was frozen.
During the scene where he is stuck to the pole, all of the students that are inside gather by the 'window' and one little girl is too short, so she stands in the back jumping up and down. I don't know who she was, but she was cute.

The bully Scut Farkas (Nevin Langhus) and his Toadies (Christan Wimmer, Matthew Cekanor and Joe Esten) were also good.
I love the introduction that Ralph gives for Scut. "What sort of parent gives their child a name like Scut?"
One of the Toadies, I dunno which, had a very nice voice. At the beginning of the second act, he stood alone on stage and sang Silent Night... at least until Scut came on and shooed him offstage with a Look that clearly said "You're ruining my image"

The love interest in the story was named Esther Jane, cutely played by Janie McDonough. She has taken an interest in Ralphie, so much so that even when he gives her a rubber tarantula for a Christmas present, she wears it proudly on her coat, even though she doesn't like spiders.
She gets Ralphie a card – it's all fancy with doilies and bad poetry, just the sort of card he doesn't usually like. Except, he likes this one...

The main premise here is Ralphie's quest to get the Best Christmas Present Ever: a Red Ryder Two-hundred shot Carbine Action Range Model Air Rifle with a compass and a thing that tells time in the stock.
The best part about this is whenever they said it they launched through the whole entire sentence, sometimes very quickly and it was awesome.
The trouble is, everyone that he asks: his mom, his teacher, Esther Jane and even Santa respond with the same thing: "You'll shoot your eye out"

I also loved Ralphie's fantasies about all the good things he would do with his BB-gun.
In the first one, he defends his home from Black Bart and his desperados, who are armed with water pistols and rubber daggers and had arrived in tin zeppelins with little wheels. (Those were the gifts he was considering getting for his little brother).
His parents and little brother don pioneer hats and hide under the table. The Old Man is funny because he whistles when he talks, like a stereotypical Old West Prospector.
In the second fantasy, his class is on a field trip to a swamp. (Indiana Swamps are unforgiving!) and he uses his BB-gun to kill a giant snake. He shot off into the wings and it flopped down onto the stage.

In the end, his father decides that Ralphie can have the BB-gun. It's the last present that Ralphie opens on Christmas morning.... And when he goes off to play with it outside, the BB ricochets off a garbage can and hits his glasses. A very astonished Ralphie realizes that... he shot his eye out.
Actually, he just broke his glasses.

But a quickly created lie about a fallen icicle gets him out of trouble.
Later that night, he cuddles with his Red Ryder Two-hundred shot Carbine Action Range Model Air Rifle with a compass and a thing that tells time in the stock as he drifts off to sleep.