The Midnight Train Crossing

I didn't know what to expect from this show. It had a pretty good review in the paper, and that was all I knew. The set was pretty - there was a very nice frozen fountain in the center of the stage. Over the course of the show various things got lifted up from the basement to the middle of the stage, a fountain, a desk, a tree. The fountain was in the North Pole, the desk was in an office at the North Pole and the tree was in the town of Bluesville.

Before the show started, we had fun looking at the various other things on the set. There was Northstarbucks coffee, McDonners, Barnes and Snobles, with the logos very similar to the real places. Another sign really looked like it said Walgreens, but we couldn't tell if it was supposed to be something different or not. There was a balcony type thing where the musicians sat, a piano, a drum set and a bass. There was another balcony with a winding staircase.

So here's the plot. Being on the "sleigh crew" is the most coveted position among Santa's elves. Every year, best friends Eubie, Gilda and Ham try out for the job and every year they are rejected, usually because of Eubie. Anyway, he gets assigned to go through the Naughty or Nice list and makes an astonishing discovery - every single child in the town of Bluesville is on the naughty list. He decides to go there and try to do some damage control. When he gets there, he discovers that the entire town is depressed because they only get one minute of sunlight a day. This is because... of being in a valley or something. Eubie decides to cheer everyone up.
In Bluesville there is the What factory. This led to a Who's On First sort of routine before it was finally explained that at the What factory, they make all the question marks that are used in the world. The factory was kind of cool, the workers marched in chanting "What? What? What? What?" and foam question marks came out of a large tube. They gathered the question marks with tongs and put them in boxes.

The children are double cast, and we saw the North Pole Cast. There was an understudy as Eubie, and so the roles were shifted around a tiny bit.

The first one I want to mention is Michael James Leslie, who did double duty as Santa and the mayor of Bluesville, and I think he was my favorite in the whole cast. For those in the know, the best way I can describe him is he would make an absolutely fantastic Poppa. For those not in the know, he had a very rich, deep, jazzy voice. He sang quite a few songs, but my favorite one was him as Santa, having just come out of the bath/shower. He had curlers in his hair, and was wearing red full body underwear and a white fuzzy towel. His song was basically about how awesome it was to be Santa and he was just admiring himself. It was so very funny. At the end of that scene, his head elf Norbert (Bryce Lord) came in to tell him something and then went "Ack! More information than I wanted!"
As the mayor, he had snoring troubles, and could never get a good nights sleep, so he would randomly fall asleep on his feet. He started drifting over towards the front row, and Eubie caught him, guiding him away, saying "No, not that way... Those people paid top dollar for those seats... "

Another highlight was Laurie Birmingham, who played a woman named Gurt. Everyone in Bluesville is depressed and gloomy all the time except for a secret underground club of happy people called "S.L.O.B." but I don't remember what it stood for. The S was for smile and the B was for Bluesville though. She told her story, her and her husband Burt (Todd Denning) used to work at the Ampersand factory, until it closed, and they ended up here... in this terrible city... but she's not sad. No. Not sad at all, even though she's living in a "poop hole." This set all of the small children in the audience into giggles. Gurt also had a stereotypical accent - kinda Northern WI/MN accent. It wasn't very pronounced, but it was there, and kinda funny. She got all worked up and decided to do yoga poses to calm herself down.

When Eubie went to Bluesville, he met up with a girl named Molly. She was played by Madison Kitchen, and she was great! I was very impressed by her singing and acting. Molly is a bit of a punk tough girl, and a wonderful shot with her sling shot. Initially she isn't interested in what Eubie has to say, but he convinces her to give being happy a try. The kids in first stage are usually a mixed bag, but she was great.

The rest of the kids in the cast also did good. One of the guys I thought was quite funny at one point. The people of Bluesville were sort of milling around, getting in each others way and all of a sudden he comes out with "I hate people! Gah!" and it was funny. I don't know who it was, but well done there.

So now back to the elves. There was a trio that were best friends. There's Gilda (Hannah Laird), Ham (Harris Doran) and Eubie (Paul Helm). Paul Helm was actually an understudy, more about that later. The three elves were close friends, sort of a three musketeers set. All of them have been trying to join the sleigh team, but they've never had luck. It's typically Eubie's fault. He's a bit over enthusiastic, which is how he earned the title "The Happiest Elf." Eubie worked at the buff and shine department, and got a little too into his work... he polished the face right off of a doll, and polished a fire truck until it was radio active. One of the elves handled the fire truck with tongs, it was glowing red hot.
He gets a page on his blackberry-type thing that he's to come up to the main office... which is where he gets assigned to work on the naughty and nice list.

Gilda was just cute. She did a lot of dancing and acrobatics all around the stage. She also chronically suffered from allergies, which was kinda funny. She had a pretty song when she dueted with Eubie, telling him not to give up. There was a bit of a hint at a possible romance between her and Eubie, but it was never realized. They kept getting distracted, or interrupted. But, from the look on his face sometimes, he definitely liked her.

Ham was a bit more serious. He had dark framed glasses, which is always a plus, and he had a beret sort of hat, as opposed to the stocking hat of everyone else. Due to a misunderstanding, he was sort of a "bad guy" for part of the play, although he came around at the end. He had wonderful semi-annoyed expressions, and he had a very nice dramatic apology scene too. He also had his own solo song, but honestly, I was not that impressed with his voice. It wasn't powerful. He was a great actor, and wonderful for the part, but I wasn't a fan of his singing. He wasn't bad, he just paled in comparison to the rest of them.

Onto Eubie, the title character. He was just cute as he bounced around the stage. I had seen the actor before in Adventures of Frog and Toad and I spent part of the show trying to remember what I had seen him in. I mentioned that he was an understudy, but he did a great job so that wasn't a problem. I did notice though that he was walking around with notecards that he carried in his pocket. Sometimes he'd ruffle through them, and look at them before or during his lines. I think that he didn't feel confident in doing the part without a little help. It didn't distract really, I'm not sure how I first noticed them, but then I was watching for it. I can't blame the guy, some of his lines were complicated.

So a bit more about the plot, cuz I thought it was cool and worth a summary.
I guess that the elves keep their magic in their hats. When Eubie decided to go to Bluesville to investigate why all the kids were on the naughty list. He went over to a door and pulled a green sheet down over himself (His hat was green). That was how he teleported. It was kinda nicely done. He had been working with Molly, trying to spread Christmas cheer in Bluesville when he gets summoned home, via text message.
Back at the North Pole, Santa and Norbert are too busy with Christmas coming to deal with Eubie and his unauthorized trip to Bluesville. So, Santa decides that until he has time to investigate further, he is going to take Eubie's hat. A depressed Eubie, who admittedly, looked kinda strange without his hat, goes back to sorting papers. Gilda comes in and gives him her hat. He won't take it at first, but she insists. They decide not to tell Ham because they don't want to get him in trouble too.
Eubie teleports again, this time the sheet is pink, the color of Gilda's hat.
Ham overheard them say that they weren't going to tell him, but not the part about why they didn't want to tell him. He gets upset, thinking that they don't want him around anymore, so he tattles. Gnomeland security comes and brings Eubie back to the North Pole.
Luckily, this is after Eubie's great plan to cheer up Bluesville is put into place. There are three parts to his plan, first they recalibrate the factory to produce exclamation points instead of question marks. The exclamation points are in all sorts of fonts, including wingdings. The second phase of his plan is to help the mayor sleep better, by giving him Breathe-Right-Strips. The third phase... I was not entirely clear on. I think he set up a lot of brightly polished mirrors that caught the sunlight and reflected it around for longer... or something.
Back at the North Pole, Eubie and Gilda are on clean up detail, and Ham eavesdrops again. This time he hears the whole story, they were glad that he didn't get in trouble. He confesses that he tattled on them, and he feels terrible. That part was cute, I wanted to hug him. He asks if he can do anything to make it up to them, and Eubie says there is one thing...
So Ham goes off to Bluesville, his teleport is purple. He goes there and greets Molly with "Are you Molly?" She asks if he's a friend of Eubie's, and he says yes. She asks if he is as happy as Eubie, to which Ham replies: "No one is." He gives Molly a star for the Christmas tree in the town center, and when the mayor places it on the tree, the whole theatre lit up with Christmas lights. Then the mayor did a very quick change, and Santa came out in his sleigh. He came to announce his new sleigh team, at which point Ham gets a little sad. But he announces the team: Eubie, Gilda and Ham!

So the three friends got their wish, and Christmas and happiness returned to Bluesville and all lived happily ever after.

There wasn't that interesting to report about the talk back, the kids were fascinated by the elf ears. After the show, the cast exited, but some of them, Eubie, Santa and Gert in particular, waved and greeted the kids in the first row. I thought that was nice, but I was also distracted by watching the stagehands lower the bass from the orchestra balcony when Paul Helm (Eubie) rushed back onstage and announces that he should greet the people on "This side too!" and he leans over and shoves his hand at me. I nearly hit the ceiling as I was not paying attention. So I shook his hand, and I'm like "Uh... hi." I had just been thinking that I'd wanted to tell him he did a great job too.