City Pleasures: Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish – The Musical, Has it All
By Mitchell Oldham
And you thought you knew all there is to know about Christmas. Even if you do, you’ll still fall for Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish – the Musical. Enjoying its hard-won debut at the Greenhouse Theatre on Lincoln Ave. near DePaul, Eleanor’s more than anyone could ask from a Christmas story.
A labor of love written with glinting wit and disarming purity by Denise McGowan Tracy, who also created the music and lyrics for the production with Kathleen Butler-Duplessis, Eleanor is also a million lovely life lessons wrapped in a small shiny story.
The heroine is a rag doll. And from all appearances, a very happy one living in the North Pole with Santa, Mrs. Claus, Santa’s executive assistant, Clara, and a slew of elves. One of them, Sprinkle, is a little pistol prone to the cheeky. Scott Gryder, in the role opening night, knew exactly how to extract every ounce of goodness from his juicy character. For everyone else, the privilege of helping make wishes come true and a diet rich in cookies has left them perpetually blissed out. Samantha Bonzi as Eleanor was the perfect picture of earnest innocence.
But even in a perfect world like the North Pole, things don’t always add up. Eleanor is a doll. A toy. So why isn’t she ever headed out with Santa on Christmas Eve destined to make someone’s Christmas wish real? Is she a reject? Flawed? Or is she too plain and boring? Questions both young and not so young children, from 4 to twice 40, grapple silently with all the time.
While reminding us of the importance of being magnanimous with ourselves as well as others and by putting it out there that “wishing is not a plan”, Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish – The Musical, goes a step further and shows how positive action can lead to rewarding outcomes. You’d expect that in a good Christmas story. But you might not expect to see and hear it told with such luminous freshness. Casting, costumes, and direction were all pivotal in giving the show its peerless feel. Glimmer (Cara Chumbley) and Shimmer (Clare Latourette), radiant in beautiful costumes created by Tatjana Radisic, masterfully warmed up the crowd before the show; making immediate and robust connections to the mature and chary as well as to the small and guileless.
If a good play is like a good recipe that relies on top quality ingredients to shine, Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish counts as fine holiday dining. Sweet? Of course. But with plenty of substance to make it satisfying and nourishing.
Tracy’s impressive career in Chicago’s entertainment community avails her to a rich talent base as evidenced by the caliber of craft on the musical’s stage and behind the scenes. From Noelle’s (Sydney Swanson’s) high angelic harmonies to Clara’s (Emily Rohm’s) lustrous resonance, the production’s singing was uniformly stellar. Chicago’s constellation of Christmas classics just got a brighter with Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish – the Musical in its firmament.
Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish – The Musical
November 19 – December 29, 2019
The Greenhouse Theater Center
2257 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL
www.eleanorswish.com
773-40-GREEN