★★★½☆ 3.5 out of 5 stars A Hellmark Christmas Musical ParodyHeld over

This show was so close to being magical.

Ultimately, I think it ends up being worse than the sum of its parts.

Every performance by each member of the cast was great, with a special shoutout to Andrew Cormier as Nutmeg who absolutely stole the show.

There were some show-stopping numbers with the cast showing off their vocal prowess, justifiably. And several songs had well-crafted lyrics with very clever puns. When there were flubs (as there will be with this many people on a small stage), it was gracefully handled and improvisationally made a part of the performance. Everyone did a standout job.

But ultimately, the story... wasn't really. I'm not sure characters, motivations, or even exposition on what was happening was entirely consistent throughout the play. While there were several zingy one-liners, some of them bordered on irrelevance, and I thought started to take away from what was happening on stage.

Ultimately, I think this show shines in it's performances and the cleverness of its lyrics. I almost would prefer it to be a series of vignettes or sketches, or take another pass at revisions.

But I do have full confidence that everyone involved has the potential to do absolutely great things, and that was on display here.

I will say, I went to a midnight showing and some of the lines that didn't land with me absolutely did land with the crowd, so I'm willing to accept that it's just a difference in comedy preference.