INTERVIEW: York Theatre Company skewers Christmas season
Photo: From left, Scott Ahearn, Ron Wisniski, Lori Hammel, Zak Risinger, Brandon Williams and Donna English star in Christmas in Hell at The York Theatre Company. Photo courtesy of Carol Rosegg / Provided by Richard Hillman PR with permission.
The York Theatre Company in New York City is jumping on the seasonal bandwagon with a new musical from the mind of Gary Apple, a writer on The Simpsons. The show, which plays through Dec. 30 at the company’s St. Peter’s space in Midtown East, pokes fun at Christmas and the traditional family stories that populate pop culture in December.
Christmas in Hell, directed by Bill Castellino, follows the journey of a father as he treks down to hell to find his 8-year-old son. The boy was mistakenly taken to the underworld, and it’s up to Dad to take on the Devil and save the day.
The musical’s origins date back a few years to the New York Fringe Festival and New York Musical Festival. Now Apple is ready to unleash his for-mature-audiences-only show on Big Apple theatergoers.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox talked with Apple, who wrote the book, music and lyrics for the musical. Here’s what he had to say …
On what his goals are with the show …
“One of the things I’m trying to do is to absolutely surprise [the audience] with something that they don’t expect. When we go into a Christmas show, we expect cheer and lightness and love and all of that, and this is a much darker approach to Christmas.
“It’s comedic in that I juxtapose traditional Christmas stuff with some very dark things, and I’m constantly trying to give the audience things that they don’t expect from the very beginning. In fact, we’re working on the opening number, which is so somber. It’s so not what you would expect at a Christmas show that we’re wondering whether it’s too shocking. Another thing, you expect wholesomeness, and we’re not all that wholesome. We say it’s PG-14. A catch phrase I like to use is, ‘It’s holiday fun for the whole family, except for kids.’ So any expectations they have, they’re fine to walk into the theater with them, but I’m pretty sure that they’re going to be shattered as the show unfolds for them.”
On the development process …
“About three years ago it was in the New York Fringe Festival. It had a different title back then. It was called Hell Is for Real. I guess it took me about a year to write it leading up to that, so I guess four years, which for musical theater I understand is pretty fast. Everybody says it takes 10 years, but it’s been about four years in development, three years since it was first presented to the public.”
On how the show has changed over the years …
“I was trying to write a very provocative, a little bit shocking, inappropriate Christmas show, but the more it developed, the more it had a real heart and actually had a real message. This is going to sound strange. But people laugh a lot, but they also cry in spots. And the higher quality it got, the more pressure came on me to make it less offensive, to make it more inclusive for a younger audience because the messages are actually very, very good and very much in line with the holiday spirit.
“Since the Fringe show and the one that’s going up now at York … it’s been toned down where we realize I didn’t need to be that shocking, so the other things, the finer quality stuff can shine through. So it has become tamer, but anybody looking at it is still going to think it’s pretty outrageous. …
“The heart of the show has become more prominent, and the outright shocking stuff has been toned down a bit.”
On working with Castellino, director of Cagney and Desperate Measures …
“This is going to sound like an interview answer, but it’s 100 percent honest. It is so great. Besides the fact that I write musicals, I’m not a tremendous musical fan, and I went to see Desperate Measures three times before I knew that he was going to be associated with my show. It’s such a fine piece of work, and now working with him is just great.
“He’s very respectful. He’s very creative. He’s very calm. This is my first show at this level, and, of course, the stakes are very, very high for me. And they’re high for him, too. It’s very important to him, but he takes things as they unfold. He’s been there before. He realizes the process isn’t always smooth, and he also realizes he has to deal with a writer who is more concerned then he is at times. He assures me that it’s going great, and I’m in great hands with him.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Christmas in Hell continues through Dec. 30 at The York Theatre Company at St. Peter’s in Midtown East in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
