PORT ANGELES — “Bethlehem-A-Palooza!” is director Jim Guthrie’s name for “a gaudy, straight-off -the-Vegas-Strip-style holiday pageant” which is the focus of a play that opened Friday night.
“Christmas Belles” — one of the laugh-packed comedies by Southern playwrights Jesse Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten — is the holiday production of the Port Angeles Community Players.
The 11-show run continues tonight (Saturday) at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., then the next two Tuesdays and following two weekends through Dec. 7 at the Players’ Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles.
Basic reserved-seat ticket prices are $12 for adults and $6 for students for Fridays, Saturdays, Sunday matinees and Tuesdays. Festival seating will be sold at the door for $6 on Tuesdays.
Tickets will be available at the door, in advance at Odyssey Bookshop or online at www.pacommunityplayers.com.
In the spectacle, unfortunately, all that glitters is not glitz when the camel costume turns out to be a breed of bear, the head of which gets attached to a live sheep by a young pageant participant; Santa discovers he’ll be delivering a kidney stone for Christmas; and most of the cast gets knocked out of commission by food poisoning, thanks to the Booster Club’s Pancake Supper.
Guthrie describes the script as “comedy heaven. . . . These are the same writers who did ‘Dearly Beloved’ last season, and many of us in that play couldn’t wait for this one to come along.”
But the show has more than its funny side, Guthrie said.
“Audiences will be laughing throughout; the cast is that good,” he said.
“But there are a couple of serious themes, like the importance of family and second chances, especially when the 25th of December rolls around.”
The Futrelle sisters of Fayro, Texas, make up the family in “Christmas Belles,” along with various in-laws, nieces and about-to-be in-laws.
Honey Raye Futrelle (Barbara Frederick) tries mightily to pull off the pageant.
Mighty pregnant with twins, sister Frankie (Brenda Dunlap) and jailbird sister Twink (Danielle Lorentzen) try to help, along with Rhonda Lynn Lampley (Sherie Maddox), who may be more than a family friend.
Then there are the likes of Deputy John Curtis Bunter (Stever Chamberlain), whose last-minute turn as The King (not the one in the Bible) brings order to the proceedings; Dub Dubberly (Pete Christiansen), the bargain-store Santa who’s in big pain; Gina Jo (Kennedy Cameron) and Justin (Luke Saskowski), two flighty lovebirds; Miss Geneva (Lynne Murphy), who wants to run the pageant the way she has for the past 27 years; Patsy Price (Linda Cameron), who almost ruins the pageant after all; and Reynerd (Bob Bronsink), a wagon-pulling shepherd who saves everything in the end.
