It’s a joy to be in the Mount Vernon area when that Christmas spirit takes hold. They light the monument, trees go up everywhere, and Spotlighters Theatre puts on a holiday show of some variety or other. (They’ve even thrown their hat in the ring in years past with their very own one-man A Christmas Carol.) But this year, they’re trying something a little different. Yes they are, they are, they are. They’re taking you out of Charm City and all the way down to Greater Tuna in Texas. (Some of you may remember this very road trip some ten Christmas pasts’ ago!) That’s right, folks, via Radio Station OKOK, The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre is puttin’ up A Tuna Christmas, by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard. Directed by Adrienne Bergeron, this quirky little holiday affair is a festive alternative to all the productions of A Christmas Carol popping up around the city this cheerful time of year.
This production sure does have some issues, it does, it does, yes it does. Not the least of which is the fact that the humor is dated, doesn’t really play all that well to modern audiences, and its overall approach shies away from playing on some of those more questionably dated ‘notes’ of humor that are woven all throughout the script. The play also suffers from a severe lack of pacing all across the board. Written as a two-person show where the humor is meant to come from two guys playing some dozen or so different characters with hyper-quick-changes and chaos in scene that prevents exits and entrances to farcically play up the fact that it’s just two actors covering this role…the Spotlighters productions goes off the Texas trail a bit. One might think that having a third actor could eliminate some of these pacing issues, or at the very least, alleviate some of the urgency for intense off-stage quick changes, but it somehow actually gums things up more. And the built-in humor of certain scenes that very tongue-in-cheekily acknowledge the fact that it’s supposed to be one actor in both roles and that’s why they can’t interact is destroyed by the way director Adrienne Bergeron has broken up the character tracks.
Stage Manager Alyssa Stambaugh, ASM Jesse Doggett, and Dressers Nico Birch and Aisha Reed miss the Christmas mark with this production. The quick changes aren’t happening quickly, and the lengthy, meandering of ‘scenery shift’ between each scene is noticeably unpleasant. With these delays and drawn-out stretches of inactivity, it makes keeping up the in-scene pacing impossible. Director Adrienne Bergeron doesn’t get the Texas fires glowing any faster in the scene work either. Some of the dialogue exchanges are attempting to be possessed of that slow, Texas drawl, but what’s happening is the delivery is falling behind itself and the humor isn’t landing. (There were also some confusions amongst some of the actors about who was who at the opening weekend Saturday evening performance, where different actors were calling out their own character names, particularly in the diner scene, and this added confusion to the audience, and a further break in the pacing.) It’s also difficult to tell if the primary reason for the humor not landing is the show’s poor pacing or the fact that the dated humor just isn’t funny anymore, or a combination of both.
In addition to the woes of pacing, the pantomime-prop world isn’t doing the production any favors. Some props are mimed, other props are actual, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason for which is which. And one of the ‘why did we make this choice’ moments that comes to mind is when the Didi character drags that endless extension cord across the stage to plug it in and ‘light up’ something (the light cue misfired, was not designed to effectively hit the side of the audience I was seated in, or some other illuminating mishap) only to have it be a prop that takes far too long for the stage crew to clear in the dark-out that immediately follows that scene. The performance is riddled with moments like this and of its opposite— where whatever is being pantomimed isn’t clear and so the read or the humor of that moment or scene gets lost in the Christmas gravy somewhere.
Scenic Designer Justin Nepomuceno has done a really amazing thing with this Christmas tree revolve built into one of the corners of the play space. It’s a full-on, rotating table loaded up with various Christmas trees. It’s actually reminiscent of the ‘tree lot’ that Charlie Brown and Linus go to from A Charlie Brown Christmas when Lucy sends them out into the cold winter’s night to find a tree. Only Nepomuceno’s work feels under-appreciated in that corner and it seems like an awfully impressive, albeit surplus to requirement, feature to be utilized so little. There were also a bunch of sonic and illuminating misfires from the tech booth on the night this reviewer attended (cues that were delayed, cues that were too early, and whatever was happening with the ‘electrocution effect’ over on Nepomuceno’s tree-revolve wasn’t made clear…I think in the script it’s meant to be a ‘too many lights plugged in’ kind of moment? Or maybe one of Didi’s ammo cans going rogue…either way it seems out of place and when you stack it on all the booth misfires, it just adds to the confusion.)
Costume Designer Anna Tsakalas and Wig Master Clover Wellons bring some much-needed joy to the production with their compilations and contributions. Wellons’ wig work is the glittery-tinsel gem in this production, particularly for the Didi character and the two Tastee Kreme waitresses. Tsakalas’ finest sartorial selection for the show is the checker-plaid tinsel-threaded pants suit featured on Bertha Bumiller, complete with not-exactly-matching jacket; it just screams tacky Christmas, which is right on brand for this particular show.
The three performers— Emma Shannon, Jason Braswell, Dean Rosenthal— have put a tremendous amount of effort into what they’re doing, and should be applauded for their attempts. A lot of the pacing mishaps happen with Braswell and Rosenthal, as do some of the who’s-who confusion. Emma Shannon is racing through the show with some serious charm, wildly developed characters, and honestly is like a Christmas miracle to the production. Her vocal affectation for the Petey Fisk character is hysterical. The way she gravels and growls and barks when she’s playing Didi is equally an uproarious riot. (Though at times— and this happens to everyone who shouts— when Shannon is shouting, you lose all articulation and clarity and the words bellowing out of her mouth become unintelligible. This is particularly true when she’s bellyaching at RR— Jason Braswell— and you lose the whole sound of his name plus whatever it is she’s belching out to him.) Shannon is also really hilarious in the role of Joe Bob Lipsy. (There’s a missed opportunity in the costume department here for something outrageously over-the-top and flamboyant to match the style of the character.)
Jason Braswell’s strongest character portrayal is his Bertha, though at times the speech is so slow that it doesn’t quite deliver us the comedy that you can hear written into her dialogue. Braswell’s also quite fit to be tied as Pearl Burras, both characters making for a good chuckle. Dean Rosenthal does an excellent job of creating a noticeable differential between his Jody Bumiller and his Charlene Bumiller and that makes for an entertaining moment, especially when Charlene starts chucking icicles at the tree.
Ultimately a product of its time with some mighty difficult pacing issues— it is, it is, yes indeed it is, A Tuna Christmas is on stage at Spotlighters through the 21st of December this calendar year.
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 35 minutes with one intermission
A Tuna Christmas plays through December 21st 2025 at at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre— 817 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD. For tickets call the box office at (410) 752-1225 or purchase them online.
