Sierra Rep shoots for the heart with ‘A Christmas Story’

Holiday stories don’t get much more beloved, or repeated, than “A Christmas Story.”

The oft-replayed Christmas film is now coming to the stage for Sierra Repertory Theatre this weekend to close out its season. The story, set in 1940s Indiana, follows a boy whose singular Christmas wish is to receive a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle.

Much like the movie, the stage show focuses on a boy named Ralphie who schemes for ways to get a BB-gun for Christmas despite his mother’s protests that “you’ll shoot your eye out.” Playing Ralphie will be young Sierra Rep regular Joseph Fitzgerald, a Twain Harte seventh-grader who already has been in the company’s productions of “Mary Poppins,” “Music Man,” “Macbeth” and “A Christmas Carol.”

The 12-year-old had actually only seen the film, which plays on regular rotation during the holiday season, once before being cast in the show. Still, he said he was excited to play such an iconic character.

“It’s a really cool show; it’s a lot of fun to be in. It’s one of those shows that is really cool,” he said.

Playing Ralphie’s father will be Cincinnati-based actor Kevin Crowley, whose character has his own holiday obsession with a salaciously shaped lamp. The show is his first with Sierra Rep and presents an interesting challenge. In taking the story from film to theater, the production has to balance audience expectations with the realities of a theatrical experience. Small changes will include the off-screen narrator from the film becoming an onstage presence for the audience; he will move through the cast as though he’s not there. Chicago actor Kevin McKillip will play the grown-up Ralphie, who narrates the action.

But Crowley said the piece’s heart and theme remain the same.

“Ultimately, it is such a sweet story. And it brings up a lot of nostalgia for that time period,” he said. “All the things everyone loves from the movie are in there.”

Sierra Rep Artistic Director Scott Viets helms the show, which will re-create all of the film’s classic scenes, from Ralphie’s unsuccessful meeting with a store Santa to the dinnertime disaster of the Bumpus hounds.

But Crowley acknowledged that it’s also hard playing such a familiar part. Instead of simply mimicking the portrayal of screen actor Darren McGavin, he said he drew on his own experience as a father of two boys, who are both now in college.

“That’s the trap, to try to imitate him. He gave such an iconic performance. So mostly I am just channeling myself as a father, and that’s easy to do,” he said. “I certainly remember Christmas Eves when they were bouncing off the walls.”

For Fitzgerald, the lessons he has learned from playing Ralphie are simple.

“Listen to your parents. He does shoot his eye out at the end of it,” he said. “But he still gets what he wants and he did work hard on his schemes.”

This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 8:44 PM with the headline "Sierra Rep shoots for the heart with ‘A Christmas Story’."