A Christmas Story: The Musical


A Christmas Story: The Musical is a musical version of the 1983 film A Christmas Story. The musical has music and lyrics written by Pasek & Paul and the book by Joseph Robinette. The musical takes place in the 1940s in Indiana and focuses on a child named Ralphie, who wants a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas.
After numerous regional productions, out of town tryouts and national tours, this version of the musical originally officially opened on Broadway in November 2012 at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre for a limited engagement that ran through December 2012.

Production history

The musical premiered at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Missouri in December 2009. The music and lyrics for that version were written by Scott Davenport Richards; the musical was directed by Eric Rosen with the book by Joseph Robinette, and featured John Bolton as "The Old Man" and Anne L. Nathan as Mother. Zachary Sayle appeared as Ralphie Parker and Jake Siegfried as younger brother, Randy Parker. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul were hired to re-do the score after the Kansas City engagement.
A Christmas Story: The Musical opened at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle, Washington, on December 9, 2010 and ran through December 30, 2010. The director was Eric Rosen with choreography by Kelly Devine, and a cast that featured John Bolton and Anne Allgood as The Old Man and Mother. A national tour in 2011 followed, ending at the Chicago Theatre.

New York City

The musical had a limited run in Manhattan in 2012 and 2013. It opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 19, 2012, and closed on December 30, 2012. The musical was directed by John Rando with choreography by Warren Carlyle. The cast featured Dan Lauria as Jean Shepherd, John Bolton as The Old Man, Caroline O'Connor as Miss Shields, Erin Dilly as Mother, Zac Ballard as Randy, and with Johnny Rabe and Joe West both alternating as lead character Ralphie, played in the 1983 film by Peter Billingsley, one of the show's producers. The Broadway producers were Gerald Goehring, Roy Miller, Michael F. Mitri, Pat Flicker Addiss, Peter Billingsley, Timothy Laczynski, Mariano Tolentino, Jr., Louise H. Beard, Michael Filerman, Scott Hart, Alison Eckert, Bob Bartner, Michael Jenkins, Angela Milonas and Bradford W. Smith.
The production returned to New York for a limited engagement at The Theater at Madison Square Garden that ran from December 11, 2013 to December 29, 2013. The principals included Dan Lauria, John Bolton, Erin Dilly and Caroline O'Conner reprising their roles. The character of "Ralphie" was played by Jake Lucas with Eli Tokash at some performances. The role of 'Randy' was played by Noah Baird.

National tour

A seasonal national tour of the show has run yearly since 2014. Directed by Matt Lenz the tour is based on the original staging by John Rando with choreography by Warren Carlyle. Sets are by Michael Carnahan, lighting design by Charlie Morrison and costumes by Lisa Zinni. The 2019 tour will begin in November 2019 in Sacramento, California at the Memorial Auditorium. The 2019 tour production is again directed by Matt Lenz, staged by Michael Rader with Warren Carlyle's Broadway choreography reset for the tour by Brooke Martino. Ian Shaw and Tommy Druhan alternate in the role of Ralphie.

2017 television broadcast

In May 2017, the Fox Broadcasting Company announced that it would air a live television event based on the Broadway musical version titled A Christmas Story Live!, with Pasek and Paul composing several new songs for the live television musical. The live musical was televised on December 17, 2017, with the cast that starred Maya Rudolph as Ralphie's mother, Matthew Broderick as The Narrator/Older Ralphie, 11-year-old Andy Walken as Ralphie, Jane Krakowski as Miss Shields, Chris Diamantopoulos as Ralphie's father, and Ana Gasteyer as Mrs. Schwartz, the mother of one of Ralphie's friends. The production added several new songs and cut three of the songs from the original Broadway production.

Regional productions

The musical has had several regional productions, including the more recent productions running at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia and at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, both productions running from November 2015 through January 2016.
The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle had once served as a regional venue for the musical, hosting it from November to December 2014. Additionally, the musical ran during the 2013 season in at the Wang Theatre in Boston, the Woodlawn Theatre in San Antonio, Texas and the Bushnell Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut.

International productions

A Christmas Story premiered in Europe at Waterloo East Theatre London SE1 8TG on November 28, 2018.

Casts

Characters

;Act 1
;Act 2
The reviewer of the Seattle production wrote:
Just about every nostalgic, humorous vignette, celebrating a kind of quirky childhood innocence enshrined in America's past, gets an up-tempo romp in the polished, very busy score.... performed with vigor by an admirable cast of 33.... But overall, 'A Christmas Story' looks spiffy, with Walt Spangler's snow-cave design brightened by giant Christmas packages and trees and Howell Binkley's twinkly-tastic lighting. If it's too long a haul, there's a lot here to please kids.

Charles Isherwood, in his review of the Broadway production for The New York Times, wrote:
he stage version lightens up a little on the cute, smart-alecky asides... making room for the music and allowing the story mostly to speak for itself.... Mr. Pasek and Mr. Paul have provided a likable, perky score that duly translates all of the major episodes in the story into appropriate musical numbers.

Nominated awards

The production received two Outer Critics Circle Award nominations but did not win: Outstanding New Broadway Musical and Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.
The musical received six Drama Desk Award nominations. as well as three Tony Award nominations for the 67th Tony Awards, however it did not win any.

Original Broadway production