There were fun times to be had at the Roper, with not one but two shows to take you full throttle into the holidays. Director Aliki Marie Pantas delivered Happy Hanukkah My Friend and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, injecting a much-needed blessing to trendy Granby Street.

The short Happy Hanukkah My Friend started the evening - without much fanfare. However, it clearly gave an overview of the holiday’s history and traditions.  In it, Mother (Patty Brillhart) tells the four children the Hanukkah story. There’s fun along the way, dreidel playing and making latkes (potato pancakes), with a serene Menorah lighting at the end.

Pantas’ direction was clear, and there’s nothing much else to report.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever followed immediately, a perennial weapon of the Hurrah arsenal since 1992.

The style of performance was extremely presentational (as with Happy Hanukkah…). By that I mean: face the audience, smile, pose early and often. Shockingly, it seemed to work for this family- and youth-oriented entertainment, as foreign and jarring as it seemed to me.

At any rate, the play was a success. There were magic moments, good performances and fun was had by all - but in the true Grinch spirit, I will first touch on the negative.

Peggy Young (Helen Armstrong) smoothly and believably portrayed a “church lady” with a physical malady. However, her constant gaze towards the house was too overtly hammy, and needed to be lessened by fifty percent.

When many actors were onstage simultaneously, the amount of background physical movement distracted from the dialogue.  It’s fine for the “crowd” to stand essentially motionless, listening, reacting subtly to what the other actors are saying. But I am really nitpicking. With such a large cast of mostly youngsters, director Pantas did a fine job preventing the inevitable squirming from getting too excessive - it couldn’t have been easy.

Furthermore

Pantas’ staging was noteworthy, her composition top notch.

The dynamic among these six ruffian youths was the highlight of the evening. Violent, cigar-smoking, mucus wiping - that’s the Herdmans - though to my delight, there was a discernible change at the end - they loved each other, and had the Christmas spirit. This was actually quite moving. When Imogene learned to hold the baby Jesus, I saw her transform into a young woman filled with love, and the world of the play change before my eyes. It was magic.

Cynthia Tademy (Mother) gave perhaps the most sincere and humanly truthful performance in this “showy” play. And at the same time, her ad-libbed phrases during her dance scene with John Araujo (Father) were unnecessary - the only blemish to an otherwise fine performance.  

The other “church ladies”, Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Slocum (Patty Brillhart and Lisa Wallace) were a hoot. Their over-the-top behavior and loud costumes made Dame Edna seem like the supermodel Giselle Bunchen. But in a good way.

Those were among the standout performances, and some youngsters in this large cast also faired well.

It’s truly a team effort in the Hurrah family. The sets were designed by the cast - actually, past and present casts. Every year things are added by actors and crew perpetuating the Best Christmas Pageant tradition. The suggested interiors and exteriors worked just fine.

A similar approach worked equally well with costumes. I was told they were designed and supplied by the cast and Stage Manager Cathy Ritchey. The fun they must have had assembling the outfits showed itself favorably on stage.

To sum things up, the two productions were quality family entertainment. If you have young children, certainly check out future Hurrah Player productions. And if you missed Happy HanukkahChristmas Pageant and this year, I’ll bet you’ll have your chance again, the tradition will likely continue.