“The Ho Ho Ho Show" at the Black Box Theatre -- December 8 through 17.
Friday, De3cember 8, through Sunday, December 17
Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
A delightful pastiche of holiday songs - some familiar, some created with tongue firmly in cheek and double entendre abounding - The Ho Ho Ho Show makes its area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre December 8 through 17, adding a little naughty and nice to theatregoers' yuletide season with a cabaret-style entertainment boasting music by Eric Lane Barnes, Michael Duff, Beckie Menzie and Tom Sivik and writer Cheryl Coons.
“I heard about the show many, many years ago through my brother, who is friends with Cheri,” said Black Box co-founder Lora Adams, who also serves as The Ho Ho Ho Show's costume and set designer. “It was so clever that when I had The Evergreen Theatre in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, I asked if they could expand the show into a two-act musical. They did, and it had a wonderful run.” For her venue's 2023 holiday production, Adams contacted Coons about going back to the original cabaret version. “Cheryl updated some lyrics to reflect the time we live in, and we now are getting ready to put it on at The Black Box.”
With the production featuring a potpourri of song styles from jazz to doo-wop, The Ho Ho Ho Show's songs include “Chia Pet,” “Mrs. Clauses Lament,” “Mistletoad,” and the seasonal perennial “Carol of the Bells,” which the script points out kills more singers each year due to lack of oxygen. “The show is just a tongue in cheek look at the holidays," said Adams, "with a heavy dose of sentiment thrown in for good measure."
Featured among the cast are a half-dozen gifted area performers who have all previously appeared on the Black Box stage: Kirsten V. Myers (All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914), Kira Rangel (Natural Shocks), Jacqueline Isaacson and Taylor Lynn (both from Ride the Cyclone), and Tyler Henning and Reader theatre reviewer Roger Pavey Jr. (both from Hello, Dolly!).
The Ho Ho Show is being directed, in her Black Box debut, by Andrea Moore, who appeared in the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's springtime production of Grumpy Old Men: The Musical and directed and choreographed the theatre's pirate-themed holiday musical Jingle Argh the Way. And the production's music director and keyboardist is Karl Bodenbender, who directed last summer's Countryside Community Theatre presentation of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
The Ho Ho Ho Show runs in Moline from December 8 through 17, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. (no show on December 15) and Sundays at 2 p.m. Admission is $16, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)284-2350 and visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
