This seemed appropriate

XMAS!6, A Mall-y Jolly, XMAS!, was performed twice yesterday in Roone, and was the sixth such annual holiday extravaganza. Senior Arts and Religion critic, Alex Jones, reviews this year’s pre-finals musical relief. 

XMAS! aims to be a last little bit of bright, holiday musical cheer before a week of finals-induced misery, XMAS!5 producer Steele Sternberg, CC’13, explained to me before the show. With a small budget, and a short window of rehearsal time, XMAS! faces compromises that larger productions, such as the Varsity Show, do not.

However, XMAS!6 compares favorably to its lavishly supported big brother. Having contributed to the review of V117, I urge this year’s VShow creative team to take a look at XMAS!6 for some inspiration. Though it lacked a polished coherence—some, indeed most, elements fell flat during the performance—there were moments, and characters, which achieved unique and appreciable comedic success.

The opening number, “Celebrate With Us,” immediately demonstrated the robust and lively musical accompaniment. The composers, Nick Parker CC ’14 and Solomon Hoffman CC ’14, crafted catchy and charming melodies. The delightful music was, at moments, more enjoyable than anything happening on stage. Despite such moments, it felt like the rest of XMAS!6 fell into the common student theatre trap of extended musical numbers, which become tiresome and don’t progress the plot. “Celebrate With US”, like many in the show, could be more effective if halved in length.

The central storyline was introduced between the first and second songs. Oh boy! Another love story featuring two awkward, yet well-intentioned, loners—a device that makes red and green seem like a novel Christmas combination. Whenever the show veered back to develop or concentrate on that story, the audience was unengaged, and many checked their phones. It was bad.

But it gets better! Read on for the show’s satisfying conclusion

In this latest RoomHop, dorm design professional Alexandra Svokos traveled to the Woodbridge abode of a pair of seniors involved—among other things—in XMAS!6, which is tonight(!) in Roone at 8:15pm.

“His name is Nero,” Lila Neiswanger,CC ’12, and Will Brown, SEAS ’12, say in unison about their betta fish. “Oh, the apartment’s name is Antium, ” Will goes on, “which is the birthplace of Emperor Nero.” “But the fish came first,” Lila quickly clarifies. The fish is just one object in this Woodbridge room of wonders. As a fighter fish, they felt it deserved an ancient dictator’s name; given the choice between Nero and Artaxerxes, Lila chose Nero.

Artaxerxes was not forgotten, however. “Will’s one of those people who names his computers,” Lila explains. Boasting six computers, Will is a CS senior. The name Artaxerxes was bestowed upon the desktop computer that he built and uses. “It’s just kinda sliding stuff into stuff,” he shrugs when asked about building it before explaining the pieces inside the computer. “Just go with it,” Lila says.

The 3D printer the duo assembled by hand

Controlled through the computer is a projector that continually shines on the wall. It cycles through webpages or plays a youtube video of a fireplace. “It just keeps interesting things on the screen,” Will explains. It has also been used for movies and TV and can be hooked up to an Xbox. Next to the projector is a lamp made by Will’s parents from an old French camera with a soda can painted black for a lampshade.

Together, Lila and Will built a 3D printer that looks like it came from Dexter’s laboratory. Melting down plastic filaments, it creates little objects like colorful Pacman ghosts that shine under blacklight. They have been updating the machine over time, with additions like LED lights that change colors. Read more…

It was like this

Bwog’s Holiday Cheer Leader Peter Sterne reports.

As the first snowfall (flurries don’t count) of the year descended into Morningside Heights last night, students gathered on the Lerner Ramps and outside Roone, eager to see the latest edition of XMAS!, the VShow-like student-run musical that’s been satirizing the holiday season for the last five years. When the audience was finally let into Roone, they found the speakers blared the Maccabeats’ “Candlelight.” It was an interesting introduction to a show that spent the next two hours poking fun at corporate culture, hipsters, Jews, gays, and New Jersey, before tying it all up with the saccharine moral that XMAS is for everyone and it will always be around.

The show begins in a boardroom in XMAS, Inc., where recently hired hotshot executive William (Andrew Wright, CC ’14) is upstaging power-mad CEO Thurston Wallace I (Thomas Spry, CC ’14), who bought Christmas from Santa Claus back in the 1980s. Spry channels Jacobim Mugatu more than Gordon Gekko in his portrayal of Thurston, and the camp he brings to his character’s prima-donna personality and deliciously evil scheming are a delight to watch onstage. Once he decides that William may be a threat, he forces his poor elf assistant, Sprinkles (the phenomenal Emily Wallen, BC ’11), to lure him to a warehouse in Hoboken.

Though she’s only a supporting actor, Wallen is really the heart and soul of this play. She shines during the musical performances, effortlessly able to command the stage during a solo. More importantly, she brings an endearing awkward schtick to her character Sprinkles, who’s torn between her good conscience and the realities of working for XMAS, Inc. Surely, some of Sprinkles’ charm comes courtesy of brilliant writers (“What else can I do? Merrill Lynch isn’t exactly hiring elves and I can’t join the military because of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Telf!’”). But it is Wallen’s delivery that brings her character alive. Even when she tricks William and locks him the Hoboken warehouse, the audience remains sympathetic to her plight. Read more…

HOLIDAY CHEER! Special thanks to XMAS 5! A Corporate Carol – go see it next Monday night! Also thanks to Eli Grober for playing guitar, Wallen and D’Offit for vocals, Matt Star for orchestration, John Nordin, Eduardo Santana and Nathan Bailey for dancing, Bwog staff for helping with lyrics and Kenny Durrell for his filming talents.

Taking a break from finals studying, Bwog’s North Pole Bureau Chief Sean Zimmermann reports from the production of “XMAS! 4: Shalom Alone” last night about the story of one little Jewish Santa:

As the audience walked in to Roone, the first thing to notice was the loud dance music filling the auditorium. Lady Gaga, who usually isn’t associated with holiday cheer, was a surprising choice and a stark contrast to the musicians warming up wearing Santa hats. However, “surprising” is indeed a good overall characterization of the musical. Surprising due to its very small budget, surprising due to its limited showings, and surprising due to just how good it turned out to be.

Ollie Klausberg, played by Brian LaPerche, opened the musical by giving a reading from the Torah during his Bar Mitzvah. However, the nervous Ollie wets himself while reading and runs off stage. After being comforted by his pagan friend Amethyst (Emily Feinstein), an elf named Marty (Reni Calister) greets Ollie and informs him that he is the grandson of Santa and needs to travel to the North Pole. Ollie, after some encouragement from Amethyst, agrees.

Read more…

Bwog theater correspondent Morgan Childs saw last night’s annual XMAS! show.

Please don’t ask me to explain XMAS!.  In case you missed last night’s two-show run, the bare facts may seem a little out of left field.  Things begin like an off-color joke when a pagan, a Jew, and a frustrated Kwanzaa observer conspire to kidnap Santa Claus, only to find their plans thwarted by Charlie Brown, Tiny Tim, and a rapping Lil’ Drummer Boy.  The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is looking for love, and Santa wears skinny jeans.  Two goats fall in love.  It all works out in the end.

There’s a lot going on in this year’s XMAS!, but for one reason or another, nobody seems to mind.   XMAS! North by Northpole, the third installation of the annual student-produced holiday musical, is the story not of Charlie Brown, not of Tiny Tim or Sally Pagan or Cindy Jew Who, but of all of them as well as all their friends.  In that way (and in Jew Who’s confession that she secretly prefers Christmas to Hannukah), XMAS! is a rumination on the universality of Christmas.  But let’s not kid ourselves, lest we forget the real meaning of XMAS!: wit, irreverence, and a respite from the stress of final exams.

Read more…

Caitlin Shure CC ‘07, Shruti Kumar CC ‘08, and Jordy Lievers CC ‘07 sing along to “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in the kitchen of Shure’s EC suite. They are preparing a veritable feast in the spirit of the upcoming holidays—it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas ’round here, so the trio is preparing a potluck dinner for the cast and creative team of their new musical: Xmas! A Secular Spectacular, playing Tuesday night in Roone Arledge Auditorium. As the meal preparation simmers down, Caitlin and Shruti—writer and composer, respectively—find a moment to sit down with Bwog correspondent Michael Snyder as art director Jordy puts the finishing touches on the suite’s decoration.

The Secular Spectacular—when did you start working on it?

SHURE: It’s hard to say.

KUMAR: A lot of the work began before Caitlin and I knew each other.

SHURE: Last year around this time I just said “Guys—can we do a Christmas Spectacular?” I thought it was going to be really simple, just a couple of friends singing songs. Then the three of us decided to propose Grease to CMTS and still maybe do this Christmas Show—

KUMAR: —just as something on the side. But Grease was rejected by CMTS.

SHURE: But we had this ridiculous creative team. We had the best producers, the best music, the best design—

KUMAR: The best director.

SHURE: So I said, “I had this idea for a Christmas show.” And I think the thing that’s gotten people involved at every step is, basically, who wouldn’t want to do a Christmas show?

Read more…