The sixth edition of is , much of it directed at including chirpy, folks, and PG-13 jokes.
* * * comedy
The improv-style show is a series of sketches escorted by Christmas music (real carols, ). The four cast members set the tone before the show by forcefully distributing Hershey’s Kisses and spray-cheese on crackers.
Two uber-cheery carolers break into “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” thoughtfully providing the cold with jackets and scarves, feeding the hungry, then helping an awkward stoner light his pipe, and kindly handing a mugger the handbag he’s dropped.
“Merry Hanukkah” continues that earnest theme as a Christian couple, wearing lookalike argyle sweaters, visits a bewildered Jewish neighbor. They warble a Hanukkah tune and proudly offer a and handmade green-and-red yarmulke that definitely would turn heads at temple.
The jaunty smugness continues with an increasingly frustrated father reading to children whose questions reinterpret the phrase “threw up the sash” and snigger at “breast of newfallen snow.” Then come a cannabis-inspired rearrangement of “Carol of the Bells” and an innovative Spanish-to-English translation of the word “Christmas.”
And the cast throws in a repeating white-elephant joke based on Sarah MacLachlan’s for the American Humane Society, finding new, seasonally relevant causes to champion. (Is there anything sadder than a mall Santa surprised by his own rapidly cooling soaked lap?)
The show continues through Sunday, from more earnest productions. If you go, wear a Christmas sweater — — and you might get a stocking stuffer-size .
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
“SANTA’S BIG RED SACK” Written and produced by Derek Hartman, Jeff Kosloski, Dave Shirley and Jane Shirley. Directed by Dave Shirley. Performed by Derek Hartman, Jeff Kosloski, Michael O’Shea and Jane Shirley. Through Sunday at the Avenue Theater, 417 E. 17th Ave. Tickets $26.50 at avenuetheater.com or 303-321-5925
