#Homburg no humbug. ye diarie free#

Perhaps his weakest moments were those that required nuance. Beware, if you sit in the front row or second row center, you will be a target!). A few technical glitches on opening night were handled with just the right tip of the hat by Morris – not overdone, but just enough to acknowledge the slight bumps.Īside from those veteran handlings, his best moments were when he was interacting with the crowd (he was spot on in his selection of those he wanted to incorporate into the proceedings. Morris is a crowd pleaser and the actor commands the audience with his own doses of small asides. The show is directed by Morris collaborator, Christopher Kenney, and is co-produced by Morris’ Bevnap Productions.

Jamie Morris, who is becoming a bit of a regular at Empire Stage, and who recently staged and starred in two of his own penned production at ES, Silence of the Clams and The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode, takes on the role of David. Diaries is probably funnier if you have a buzz on.

#Homburg no humbug. ye diarie free#

Contributing to this was the free wine Empire Stage has made part of their cheer (only a donation is required for the vino). In fact, one woman in Thursday night’s audience seated in front of me was so hysterical I feared she’d need a straight jacket. And, yes, Diaries has laugh-out-loud moments. Truth be told, I was a Diaries newbie until Thursday night, so I went into the show with little to no expectations. The SantaLand Diaries, since it was adapted for the stage by director/actor Joe Mantello in 1996 from a script based on Sedaris’ 1992 National Public Radio autobiographical essay, is becoming as much of a theater staple as It’s a Wonderful Life, although don’t expect as feel-good a message. And so, for 2013, we get Empire Stage’s take on Diaries, a 70-minute tale about the intersection of Christmas and commerce, elf boot-camp training, parents on the verge of a nervous breakdown, snide Santas and caustic co-workers – basically these are the non-joy musings of an unemployed actor who takes a seasonal job as Santa’s elf Crumpet at Macy’s New York. You can bet that some theater, somewhere, around this time of year is staging Sedaris’ monological diatribe. Yet there are reasons to see Empire Stage’s production of the adult-tinged, bah-humbug holiday theater tradition. While David Sedaris’ The SantaLand Diaries has its share of funny, when his script stoops low for laughs, he dashes all the other precious gifts he doles out in this very inventive one-person show. In stand-up comedy, there are a few rules of thumb: don’t make fun of the disabled and jokes about race usually don’t usually go over too well with audiences either. To see earlier reviews, check out the red ribbon at the bottom of the page entitled “Reviews” or click the “Reviews” button in the white on teal strip at the top of the page. That means reviews will only be in the top four positions for four days. There are 29 shows opening or have opened already this month. Jamie Morris as Crumpet the elf in Empire Stage’s The SantaLand Diaries