A Christmas Story at the Eccles

I love the movie A Christmas Story so much!  I actually remember seeing it in the theater when it was first released and since then I have probably seen it at least 812 times.  My sister and I like to watch it continuously on Christmas Eve in our separate houses and quote all of the lines to each other over social media ("It...it was...soap poisoning").  Because I love the movie so much, I was a little bit wary when I heard that the musical version was coming to the Eccles Theatre.  I am not a fan of turning popular movies into musicals but, even though the songs are incredibly contrived, I found the show last night to be really delightful.  Ralphie (Ian Shaw) desperately wants an official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time for Christmas but his Mother (Briana Gantsweg), the Old Man (Christopher Swan), his teacher Miss Shields (Lauren Kent), and even Santa Claus (Daniel Mark Smith) himself tell him that he'll shoot his eye out!  All of the fun scenes from the movie are brought to life on the stage including when Randy (John Mahanna) eats like a piggy, when Schwartz (Seth Black Diamond) triple dog dares Flick (Jay Hendrix) to stick his tongue to the flag pole, when the Old Man wins a major award, when Ralphie says the F-dash-dash-dash word while helping his father change a tire, when Ralphie gets into a fight with Scut Farkus (Ty Huffman), when Ralphie gets a certain bunny costume from Aunt Clara, and when the Bumpus Hounds (played by Hoss and Stella) eat the turkey forcing the Parkers to eat Christmas dinner at the Chop Suey Palace!  While I didn't find the songs to be particularly memorable, I did really enjoy the staging and the young cast is extremely talented.  I especially enjoyed the choreography for "Ralphie to the Rescue!" and the fabulous tap dancing in "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out."  Shaw gives an earnest and heartfelt performance as Ralphie and Mahanna (the understudy) is absolutely hilarious as Randy but, in my opinion, the actors who steal the show are Hoss and Stella when they chase the Old Man around and when they break in to eat the turkey (they got the loudest applause).  This is not the best musical I have ever seen but I certainly had a lot of fun watching it and got a big dose of Christmas cheer!  It runs at the Eccles Theatre through Dec. 8 (go here for tickets).