Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is approaching 70 years of age. Transcending his humble debut in the popular 1939 song written by Robert L. May for Montgomery Ward, the magical flying reindeer with the bioluminescent nose has become a cultural icon. This week, he shows a distinctly different side as the title character in Patrick Schmitz's dark comedy Rudolph the Pissed-Off Reindeer.
Running Dec. 5-20 at the Alchemist Theatre in Bay View, Schmitz's independently produced comedy is a parody of the classic Rankin and Bass stop-motion animated TV specials from the '60s and '70s. The animated films featured a young Rudolph rising to prominence, finding Baby New Year for Father Time, getting cursed by an evil wizard king and most recently ending up on the Island of Misfit Toys.
"Growing up on the movie, I always saw it to be so humorous," Schmitz says, "the fact that these adult characters are always being so cruel to Rudolph. I found that to be extremely bizarre."
Seeing that there was no other significant staging of the Rudolph story, Schmitz went to work on the show, embellishing the inadvertent humor already present in the animated specials.
Not content to merely parody the classic holiday shows, Schmitz's Rudolph aspires to a rare kind of edginess. The show mixes comic parody with a crime drama, using a delivery style that is intended to be full of misplaced sincerity. As the play opens, police detectives Rankin and Bass are interrogating a prominent but mysterious character from the TV specials-desperately trying to get to the bottom of insidious activities occurring in Santa's workshop. The interplay between straight comedy and straight drama may not be for everyone, but Schmitz's willingness to take chances echoes a vitality found elsewhere in Milwaukee's emerging DIY theater scene.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Personally, Schmitz is in uncharted territory with this project, as it's the comic actor/writer's first experience directing a show. On top of that, he's chosen to run with the challenge of a fairly large cast, which mixes adult and child actors. (Rudolph, for instance, is played by a young teenager.) But even though it's the first time Schmitz has helmed a project of this magnitude, he's no stranger to bringing his comedy to stage: He has worked as a stand-up comic and regularly appears as a member of the sketch comedy group The Gentleman's Hour.
Schmitz doesn't seem frazzled by the experience of writing, producing, directing and marketing the show. In fact, advance ticket sales have been brisk-Rudolph's opening night is already sold out. Although he's thinking about running Rudolph again next year, Schmitz says he has no plans to do anything else like this. And he notes that he doesn't have a problem with being what he calls "a one-trick pony." Be that as it may, anyone with this kind of vision and energy is a valuable asset for Milwaukee's grassroots theater.
