First Stage’s ‘Best Christmas Pageant Ever’

Those darn Herdman kids! They steal lunches, eat thefiremen’s donuts and even put tadpoles in the drinking fountain. What’s a townto do, especially when the six siblings force their way into the annualChristmas pageant?

First Stage Children’s Theater kicked off theholiday season with its seventh production of Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. As theother students cower in fear, the school’s new director must find a way to puton the show, despite the town’s misgivings.

While the first act drags a bit in setting up thestory, the real payoff comes in the second act, when the pageant must goonwith hilarious results. Director Jeff Frank keeps the laughs coming as theHerdmans “modernize” the birth of Jesus, using modern-day tunes and choreographyfrom the likes of Michael Jackson, among others.

At the 1 p.m. Saturday performance the Pop Rockschildren’s cast anchored the show. The uniformly excellent adult ensemblefeatured Angela Iannone, Mary MacDonald Kerr, Todd Denning, Jeff Schaetzke and,in one of her best comedic roles, Molly Rhode as an exercise-obsessed suburbanmom. Rhode literally got the crowd on its feet before the “pageant” by doingaudience participation exercises along with local celebrity guest star JohnMcGivern.

First Stage Children’s Theater continues itsproduction of The Best Christmas PageantEver through Dec. 24.