It was with great excitement a large group of us trekked down to Scotts Valley two weeks ago - Daniel Dye has brought back melodrama to the Bay Area with the premier of his Merry Christmas Brent Spudley -or- Yuletide Hijinks. As you might guess, it is a holiday themed story, about the kind hearted Ms Cuddly who gives out toys to disadvantaged children every Christmas - and, well, any other day they need them. Her generosity has greatly impacted her "bottom line", and she finds on the eve of the Christmas holiday that the bank is going to foreclose on her mortgage. The dastardly Victor Von Sprout is found waiting in the wings (okay, behind a Christmas tree!) to take over the mortgage and turn the toy factory into a brussel sprout processing factory, with the help of his dastardly assistant, Diamond Visage. Will the kind hearted Spudley family be able to save the day, and help Ms Cuddly save her toy factory? You'll just have to watch the show and find out!
The Golden Crow Theater has done an excellent job of putting together this production, with a beautiful set and fun sound effects. They even have all the popcorn you can eat or throw! It was so much fun getting to boo the villian, hiss at the villianess and cheer the hero (who, like always, is just a little thick headed, but as sweet as apple pie).
All of the performers did a really good job, but I was especially impressed with the energy of Geneva Holloman, who played Molly Spudley. My only disappointment was that we didn't get to see more of Daniel, who only popped in at the begining and end as the narrator. I'm sure not being on stage gave him better flexibility to direct, and the resultant product was so good that I couldn't possibly hold this against him. I was really impressed with the Golden Crow and the overall production of the show. There is one weekend left, and I can't recommend enough that you try to catch this show before it closes.
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