Bigger Is Not Necessarily Better:

‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales,’ In Sherman

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN — The Newtown Town Players just completed a two week run of A Child’s Christmas in Wales and now The Sherman Players have begun a three week run of the same title, plus an added New Year’s Eve gala. I say “the same title” advisedly because whereas the Newtown effort ran under 60 minutes with a reduced cast and no intermission, Sherman has pulled out all the stops. Their production goes for two hours, with a much larger cast, and more songs.

As directed by John Taylor, Sherman’s Wales still uses the format of a BBC broadcast (narrated by Mr Taylor himself) but it has longer stretches of dialogue, with the narrator’s role shared with young Dylan’s father (played by Viv Berger). It is definitely grander and more ambitious, but I am not sure that this makes it better.

The lyric beauty of Thomas’ poetry gets a bit lost in the comic detail of the interpretation. The postman and the firemen and the Park Ranger become such important characters that they overshadow the boy’s memory.

This show uses six children — Tony Harkin, Tommy Ovitt, Jack Harding, Spencer Hauspurg, Jacqueline Stager, and Alyssa Svinte — who sing charmingly, and at length. Berger, and Mary Bott as Mother, Bith Lillard and Beth Bonnabeau as the aunts, Jim Hipp and Alex Ecchiaverria as the uncles, and Mikki Harkin and Heather Mock as Bessie and Elieri all contribute to the excitement of Christmas dinner, especially when the turkey almost burns the house down, necessitating the arrival of the firemen and their unwieldy hose.

I particularly liked Terry Hawley’s costumes, which used reds and plaids in profusion to capture the spirit of the holiday mood. The music was appealing, using traditional Welsh melodies as the frame for more contemporary lyrics.

I guess my hesitation stems from the feeling that the result is a mixture of Dylan Thomas with Jean Shepherd (of A Christmas Story).

(Performances continue weekends through January 1, including New Year’s Eve. There are no shows on December 24-25.

See the Enjoy Calendar’s Theater listings or call 860-354-3622 for additional ticket and curtain details.)