By Megan Holley
A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol, by Rick Rea, is being performed at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Ogden to the delight of Potterheads and Christmas lovers alike. The theater is small yet cozy, with a casual feel that makes you feel comfortable and right at home in this casual event featuring a comedic musical parody of Harry Potter. This is the fourth year in a row that the Ziegfeld Theatre has produced A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol. I am thoroughly surprised with the quality of comedy because it was clean and family-friendly, and not over-the-top ridiculous.
We learn that Bumblebore and Father Christmas are brothers, and why they had a falling out with each other during the song “It’s Snowing”. In live theater, things happen and when You-Know-Who (Logan Robertson) fell up the stairs, everyone onstage acted like it was planned and went on with it during the song “The Last Noel,”. Everyone reacting to something not scripted usually does not happen, so it was refreshing to see everyone so fully engaged in the show that they could improvise a reaction to something unexpected happening. The song “Bumbleton”, which is performed by the company, is a surprisingly well-written knock-off of the title song from Hamilton. One of the more important songs in the show is “Talk to Him,” performed by Moewgonagall (Dawn Allen), Hervrainery (Kelsie Reynolds), Don (Jaden Bickle), Drake (Byran Andrews), Rudolph, Bumblebore, Jerry, and Company, which discusses facing your problems head-on. The song “Wait Another Day” is the iconic break-up song that Herbrainery, Don’s Sister (Gracie Sabin), and Mona (Lilian Fairbank) sing about letting go of the boy they love; which in this case Herbrainery is trying to let go of Don and Don’s Sister is trying to let go of Jerry.
Even though the microphones kept cutting out, the cast did a phenomenal job projecting and continuing performing like nothing was wrong. Alan Rickman (Patrick C. Kibbie) portrays the iconic character of Snape on point and stays in character the entire show. Even though the people who were in the green morph suits are not a part of the cast list, they still play an important part in the show and they aid in the comedic portrayals by being the invisibility cloak, dragon fire, and by making what magic spells are said happen.
Reynolds as Herbrainery portrays her character in a believable way and has an incredible singing voice. Spaghinni (Spencer Stevens) is one of the more difficult characters to portray since he’s a snake, but Stevens does it astonishingly well without breaking character.
Another difficult character to portray is Rudolph (Cooper Lavallee), since that is more of an iconic character, but Lavallee makes it believable and authentic. Bickle as Don isn’t always in character, but when he is, you can tell he knows his character well enough to become Don at the flip of a switch. Jerry Potter (Dayne Cade) has an incredible voice and brings his character to life. All the characters in the ensemble are extremely talented and add an entirely new level to the show quality. You can tell the entire cast worked extremely hard in making this show as magical as it is.
It isn’t every day that you have the Director also be the Choreographer and still have both be great quality, but Joshua Samuel Robinson took the challenge on and the result is nicely done. The Costume Design by Alicia Kondrick is straightforward , but fits the story perfectly. Set Design by Jeff Parry is very simplistic, but it is all the show needs and is used efficiently. The Lighting by Hayden Wadsworth gets lost at times in the story, yet at other times it helps further the plot; for example, they use the red strobe lighting to draw attention to good and bad things happening in the plot. Kyle Lawrence did the Sound Design, he worked extremely hard when the microphones kept going in and out and he adjusted the sound levels accordingly, so the audience could hear the cast.
If you like to laugh and like puns, then this is the show for you. A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol is a family-friendly musical with characters ranging from Spiderman all the way to Drake, so you won’t want to miss this show.
The Ziegfeld Theatre Presents A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol. Books, lyrics, and music were written by Rick Rea.
The Ziegfeld Theatre, 3934 Washington Blvd, Ogden, UT 84403
Tickets: $17-19.
Contact: (855) 944-2787
November 30- Dec 22, 2018, 7:30 PM. Saturday matinees 2:00 PM*
The Ziegfeld Theatre Facebook Page
A Fairly Potter Christmas Carol Facebook Event
*On the first Saturday of every production there is Student Night, where any student from junior high to college can come see a show for $5 with a valid student ID and the code: STUDENT.
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