By Nicole M. Robertson
For WeLoveAnnArbor-Dexter
How much would you pay to see two beloved Christmas characters fight to the death? OK … not death. But bare-knuckle fighting? Promising LOTS of BLOOD?!
A fight promoter offers to pay $100,000 to the winner of this brawl in Jeff Daniels’ latest comedy, “OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY GRINCH IN FIGHT WITH RUDOLPH POLICE CALLED,” now enjoying its debut run at the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea.
Sounds great, right?
A couple of little hitches though: Jerry, played by Paul Stroili — the Grinch in this tale — is worried about a little thing like pain. And Lamar — Henri Franklin, our red-nosed hero — is game, but his wife would sooner smack him upside the head with her Bible (hard-cover!) than see him fight. Especially on Christmas Eve.
This new comedy is also directed by Daniels, the actor, musician and playwright who founded the Purple Rose in his hometown in 1991. He recently told the Detroit News he was ready to shut its doors for good after Covid-19 changed the way most of us find our entertainment. But Daniels still loves the theater he named for his major-film debut, Woody Allen’s “The Purple Rose of Cairo.” And with encouragement from his son, Lucas, and others deeply involved with the nonprofit, he took a new tack.
Comedy can save us, he thought. And so he wrote his latest in a succession of stories bringing humor with a heart.
He got the idea from a headline in a northern Michigan newspaper. Without reading another word he realized: That’s a comedy!
So he dreamed up a fictional fudge company in Middletown, Michigan, run by a sweaty, anxious, middle-aged man with a heart condition, Wally Wilkins Jr., played by Ryan Carlson, a resident artist at Purple Rose.
The play opens as Wally — or “Big W,” as some call him — has two of his employees on the carpet for ruining the office Christmas Party. Seems the costumed workers had a juiced-up disagreement over the proper rhythm for singing “Silent Night.”
What’s worse, his daughter, Bernice (Juji Berry, resplendent in a flowing, blue Virgin Mary outfit complete with baby Jesus doll), already posted video of their brawl, which is going viral.
Wally’s most embarrassed over the whole thing, but that’s not all that’s raising his blood pressure. Sales are down and he’s worried about losing the company his grandfather established in 1922.
“If we don’t get a miracle between now and Christmas Eve, 100 years of fudgemaking are gonna go down the drain — and you two will go right down with it,” he tells Jerry and Lamar.
That’s when Vic Valen of bareknuckleboxing.com calls. He wants them to re-create the fight on Christmas Eve, webcasting “The Fight Before Christmas” for subscribers.
Bernice convinces Wally that the fight would make a great promotional opportunity for their small candy company. “Millions will be two clicks away from buying our fudge!” she enthuses. Wally comes up with a plan to satisfy everybody.
The audience on Friday night was howling from the first minutes of this almost-musical holiday comedy, spiced with fantasy dance moves and a Christmas carol medley.
Ruth Crawford — previously seen in the Purple Rose dramas “A Jukebox for the Algonquin,” “Road Signs” and “Morning’s at Seven” — performs some stunt acting in various roles as a crotchety secretary, a cranky cop, a clueless TV reporter, a “dank” web kid (“Don’t be puttin’ chives on my potatoes, Boomer!”), and a drunken accountant. Listen, too, for the voice of former Local-4 journalist Devin Scillian in a cameo role.
Purple Rose scenic designer Bartley H. Bauer gets special attention for his clever portrait of Middletown Fudge Factory founder Wendell Wilkins, which appears to speak to grandson Wally in quiet moments.
And, theatergoers: Be sure not to skip the ads in your program. Theater sponsor Secret Crisis Comics created a beautiful noir homage to the story that’s a knockout.
• “OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY” runs through Dec. 22 at the Purple Rose Theatre Company, 137 Park St., Chelsea; purplerosetheatre.org. Tickets are $30-$50. The Purple Rose’s 2024-25 season continues with the comedies “Fourteen Funerals” by Eric Pfeffinger in February, followed by world premieres of “My Mother and the Michigan/Ohio War” and “Bert & Trixie Visit the Vet” in spring.
Main photo by Sean Carter Photography
