PREVIEW: Oh, Fudge! A Christmas Story: The Musical is Back!
12/03 - 12/21 @ Cohoes Music Hall
** This article originally appeared in our December 2025 issue **
“It takes us all back to our childhood, and who doesn’t like to be reminded of that magic of being a kid?”
I keep hearing LL Cool J saying, “Don’t call it a comeback!” in my head.
Playhouse Stage is presenting A Christmas Story: The Musical for the second year in a row from December 3-21 at Cohoes Music Hall, but everyone is emphasizing that this is not a remount.
A Christmas Story was a huge hit for Playhouse Stage last winter and stands out as the most popular, even among a very successful string of recent productions for the company staged at Cohoes Music Hall: Legally Blonde, Heathers, and The Little Mermaid among them.
A Christmas Story: The Musical is the musicalization by the EGOT winners Benj Pasek & Justin Paul with a book by Joseph Robinette of the perennial holiday favorite film by Bob Clark, which was itself an adaptation of the Jean Shepherd book, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. It tells the nostalgic story about young Ralphie growing up in 1940 Indiana and his Christmas wish for an “official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!”
Holidays are made for traditions. Many theaters across the country make their yearly nut with full community productions of A Christmas Carol, so why the reluctance to label this a revival?
Playhouse Stage artistic director Owen Smith emphasized upfront, “We might pull a costume or a prop out of a box that we used last year, but we have to do all the hard work we did last year from scratch. I told the entire team we have to start back at square one. All the work on the characters and telling the story… we have to go back to square one.”
Reviving a show that has been successful for you in the past implies that you have a built-in audience or that there is not as much detail-oriented, meticulous work involved.
I caught a few minutes with Owen and two of the stars – local veteran actors Nick Martiniano who plays the Old Man, and Ellen Cribbs who plays Mrs. Schwartz – on a night when the Playhouse Studios were exploding with activity. I arrived a few minutes before 6 p.m. when everything was going down.
“I love times like this!” Owen projected so my recorder would pick up his voice. “Children’s tap going on in Studio 1, an actor (Jackson Majewski, The Little Mermaid) recording his self-tape for college auditions in Studio 2, and the Christmas Story cast showing up!”
Another very good reason to start from square one is Christmas Story ’25 is a very different production from last year, as Owen told me. Eight cast members have been added to the show and all of the children are new to their roles.
“You never know whether a show is going to do well, so when you’re considering the additional expense of more costumes and the headache of where you’re going to fit all those bodies backstage, it has to be worth it. And it definitely is — the ensemble scenes are much fuller and richer. I sat in on a rehearsal recently and I know that lightning struck with last year’s production but I can definitely feel a storm brewing right now.”
Nick Martiniano (The Little Mermaid, Heathers, Legally Blonde) offered that Owen has “always emphasized with every young cast the importance of the first time, of the beginner’s mindset. Even on an extended run where we might do the show 15-20 times and however many dress runs leading to the performance… it’s the first time for the audience.”
Returning to the show are the adults and, besides Theatre Institute at Sage artistic director David Baecker as the narrator, there is Ellen Cribbs (Oklahoma!) and Martiniano himself. I asked the two — who both have families with young children — what they love about doing a show during the Christmas season, which must be incredibly hectic for them.
“I think it’s the innocence of Christmas, right?” Ellen immediately responded. “It takes us all back to our childhood, and who doesn’t like to be reminded of that magic of being a kid?” Well said.
“The joy of it all,” Nick added. “It’s about a family. It helps you refocus on those things that are really important. Yes, the gun is the big thing, but it’s about the connections.”
A Christmas Story opens Playhouse Stage’s season which continues in the new year with Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are In a Play”, Cry-Baby, PS Premieres, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Footloose and 13 The Musical. Playhouse Stage Gift Cards make great gifts!.
