The Christmas theater season doesn't kick into high gear until the weekend of Thanksgiving, but Desert Star Playhouse is jump-starting things this week with the regional premiere of a new show packed with original music and a Damon Runyonesque story: "Just a Little Bit of Magic."
It's a musical melodrama DSP has been trying to secure the performance rights to for the past five years.The show is described as a combination of "Home Alone," "Miracle on 34th Street," "Annie" and "A Pocketful of Miracles."
Written by collaborators Michael Maine (story) and Eric Erickson (music), "Just a Little Bit of Magic" has been a big hit in Arizona, where it originated.
Set in New York City during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the show focuses on Nicholas, a young street urchin, and Josiah Tubbs, the jolly toymaker who befriends the lad.
With the help of a magic chest, Nicholas and Tubbs discover the true meaning of Christmas.
Director Edward J. Gryska said "the songs that Mary Jo Eisenbraun and Stephen D. Kerr (Nicholas and Tubbs) have together are quite moving. Mary Jo is totally believable as the young boy. It's a `Peter Pan' kind of role full of youthful innocence.
"When Nicholas uses the magic box to make wishes, they are always for others and never for his own gain," Gryska said.
While the script never specifies exactly where Nicholas finds the box, Gryska is carrying the Christmas theme a little further by having the boy pluck the chest out of a nativity scene in a toy store window.
"Just a Little Bit of Magic" premiered in 1979 at the Gaslight Theatre in Tucson - a musical melodrama theater with a concept similar to the Desert Star Playhouse.
Composer/lyricist Erickson, who has been an attorney for the past several years, first met playwright Maines when they were going to school at the University of Arizona-Tucson.
"We had fallen out of touch, then I auditioned for a play when Mike was artistic director at the Gaslight Theatre. He cast me in a play, and we began looking for other plays to put on."
Erickson said there were a lot of plays circulating around, but none that they liked very much.
"Mike said once, `I could write a play as good as this,' and we doodled around with some ideas," said Erickson.
Eventually the collaborators created about 15 to 20 new plays on their own - and produced all of them at the Gaslight.
Erickson, who admits he wouldn't want to call himself a professional musician, had some formal music training and played in the school band. But he feels the music he wrote for "Just a Little Bit of Magic" is a good score and captures the old-time flavor of the Depression years.
"While it's the genre of musical melodrama, I like to think of it as a real musical play."
His co-writer, Maines, has since left the Gaslight and is now director of creative development at Disneyland. (In fact, both Maines and Erickson have worked for Disneyland, including writing some scripts and other things.)
Erickson's personal feelings about "Just a Little Bit of Magic"?
"It's a good show and probably the best one we've ever done."
"We've had several development offers on it from film people," Maines added during a separate telephone interview from his Disneyland office, "but Eric and I have plans for developing it into either a television piece or perhaps an animated piece ourselves.
"The storyline is very simple but very sweet, and the music is quite good. It has really been a little charmer. We liked it because it's about faith and friendship and believing in yourself and the value of friends. It has lots of good Christmas messages without being quite so obvious in some ways," said Maines. "We're very fond of it, obviously."
Maines noted that his work at the Gaslight, where he was a founding artistic director, was good training for his work at Disneyland.
"The Gaslight is probably as successful as any theater I've seen in the country. It is sold out constantly and has a very devoted following. It has gone through lots of changes in styles of shows, but there's a real good family entertainment base - not far removed from the genre of entertainment I do for Disney. You have to keep a lot of adults interested but also make it accessible for kids."
Maines said he would like to get his former Gaslight colleague, Eric, more involved with his work at Disney as well.
"He's a successful lawyer in Tucson, but in my opinion he's a much better writer and songwriter, so I try to get him to moonlight a little bit and write me a tune or two in between briefs."
- THE DESERT STAR production has a cast of familiar DSP players as well as a couple of newcomers.
Ken Grazier will portray Eddie, a tap dancer-turned-usher, with Scott Holman as Jonathon, a blind apple peddler, plus a radio announcer and some surprise characters as well; DeeLayna Carter, most recently seen in the Off Broadway's production of "Dracula vs. Wolfman," as Ginger, an aspiring actress; Norman E. Plate as the villainous Mr. Big, a small-time racketeer, and Melissa Rasmussen as Roxy LaRue, an ex-chorus girl and part-time legal secretary.
Gryska said the show contains a mix of original music and some familiar Christmas carols.
"The members of the cast are all good singers. Stephen Kerr has a wonderful song that the toymaker sings to his creations in the toy store. It's a show that children and adults will all enjoy because it captures the spirit of Christmas. There is also a feeling of forgiveness, since the bad guys are forgiven at the end."
The show's tap-dancing segment, "Charisma," will be choreographed by Jayne Luke, who will also choreograph and direct the post-show holiday olios, featuring Christmas songs from around the world and a audience sing-along.
Scenery designer Don Casper, assisted by Layne Robinson, is creating two new scenic drops for the show - one especially for the olios and a toy shop for "Just a Little Bit of Magic."
Lighting is by Brad Olsen with period costumes by Ruth Todd.
- PERFORMANCES will be Mondays and Thursdays through Saturdays at 7 p.m., beginning Nov. 16 and continuing through Jan. 6, with additional 9:30 performances on most weekends and 3 p.m. matinees on selected Saturdays.
Desert Star Playhouse is a cabaret style theater located at 4861 S. State St., Murray.
Call 266-7600 for reservations. (Many evenings, especially closer to the holidays, sell out quickly due to group and company parties. Early reservations are recommended.)
DSP features pizza, popcorn and hand-dipped ice cream treats, available for a reasonable additional charge.
- SEASON PASSES - Desert Star Playhouse has also announced a new bargain season pass for $5, which includes admission to five of its 1995 productions on specified Tuesdays and Wednesdays: "Les Miserables - or, at Desert Star, a Lot Less Miserable and Waaay Beyond the Barricade!" (available only Jan. 23 & 31); "Sword of Zorro, or From Z to Shining Z" (March 26 & April 3 only), "Surfin' Safari - Wipeout at Waimea Bay" (May 28 & June 5); "Star Wrek: Where No Melodrama Has Gone Before" (July 30 & Aug. 7) and "Frankenstein's Bride: The Girl of My Screams" (Oct. 1 & 9).