(L-R) Phil Olson, Therese Lentz, Doug Engalla, Emily Trempe and Mark Atha

BY AMY LYONS

It’s no surprise that the current run of A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol at Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre has been extended several times. The sense of Christmas cheer that stems from the cozy, down-home musical comedy provides sweet respite from the frantic hustle and bustle of the shopping mall season.

In addition to playing the lead, Phil Olson also penned the script, creating a character that he plays to perfection.

Set on Christmas Eve in Bunyan Bay, Minnesota, the play tells the story of Gunner Johnson (Phil Olson), a Scrooge-like bar owner who wears holiday misery on his sleeve. Gunner mopes and barks his way through the play’s early scenes, revealing feelings of inadequacy connected to his apparent inability to impregnate his wife, Clara (Therese Lentz). Gunner’s inferiority complex is exacerbated when the conversation centers on Sven Yorgensen, a suave singer who occasionally blows through town and makes the ladies swoon.

Unmoved by the kindness of his closest  chums, Kanute (Mark Atha) and Bernice (Rebekah Dunn, understudy), Gunner’s grouchiness gets increasingly worse until a last straw fight with Clara sends him speeding off on his snowmobile. He lands himself first in an ice-hole and then in a coma, launching a very
Dickensian morality tale speckled with original songs backed up by the recorded instrumentation of an on-stage karaoke machine. As Gunner shuffles around the bar outfitted in a hospital gown and a gauzy head bandage, he initially doesn’t know why Clara and company ignore his presence. When Sven Yorgensen (Chris Winfield) shows up to play the part of his tour guide on the journey to Christmases past, present and future, Gunner begins to learn the lessons that motivate him to change his foul attitude.

The show moves along at pitch-perfect pace, with a very healthy dose of musical numbers that keep things lively. The silly lyrics to songs like The Christmas Cheese Polka and What Would Barbara Streisand Do? are coupled with simple dance-steps choreographed to imitate the hokiest of ho-downs.

In addition to playing the lead, Phil Olson also penned the script, creating a character that he plays to perfection. Olson injects Gunner with a maddening amount of self –pity, but he manages to also give the character enough oafish charm and likeability to inspire the audience to root for his metamorphosis.

Rebekah Dunn dazzles as Bernice, a character whose girlish appeal and unexpected sexiness keeps Kanute and the audience smitten with her. Dunn has a sparkling energy that she uses to fill every on-stage moment, whether she is singing, dancing, rollerskating or chirping out her end of any conversation. Dunn also gets to play a version of Tiny Tim (a part she plays on bended knees) that inspires sheer giggles from the crowd.

Winfield is well cast in the role of the Casanova chick-magnet who smoothly tempts both Clara and Bernice with his lover-boy ways. He woos while hilariously commenting on his character’s over sized ego.

In the end, we know all will be made right in the world of Bunyan Bay, but the journey toward the tidy ending of A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol is a fun-filled holiday vacation.