‘THE SANTALAND DIARIES” at the OB Playhouse

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Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 12/12/16

RUN DATES: 11/26/16 – 12/18/16

VENUE: The OB Playhouse

How about a holiday nosh of irony and crumpet… dripping with sarcasm?

Yes, that wily, smiley, acerbic Elf, Crumpet, is back – telling his tales of Christmas woe in “The Santaland Diaries,” the David Sedaris monologue that remains one of the most popular broadcasts ever aired and re-aired on NPR.

James P. Darvas is perfect in the green-velvet role. He can effect the same whiney quality as Sedaris and the ideal sardonic tone, as he takes on multiple voices and accents (his tough-talking New Yorkers and Jerseyites are sublime), and gives a different timbre to each of the Santas in Macy’s elaborate 8^th floor fantasy of Christmas, Santaland.

Jerry Pilato directs, and the pacing is excellent. The set is effective, too (designed by Bill Connard and Pilato, who’s also billed as co-sound designer, with Connie Terwilliger), with its large, brightly decorated tree, capacious red Santa-seat, oversized presents (some of which cleverly double as cubes for Crumpet to sit on).

But, having listened to and watched this monologue many times, I do have a few gripes about this one.

Although Sedaris did not approve of the stage adaptation (by Joe Mantello), the quasi-autobiographical piece still has to retain his sensibility. He never dropped a ton of F-bombs. And he didn’t need to say, “Listen, you guys” to connect with his audience.

He’s well-known as an old-fashioned guy, a devotee of Billie Holiday, not Christina Aguilera (though Darvas does a cracking good exaggeration of her singing “Away in a Manger”). Oh, and if his sister, entertainer Amy Sedaris, knew enough sign language to teach him a seminal sentence (something off-the-wall about a tumor as big as an olive), the performer, like Sedaris, should learn the actual signs for conveying that.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten all that off my chest, I can say that I laughed a lot at Darvas’ delicious Crumpet – a 33 year-old, out-of-work actor whose fantasy is to be on “Days of Our Lives,” and instead he’s stuck with an ever-encroaching horde of vomiting kids, pushy parents and eccentric Santas for one ghastly and interminable holiday season. It’s a hilarious, bittersweet story and Darvas captures all the nasty and nice elements.

The show is an irresistible antidote to holiday treacle. If you savor snarky adult humor, you’ll lap it up.