LIMA — The Ohio Theatre is bringing back a new holiday favorite for the second year in a row.
This year’s “Seasoned Greetings!”, a musical comedy performance in two acts, will premiere at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the venue and will present a completely new for this year’s run featuring characters from previous Ohio Theatre performances and plenty of laughs.
“It’s kind of a send-up of those ’70s holiday variety specials with jokes and singing and big production numbers,” Director Michael Bouson said. “And what we’ve done is we’ve taken a collection of some of the wackiest characters that we featured in our shows this season from ‘Lee Harvey and the Oswalds’, ‘Fantasia’ and even some brand new characters. And they’ll be putting on a holiday show for a local TV station (in the story).”
Bouson said that the show will be a great chance for area performers to return to the venue and perform for a new audience — one that has not yet seen “Seasoned Greetings!” in the main auditorium of the theatre yet.
“We’ve been doing the Christmas show since 1989 and this is the largest cast on the largest stage we’ve ever been able to perform on for it,” he said. “The great thing is that our Christmas shows always bring in folks who haven’t yet been here before. We’re going to get a chance to not only expose our beautiful theatre to a whole new audience, but we’re going to be able to introduce the Avant Garage Theatre Company to them, also and that’s very exciting because it could make our audience pool so much greater than it is for next season.”
To prove that they can put together a one-of-a-kind show, the characters will bring in real dance students from the Lima Dance Academy.
“They will actually perform two numbers and they are legit,” Bouson said. “We’re not making fun of the students at all and instead making fun of the crazy characters who are trying to grift off of them.”
The dancers will be accompanied by traditional holiday music, but there will also be original holiday songs as is customary with Avant Garage productions.
Bouson said that for this show, he will be mostly behind the stage, serving as director and special guest.
“The role I’m playing is a surprise, but I have really enjoyed spending more time in the director’s chair because oftentimes, we’re directing from the stage while we’re learning our own parts,” he said. “It’s been really fun for me to focus on that and then let (co-owner of the theatre) Joe (Correll) have his chance to shine in the show. And in addition to the 14 dance students, we will have 11 regular cast members for a total of 25 people on stage at one point.”
Bouson said that the show boils down to one simple message.
“Christmas is full of dysfunctional families yelling and screaming and arguing and there are moments that you can’t believe are actually happening, but at the heart of it, it’s about love and togetherness,” Bouson added. “It’s about giving and sharing. The first two-thirds are for laughing out loud, but then we flip a switch and it becomes very sweet and heartwarming. We take the audience to church.”
It is all part of a mission of investing in Lima.
“We’re 100% committed to not only developing the local talent here, but to retaining it,” Bouson added. “The talent exodus has been going on for far too long and our goal is to show people with an interest in the arts and abilities in the arts that there are places where you can get paid to hone your craft right here in town. By using the dance students, we’re just taking that effort that much further.”
Tickets are $60 for all of the shows, which will be on Thursday through Saturday and Dec. 21 through 23. To purchase tickets, visit the Ohio Theatre website, ohiotheatrelima.com.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
