Playwright: Bryan Renaud; Lyrics: Renaud and Emily Schmidt. At: The Other Theatre Company at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2275 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets: 773-404-7336 or www.theothertheatrecompany.com; $25. Runs through Dec. 20
Of all the holiday properties crying out for a comical queer musical spoofing, the 2003 Will Ferrell film Elf wouldn’t likely be at the top of most people’s lists. Nonetheless, The Other Theatre Company member Bryan Renaud has charged ahead with that very idea to cook up the world premiere of Barney the Elf. Alas, the writing results are largely half-baked.
The fine-voiced Yando Lopez plays the title character, a cheery gay elf who gets banished from the North Pole by a homophobic Santa Jr. (Lewis Rawlinson) over the objections of Mrs. Claus (Maggie Cain). Barney ends up in Chicago, where he gets a job in a gay bar and becomes entranced by the lovely drag queen Zooey (a stunning and sarcastic Dixie Lynn Cartwright). She helps Barney in the coming out process, which in turn gives him and others the courage to confront Santa Jr. to save Christmas.
Now if Barney the Elf were staged in a bar like Hydrate or Mary’s Attic, I might have been much more forgiving of the show’s weird tonal shifts between family-friendly Christmas cheer and ribald gay sexual hijinks. A 21-and-up venue might also have kept out the parents who brought their small children to the matinee I attended; hopefully, the Greenhouse Theater Center box office will be more explicit that Barney the Elf isn’t a kid’s show.
In a bar, the song selections for spoofing by Renaud and co-lyricist Emily Schmidt also probably wouldn’t have felt as glaringly odd. For example, Mrs. Claus’ rendition of CeeLo Green’s “Fuck You” with new lyrics directed at Santa Jr. is appropriate to the plot, but the transformation of the song “Loathing” from Wicked into Barney’s hard-on sexual awareness number “Boning” feels incongruous. Other lifted songs from Funny Girl, Les Miserables and even Elf the Musical sometimes make you wonder why they were chosen.
Renaud also spends far too much time with North Pole exposition and returns back there, especially when you feel that the heart of the show should be in Chicago with Barney, the entrancing Zooey and her chorus of narrating drag queens (Jacob Gilchrist, Jack Bauer and Jennings Wynn). While the messages of tolerance and acceptance in Barney The Elf are certainly commendable, the writing comes off as an odd mish-mash of self-aware sarcasm and sex jokes mixed with stabs at genuine Christmas warmth.
At least Barney the Elf features an enthusiastic and very talented cast under the direction of Carin Silkaitis with plenty of big ensemble dance numbers staged effectively by choreographer Tommy Rivera-Vega. But otherwise, the whole idea of Renaud queering up of Elf remains questionable, especially when you consider The Other Theatre Company’s past selection of far more serious plays.