Project SEE Theatre's production of The 12 Dates of Christmas is about the travails of singledom during the "most wonderful time of the year."
When thirtysomething Mary sees her fiancé kissing another woman on television at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, she tosses her engagement ring into a Salvation Army donation bucket and embarks on a year's worth of dates. So goes the plot of The 12 Dates of Christmas, written by Transylvania University adjunct playwriting professor Ginna Hoben.
The play is a fun, flirty romp through the highs and lows — OK, mostly lows — of one New York actress's quest for happy couplehood.
I have a few quibbles about the writing and direction of the show, but the spirited comedic performance by Ellie Clark as Mary was a thoroughly enjoyable highlight of the play, which is reminiscent of other hijinks-laden singles comedies, including Bridget Jones's Diary.
Mary, though, is far more ordinary than Bridget or Sex in the City's Carrie Bradshaw. She is from Ohio, is an actress living in New York, and she used to love Christmas. That's really about all we know about her, and Clark's chief challenge is to make ordinary Mary extraordinarily interesting. Clark mines Hoben's script for all it's worth and creates the most comically rewarding moments out of Mary's most vulnerable.
Clark did flub a line or two in Friday's opening-night performance (mistakenly saying "New Year's Eve" instead of "Christmas Eve") but she never missed a beat in her recovery and delivered a commanding performance. I especially enjoyed her portrayal of other characters in Mary's life, including a 5-year-old boy whom she befriends during an acting gig.
However, not even Clark's charisma can redeem some of Mary's more questionable moments of self-absorption. For instance, after Mary's mother and aunt meddle too much in her love life, she cuts her family out of her life during the holidays. The "cold war" between Mary and her family was funny until that point. I lost a good bit of empathy for her plight when she took things that far.
The play's ending, too, might irk some. On one hand, it suggests a resolution without tying things up in a nice bow; on the other hand, surely I was not alone in wanting to know, to visibly see and experience, whether Mary got her man.
Sullivan Canady White's direction brings out the best in Clark; the show's momentum never sags, and Clark is not bashful about directly connecting with the audience. But when Clark is positioned in either of the far corners of the stage floor, those at the other corner must crane their necks to see, so there is this teeter-totter effect of connecting really closely and then reaching to see what it is going on.
It also would've been nice if lighting designer Mike Sanders had dimmed the house lights earlier in the play. This is not the kind of show that requires complicated lighting to tell the story, but the brightness was distracting.
Sylvia Howard, Missy Johnston and Kim Berryman provided choral accompaniment and the occasional laugh or two as the "Doo-Wop Girls," who functioned as a live soundtrack to Mary's year of dates. The three have terrific voices, and their performances provided additional humor to the show.
All in all, this production of The 12 Dates of Christmas is not unlike a good first date. There's definitely a connection, a spark to be enjoyed, even if the whole evening is not perfect. I would be glad to do it again sometime.
