Old-fashioned, toe-tapping Christmas in Garden’s ‘Moonshine & Mistletoe’ | Review
There’s an old song by the country group Alabama that urges, “Oh, play me some mountain music, like grandma and grandpa used to play…” It was running through my mind as I walked out of “Moonshine & Mistletoe,” a toe-tapping country-folk-bluegrass Christmas musical making its world premiere at Garden Theatre in Winter Garden.
Set in Appalachia, “Moonshine & Mistletoe” is full of mountain music — in this case, merry mountain music — of the best kind. The actors play multiple instruments to accompany themselves and each other, from squeezebox to all sorts of strings to the spoons. These are the old hymns: “People Look East,” “I Wonder as I Wander,” “Brethren, We Have Met to Worship.”
Add to them a healthy dollop of traditional secular and comic folk tunes: “Good Old Mountain Dew,” “I Wish I Was Single Again.”
As arranged by Larry Moore and under the music direction of David M. Lutken, they are all a joy to hear.
And speaking of joy, how refreshing it is to see a show that treats faith as a source of joy and comfort — as it is for so many — instead of something to be mocked.
The faith comes through in the music rather than in DJ Salisbury’s wisp of a storyline. It’s actually a full half hour in before you start getting a whiff of a plot.
It’s 1937, during the Great Depression — though no one looks the worse for wear or seems too concerned about it — and, as families do, this particular clan in the coal-mining town of Ruby Hollow is gathering for Christmas. There’s a new minister in town — he’s single! — and daughter Dovey, almost an old maid at age 24, has her eye on him. Aunt Mamie is still mourning the death of her husband in a mine accident. Then, there was a surprise guest: son Dewey Joe, who left town two years ago and has been AWOL ever since, returns with a pregnant wife. And Mama Curleen may never forgive him for leaving.
There’s a lot to work with here and feelings that would resonate with a modern audience. But Salisbury, who also directs this production, doesn’t dig deep enough to get a handle on any of the characters. Even Dewey Joe seems puzzled by his lack of motivation, admitting he has no reason for having failed to write his family, of whom he apparently is quite fond.
There’s not really depth to anybody — we know nothing about their hopes and dreams, except Dewey Joe didn’t want to be a miner — so the emotional stakes are muted. And the climaxes of the various plot threads are, well, so anti-climactic that they rob the audience of satisfying catharsis.
And yet, the music is so wonderful and the cast so appealing and the whole concept so beautifully simple, that the plot/character shortcomings melt away like springtime snow.
It helps, too, that in this staging by Victory Productions and Jessica Huckabey Theatricals, Duane Harvey’s evocative set of wooden slats and big brick chimney even includes a kitchen where we can hear mama rattling pots and pans — the audio background to any family gathering.
The cast is uniformly strong, though David Finch is a scene stealer as rascally moonshine-making neighbor Wilmer. Kelan M. Smith plays a differently abled young man with sweet sensitivity, and his a cappella “I Wonder As I Wonder,” backed by harmonic oohs and ahs from cast mates, is the show’s musical highlight.
Amanda Hudson Giese is the perfect mix of jolly and poignant as Aunt Mamie. Allison Ann Kelly sparkles as young mom Della, and has lovely chemistry with John Rochette as her good-natured miner husband.
As estranged mother and son, Maggie Hollinbeck is appropriately terse and Julian James appropriately earnest; if only the script gave them more layers to explore.
Christmas is a time for nostalgia, family and maybe, in our complicated world, a time for simplicity as well. With joy and heart in every ringing note, “Moonshine & Mistletoe” is a welcome breath of fresh holiday air.
‘Moonshine & Mistletoe’
Length: 90 minutes, no intermission
Where: Garden Theatre, 160 W. Plant St. in Winter Garden
When: Through Dec. 23
Cost: $40-$75
Info: gardentheatre.org
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