The scene is Christmas Eve in the mid-1970s. A solitary disc jockey at WOR radio in New York draws late-night fans into the dear, distant past. Growing up in Indiana in the 1940s, his entire kid-year hinged on glorious, beautiful Christmas ....
Then "A Christmas Story, The Musical!" roars to double-barreled life in flashback. Bespectacled grade-schooler Ralphie Parker (Clarke Hallum) yearns for a Red Ryder BB gun, The Old Man (John Bolton) bags a Major Award and Mother (Rachel Bay Jones) declares war on leg lamps. The Chicago-mounted adaptation of Jean Shepherd's yule film concludes a five-city tour with a Dec. 14 to 30 run at The Chicago Theatre.
For Chicago actor Gene Weygandt, stepping into Shepherd's shoes and semiautobiographical tale, his alter ego's account of his Hammond boyhood fits like a stocking hat. Weygandt, 60, grew up in downstate Ottawa, Ill.
His father was a furnace-fighter, too, and his mother "made dinner out of catch-as-catch-can," the three-time Jeff Award winner said. "They were Depression kids. Nothing was wasted."
When his old man lost his job in a glass factory, his mother, limited to flour, milk and eggs, "made pancakes for dinner," the actor said fondly.
Yes, he did have a BB gun, and treasures the memory as much as Shepherd's use of language, "which just tickles and delights me," he said.
Like Shep narrated his movie script, Weygandt chronicles goings-on in the town of "Hohman" -- complete with references to Cleveland Street and Warren G. Harding Elementary School -- in the musical. He also pinch-hits as a postman, a delivery man and the Red Ryder cowboy. Shepherd, who grew up in Hammond's Hessville neighborhood, made a cameo as a grouchy shopper in the film.
Directed by John Rando, the comedy features a score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and book by Joseph Robinette. The show bowed in Kansas City, Mo., in 2009 and was restaged last year in Seattle.
Weygandt, in demand at regional theaters and on Broadway ("Wicked," "Big"), will rely on his own boyish voice rather than mimic Shep's sonorous baritone. That suits the show's producers, including original "Ralphie" Peter Billingsley, who were more intent on finding a natural storyteller with a Midwestern accent that an impersonator. Weygandt "is already capturing the sense of Jean," producer Gerald Goehring said.
The creative team, backed by Madstone Productions and Patriot Productions, targeted the $5 million tour to play the heartland because "that's where it resonates most," Goehring said. "And we wanted to take it where it was born. Hammond is just on the outside of the South Side."
Locals hope Weygandt delivers. The film owes a huge debt to Shep's dry tone from the adult Ralphie's perspective. The oft-moody Hoosier sounded "like your slightly grouchy but favorite uncle, who has a hilarious, sometimes sarcastic take on life," said Mark Skertic, author of "A Native's Guide to Northwest Indiana" (Lake Claremont Press). "When you hear Jean Shepherd, it's the voice of a guy who's going to tell you a story."
