Sedaris Does Santa

Ah, the holiday job. Plenty of us have had 'em: rung up orders, chucked boxes, scanned the days away. David Sedaris, however, had the king job of all -- working as an elf at Macy's. Not only did it give him enough cash to stay alive in New York City...

November 24, 2011

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Ah, the holiday job. Plenty of us have had 'em: rung up orders, chucked boxes, scanned the days away. David Sedaris, however, had the king job of all -- working as an elf at Macy's. Not only did it give him enough cash to stay alive in New York City for a time, it also offered the writer great fodder, which he turned into his popular Santaland Diaries. We don't get Sedaris for Christmas -- but we do get a one-man stage version of the show. Led by Carbonell Award winner Michael McKeever, who plays Sedaris and his Macy's alter ego, Crumpet the Elf -- the show takes us through Crumpet's journey, from the arduous application process to a full week of "elf" training to, finally, the endless weeks of toil in the forced fun of Santa's wonderland. It would be pretty easy to be cynical about the entire journey, but Sedaris (and Joe Mantello, who wrote the stage adaptation) provides a real mix of emotions -- from wry humor to utter disgust to moments of actual wonderment -- through the 70-minute piece.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: Nov. 30. Continues through Dec. 23, 2011

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