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Stage Left revisits diner with ‘Jingle My Bell 2’
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
LISBON
Back in 2010, Stage Left Players debuted “Jingle My Bell,” a comic holiday musical written by Kandace Cleland, artistic director of the theater.
Audiences quickly warmed up to the show, a lightweight holiday confection without a serious bone in its body. But it did have a warm spirit, a megadose of zaniness and a cast that got the most out of the stock characters.
Basically, the show had “it,” so Stage Left reprised it in ensuing years.
“Jingle” looks in on a ’50s diner peopled by a group of cooks, waitresses and regulars. Things get desperate, then they get nutty, then they get better.
Cleland & Co. immensely enjoyed staging the show, which is laden with be-bop tunes.
So did audiences — which prompted Cleland to write a sequel.
“Jingle My Bell 2: It’s a Pretty Swell Life” premieres Friday and runs for one weekend only.
Cleland remembers the moment when she decided to revisit Dee Dee and Dave’s Diner.
“I knew it was time to write a sequel when I had a cashier at Walmart tell me that she saw the best holiday show ever in Lisbon,” said Cleland in an email. “She said ‘I bought the DVD and I watch it whenever I’m feeling a little blue’.”
The cashier was talking about “Jingle My Bell.”
“Of course I was thrilled to confess that I was the playwright of the piece,” Cleland continued. “[The cashier] lit up and asked, ‘What happens next? I just have to know.’
“So did I!” In telling the next chapter in the diner, Cleland drew inspiration from the holiday film “It’s a Wonderful Life!.”
It revisits the characters a decade after the original show, but also goes back in a time a decade to see childhood events.
The cast includes returning actors Nathan Kuhns and Ali Flannigan; Bobby Harris, Tessa Young, Izzy Cornwall, Jackson Cornwall and Alivia Leyman as their children; plus Ben Morgan and Will Flannigan.