Has anyone ever wondered what would happen if Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch put on a Christmas show together? What about if a Christmas show were centered around a rom-com that is only vaguely about Christmas?
Emerson Collins and Blake McIver’s “Christmas Actually,” performing Monday at Out Front Theatre, is both of these things and more.
Inspired by Collins and McIver’s differing relationships to the holiday season, this festive extravaganza features different arrangements of various Yuletide tunes. Born in the midst of quarantine, “Christmas Actually” came about when a theater approached Collins and McIver about creating a live, digital event to keep its patrons entertained.
The result became a two-man cabaret put on in Collins and McIver’s living room titled “I Dreamed a Dreamgirl.” This 2020 event was well-received enough to lead to a Halloween show in October 2020, and, ultimately, “Christmas Actually” in December of that year.
Now they are taking “Christmas Actually” on tour, and Atlanta is the third stop for Collins — whose credits include TV’s “Sordid Lives: The Series” and films “Rent: Live” and “A Very Sordid Wedding” — and McIver, who appeared in TV’s “Full House” and “Hey Arnold” and the film “A Very Sordid Wedding.”
The performance at Out Front is partially a result of the existing partnership between the theater and the Del Shores Foundation, for which Collins is the program director. The two had also previously performed “I Dreamed a Dreamgirl” at Out Front when touring that production in 2022.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Emerson Collins
Credit: Photo courtesy of Emerson Collins
Echoing the age-old tale of the truehearted believer coming up against a holiday-hating misanthrope, “Christmas Actually” finds Collins employing various strategies and songs to win his partner over to the spirit of the holiday.
“We realized at the start of our relationship that I am a Christmas person and Blake really is not,” Collins said. “I come from a Christmas family. I grew up being in a Christmas pageant that started rehearsals in August, so until I was 12 Christmas was four months of the year. My parents sang in a 500-voice choir. Like, Christmas is a sport at my house.”
McIver, on the other hand, has a more ambivalent history with the holiday. “Christmas was a working day for me as a kid. I was always performing; it was always a show. Some Christmas Eves were a 10-show day for me, so a lot of my family’s traditions are very fractured.”
Where the two meet is at “Love Actually,” which Collins was surprised to learn is McIver’s favorite Christmas movie. While the 2003 classic is beloved by many, it is among those December-set films whose status as a Christmas movie is disputed (joined by the likes of “Die Hard” and “Iron Man 3″). However, it quickly became Collins and McIver’s holiday tradition and the inspiration for their Christmas cabaret.
In crafting their first holiday show as a couple, Collins and McIver sought to find a middle ground between their Christmas experiences to create a performance that would be a delight to Christmas detractors and devotees alike. In true queer fashion, where they landed is a combination of teasing parody and earnest celebration.
“Christmas Actually” features an eclectic combination of “problematic” songs, such as the much-maligned “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” and songs that would not typically be considered Christmas songs, like a mashup of the entire soundtrack of “Love Actually.”
Credit: Photo courtesy of Emerson Collins
Credit: Photo courtesy of Emerson Collins
At the core of this endeavor is the question of what actually counts as a Christmas celebration. Does something need to be marketed or broadly accepted as a Christmas movie in order to be meaningful? Or does it only matter that something counts to you?
“Part of what I love about the conversation is that even just arguing about what qualifies as a Christmas movie sort of brings about the spirit of the season anyway,” Collins said. “Because it boils down to ‘What do you love?’ there is not actually a right answer.”
“And it’s fun to hear everybody’s various tradition,” McIver added. “Like what is important to you and why?”
There is an inherent queerness to this nontraditional approach — in the casting off of labels and categories and the embracing of individual sentiment. What does Christmas mean to you? What traditions (if any) do you and your family hold? Does Christmas mean gathering around the TV for the yearly screening of “Die Hard” or attending a drag show?
Collins and McIver would say that if that is Christmas to you, then that is Christmas.
THEATER PREVIEW
“Christmas Actually”
7:30 p.m. Monday at Out Front Theatre. $30-$45. 999 Brady Ave. NW, Atlanta. 404-448-2755, outfronttheatre.com.
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