A Very Naughty Christmas (Woodward Productions) – theatre review
Featuring a live band and ten sexy performers, A Very Naughty Christmas is the holiday comedy event you didn’t know you had to experience. With festive classics as you’ve never heard them before, this show is bound to get you into the holiday spirit. And back, as it is, for its fifth helping, it really is the gift that keeps on giving, for this is Christmas at its most salacious.
The show’s adults-only sentiment is evident from the outset with Steel Panther’s “Sexy Santa”. it is clear that St Nicholas (Stephen Hirst) is the star of Christmas. Saucy from the start, he is down to his underwear within 10 minutes. Aurelie Roque is as wonderful as ever in her delivery of jaded musical numbers, while an Andrews Sisters’ style reappropriation of “Mr Sandman” to “Mr Santa” is full of suggestion. Audience participation in a re-enactment of a The Night Before Christmas storytelling segment is hilarious.
This is low brow humour, crafted with wonderful wit. It is surprising how many opportunities there are for punny innuendo around the iconography of this time of year. The scripts and musical numbers are full of clever erotic wordsmithing. Appearance of a Mean Girls’ “Jingle Bell Rock” from Santa and his helpers goes down a treat. One of the funniest scenes comes from the attempted redirection in tone of Santa’s message to be 2021 appropriate.
Directed and choreographed by Dan Venz and Maureen Bowra, the energy from the show’s electric performers (Aurelie Roque, Carla Beard, Dan Venz, Elliot Baker, Emily Kristopher, Kate Yaxley, Patrick Whitbread, Shay Debney, Stephen Hirst and Taylah Ferguson) never wanes. And the band (Chris Evans, David Spicer and Elliot Parker) is excellent.
With sexy carollers, a divine disco number and a tap-dancing nutcracker soldier, Brisbane’s favourite adults-only Christmas comedy will give you plenty of ho ho ho. The comedy cabaret tradition’s frisky fun is full of highlights. A Very Naughty Christmas takes its non-feint-hearted audience on a sleigh ride to hilarity, regardless of whether they are naughty or nice.
A Very Naughty Christmas is at Brisbane Powerhouse until 19th December, 2021.
Meredith Walker
For more of Meredith Walker’s theatre reviews, check out Blue Curtains Brisbane.
