As the Herdman children threaten to derail the church’s Christmas pageant, everyone involved learns the true meaning of charity, grace and the Christmas spirit. Barbara Robinson’s hilarious and thoughtful Christmas novel comes to life on stage with South City Theatre’s production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever beginning Friday, Dec. 4, and running through Sunday, Dec. 12.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (or The Worst Kids in the World as the book is known in Australia, New Zealand and the UK) tells the story of the Imogene, Claude, Ralph, Leroy, Ollie and Gladys Herdman, “six delinquent children who engage in misfit behavior for their age such as smoking, drinking jug wine, and shoplifting,” according to Wikipedia. “They go to church for the first time after being told that the church offers snacks. Despite protests from other church members, they are given roles in the Sunday school’s Christmas play, in which they tell the Christmas story in a nonconventional fashion.”
Appropriate for both children and adults, the play is full of favorite holiday hymns and brings all of the frustration and hilarity of a real Sunday school Christmas pageant with a feel-good twist ending.
“In this hilarious Christmas classic, a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant is faced with casting … probably the most inventively awful kids in history,” according to Samual French, Inc. “You won’t believe the mayhem — and the fun — when the Herdmans collide with the Christmas story head on!”
South City Theatre is located at 2969 Pelham Parkway in Pelham. Showings will be Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee on Sunday, Dec. 6, at 2 p.m. $16. For more information, visit southcitytheatre.com.