Plenty of popular flicks make successful transitions to the stage, freshly reimagined yet retaining the essence of the original - like, for example, the immensely entertaining musical version of “Legally Blonde’’ that recently played at North Shore Music Theatre. But this “Christmas Story’’ adaptation by Philip Grecian, directed at New Rep by Diego Arciniegas, essentially amounts to a scene-by-scene recapitulation of the 1983 movie - an approach that invites comparisons that do not redound to the stage version’s benefit.
While there are a few charming moments in the New Rep production, and the ever-impressive Stacy Fischer notches another fine performance as Mother, the play is a paint-by-numbers affair that exudes little of the film version’s charm and almost none of its magic.
There’s a reason the movie, which had a so-so performance at the box office when it was first released, went on to become a cult classic after it was shown on TV in the 1980s, and remains a holiday viewing tradition for many today. It’s the tale of a boy named Ralphie, his quirky family, and his crafty (or so he thinks) campaign to persuade his parents to get him a Red Ryder BB gun as a Christmas gift, only to be repeatedly told: “You’ll shoot your eye out.’’
“A Christmas Story,’’ the movie, combines a homespun setting (1940s Indiana) with a subversive sense that we have entered an alternate universe, with rules of its own, whether on the homefront, in the school, or in the department store where Ralphie and his kid brother have an ill-fated encounter with Santa Claus. We don’t feel that sense while watching the New Rep production.
