Harp, Pragel return in Gaslight's hilarious A Tuna Christmas
Release Date: 10/28/2008. Expired: 12/19/2008
Return to the “third smallest town in Texas” to celebrate the holidays with some of the craziest people on Earth when the Gaslight Dinner Theatre presents A Tuna Christmas Nov. 4-Dec. 19 at The Renaissance Center in Dickson.
Pacer Harp and Greg Pragel follow their sold-out run of the original Greater Tuna with the holiday sequel that took Broadway by storm in 1994.
The Gaslight Dinner Theatre presents A Tuna Christmas in an extended run for the holidays.
Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays Nov. 6-Dec. 19 beginning with a buffet dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person and include dinner, drink, dessert and the show. There will be no shows the week of Thanksgiving, Nov. 24-29, or on Saturday, Dec. 20.
Senior matinees for patrons 55 and over will be Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays beginning with a buffet lunch at 12 p.m. Tickets are $20 and include lunch, drink, dessert and the show. There will be no shows the week of Thanksgiving, Nov. 24-29.
Created by Joe Sears, Jaston Williams and Ed Howard, A Tuna Christmas returns to Tuna, Texas, for a hilarious holiday celebration that includes a disaster-prone production of A Christmas Carol and a holiday decorating contest sabotaged by a mysterious phantom.
Harp and Pragel return to present a cast of more than 20 residents of Tuna – including men, women, children and animals – in a show that the New York Post said is “so funny it could make a raccoon laugh at Davy Crockett.”
As the holidays approach, radio station OKKK personalities Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie report on the various yuletide activities going on in Tuna. Joe Bob Lipsey’s attempt to produce a small theatre version of A Christmas Carol is jeopardized by unpaid electric bills. Stanley Bumiller is trying to complete his probation by performing in the play as part of his community service so he can leave Tuna. Bertha Bumiller is trying to hold her family together through the holidays and Vera Carp is hoping to win the Christmas Yard Display Contest for the 15th straight year, but a mysterious Christmas Phantom threatens to throw the contest into turmoil.
Many of the characters from Greater Tuna return for the sequel while new residents of Tuna are introduced. A Tuna Christmas is the second show in a trilogy that concludes with Red, White and Tuna.
Debuting in Austin, Texas, in 1989, A Tuna Christmas made it to Broadway for a limited run Dec. 15, 1994-Jan. 1, 1995, earning Sears a Tony nomination as Best Actor. Williams and Sears also did a command performance for Pres. George H.W. and Barbara Bush at the White House.
Harp, artistic director for The Renaissance Center, has appeared in several Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions, including Smoke on the Mountain, Sanders Family Christmas, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, The Foreigner and Run for Your Wife.
Pragel made his Gaslight Dinner Theatre debut in A Chorus Line and appeared in the Mind Enriching Theatre series productions of High School Musical on Stage and Seussical. The Buffalo, N.Y., native and graduate of Niagara University has performed with Downstairs Cabaret Theatre, Mill Mountain Theatre, Playhouse on the Square in Memphis and Sesame Street Live!
A Tuna Christmas is directed by Amy Scott, assistant artistic director for The Renaissance Center. She previously helmed Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions of Chicago, Run for Your Wife and The Foreigner.
For more information on the Gaslight Dinner Theatre production of A Tuna Christmas, call (615) 740-5600 or visit www.rcenter.org. To purchase tickets, call (615) 740-5601.
The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.
Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.
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