“The initial idea,” Bert Bernardi banters, “was that Santa has a superhero that’s there all day long to save the day.
“The next step was adding the word ‘Teen’ to Santa. It’s just so incongruous. The common image of teens is sullen, disobedient. What if this kid has all this other spirit?
“He’s a 16-year-old boy obsessed with the holidays. His family just doesn’t understand!”
Teen Santa. It’s such a catchy concept that you’re surprised there wasn’t a ‘50s drive-in movie with that title, alongside I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.
But no, the latest family-friendly musical theater frolic from Pantochino Productions (which Bernardi runs with his partner Jimmy Johansmeyer) is all-original. And so appealing that rather than wait until Christmas 2012 as originally planned, Bernardi started writing and planning Teen Santa immediately after his last holiday hit, the Halloween-timed Cinderella Skeleton. It all came together so quickly—Christmas magic!—that it’s premiering now, for seven performances Dec. 15-18. Details here.
Pantochino Productions was unable to book the ECA Arts Hall (where they staged Cinderella Skeleton) this time around, as it’s being used for the ECA’s own production of much different sort of shows about exceptional teens, David and Lisa. Instead, Teen Santa lifts off from Yale’s Off Broadway venue, which has a Broadway address but is in fact entered from down the well-landscaped alley behind Toad’s Place.
“The proximity to Toad’s Place is great,” Bernardi raves, “because of the rock and roll connection. There’s a live band throughout this show. There’s a concerty feeling to the whole thing. I’ve never done of my children’s shows with a live band before, ever.”
The band is question is an actual working three-piece punk combo, Nothing2Simple, from West Haven. Bernardi found them while scouting the noted youth hang-out The Space in Hamden, in search of teen musicians with the rare sense of adventure that might bring them into a project called Teen Santa.
In the show, Nothing2 Simple is playing songs by Justin Rugg, who composed the tunes to fit Bernardi’s lyrics. Rugg had an acting role in Cinderella Skeleton, and this cast features two other veterans of that bony fairy tale, as well as professional actors from New York City and Long Island plus some students from Hamden High School. So there’s some cool continuity, though the style has shifted from goth fashions to punk rhythms.
“Tickets are selling well, and I’m getting calls from all over the state,” Bernardi marvels. This bodes well for more Pantochino Productions in New Haven, after decades of having to venture to Bridgeport for a taste of his quirky and unconventional kid-theater fare. Bernardi helmed the children’s theater at Downtown Cabaret Theatre for 28 years, only recently moving on to other pastures. He’s encouraged by the success of Cinderella Skeleton, which did well despite a freak October snowstorm, and by the number of nice performing spaces in New Haven. He says we can expect more Pantochino pick-me-ups ‘round these parts.
Hey, Teen Santa brought us just what we asked for!
