End of a Trilogy, Or Is It? New City Players’ The Last Christmas

By Britin Haller

New City Players is beginning their ninth season with a premiere production of The Last Christmas by Tyler Johnson Grimes, the supposed final installment in a trilogy of annual holiday performances revolving around radio station WNCP in Fort Lauderdale. It’s Christmas Eve, 1999, and a little thing by the name of Y2K is on everyone’s mind, but before the employees have to worry about that, they must make it through this night first. It’s not necessary to have seen the first two segments as this one can certainly stand on its own.

During the end of the twentieth century, dial-up modems were still being used, and call-in shows were all the rage, like the one by Dr. Laura which would air for the first time a few months later, so it’s not hard to believe that lonely people would tell a complete stranger their pain. Such is the premise of The Last Christmas whose tagline is “This Christmas Eve, connection is only a phone call away.” The program in question is “Calling Claire,” and although it’s never mentioned that it’s syndicated, it must be, due to the localities mentioned.

The Last Christmas centers around three main characters who work at the station, several lonely hearts, and an errant pizza boy. An odd bunch indeed, or as Producing Artistic Director and this show’s director Timothy Mark Davis labels them, a real group of misfits.

Eve Hart is nervous because her mentor and friend, Claire Phillips, is ill and won’t be able to host her annual Christmas Eve production. It’s up to Eve to save the day, and she is feeling the pressure. And it doesn’t help that Eve’s producer is a scatterbrained compulsive eater who can’t sit still, and that her technical director is obsessed with the upcoming end of the world.

But the show must go on, and before she knows it, Eve is on the air. But can she pull this off? Can she be everything Claire would be for the sad and depressed people? Can Eve help them feel the real spirit of the holiday before it’s too late?

There’s always a familiar face, or three, on the New City Players stage, and this is no exception. As the frantic Eve, Marlo Vashti Rodriguez is sincere. We feel her concern, not just for the people on the other end of the phone lines, but for her boss, Claire, about whom we get updates throughout the evening as her condition steadily worsens. Rodriguez appeared as Claire in last year’s A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play.

Worried tech director Izzy is played by Susanna Ninomiya. She has a big job, not just fielding the board, but keeping producer, Ruth, satisfied. Ninomiya pratfalls with the best of them.

As the hot mess Ruth, Casey Sacco, is all over the place. Literally. She can’t sit still. She’s either always eating, forcing Izzy into a game of trashcan basketball, or drinking from the bottle of Jack Daniels she keeps hidden underneath a hollowed out old-time radio. And in a bit of absolute madness, Ruth doesn’t even appreciate the gift of Izzy’s used Game Boy, which tells us everything we need to know about her. Who does that? She could do with contacting a different kind of radio program herself, concentrating specifically on mental health issues, if you know what we mean.

Also making their WNCP comebacks are Caroline Tarantolo and Carlos Alayeto. As playwright Tyler Johnson Grimes said in a pre-show interview, “We knew very quickly we wanted to get the band back together.” While the stories behind the reasons for their call-ins are touching, these parts sometimes drag, no more so than when the Miami Dolphin fan and Eve are tossing a football. Tarantolo wields a mean light saber though.

And it’s definitely a family affair with the addition of Tim Davis’s precocious, and absolutely adorable 11-year-old daughter Summer Davis making her acting debut. Nepo baby, yes, but a more than deserving one, as Summer steals everyone’s heart from the moment we see her. What an actor too. She nails every word, every nuance, and every part. Her moment as the little girl whose father has disappeared has everyone on the edge of their seats. If we have one wish for 2025, it’s to see Summer Davis in another South Florida production very soon.

Family and friends are, in fact, very important to Tim Davis and the New City Players. Casey Sacco is Davis’s fiancée, and Tyler Johnson Grimes and his wife are two of their closest friends. In addition, both Rodriguez and Ninomiya are former students of Johnson Grimes.

Izzy utilizes props from last season’s A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play when her soundboard goes out, and a photo montage with a shout-out to last year’s two comedic geniuses, Noah Levine as Walter R. Booth, and Gustavo Garcia as Pat Williams, are welcome. Unfortunately. neither gentleman appears in The Last Christmas, but they are sorely missed.

Winners of best comedy bits by far include Summer Davis and friends in the spot for real-life NCP sponsor, ClearWave Dental & Aesthetics of Coral Springs. Then there’s the entire appearance of nuisance pizza dude, Harold Petion, who delivers his pizzas and then just never leaves. Plus the absolutely hysterical scene when Nick Valdes, as Gary, and Carlos Alayeto as an unknown other father, both want the single Star Wars light saber left on the shelf. Their slow-motion facial expressions and body movements set to the theme song from Chariots of Fire takes more control than might be realized and are simply a must-see. The sword fight following with Tarantolo is pretty bad-ass too.

Johnson Grimes had a great year career-wise having both won a Silver Palm Award and earning a Carbonell Award nomination for his phenomenal Foley design on Slow Burn’s The SpongeBob Musical. Here he acts as the sound and Foley designer as well. Lighting designer Annabel Herrera utilizes her skills to ratchet up the suspense, and while a seizure warning for those with sensitivities is given just in case, it didn’t seem anything of note.

Dramaturg Ali Tallman did her homework, having costumes and props honor popular trends of the year such as Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace and The Matrix. There’s not much to do with 90s clothing. Grunge and hip hop were in, and appropriately Izzy wears overalls. But where Casey Sacco, who also doubles as costume designer with her co-designer Laura Argiropulos, shines is in the attire worn in the radio ads. There’s Mr. and Mrs. Claus with Rudolph, the Abominable Snowman, Krampus, and Summer Davis, stealing our hearts as an elf with big ears and teeth for buttons, in the cutest commercial ever.

Props and Set Dresser Jameelah Bailey has no easy task due to the large number of objects needed to be in their proper positions. Nice work. Especially lovely to see were everyone’s favorite 90s item cassette tapes, a plastic Charlie Brown tree, and a Lite-Brite, designed with a snowman, which sent this critic straight to Amazon upon returning home. Others assisting were Technical Director JB Green and Scenic Designer Aubrey Kestell.

The Last Christmas is full of nostalgia, reminding us that sometimes just reaching out to a stranger in the dark of night can be healing, and that the best Christmas is in our hearts.

So is it really the end of Christmases at WNCP? The director and playwright have publicly said it is, although additional comments by them seem to leave the door open for expansion of what Johnson Grimes calls the WNCP-Universe, and in this critic’s opinion, it should be the final run of these yuletide shows. It’s not titled The Last Christmas for nothing, after all, and any actor will tell you it’s always best to leave them wanting more.

However …

In drawing from WNCP’s timeline of events found in the playbill, possible ideas for a non-holiday sequel, if you will, include the South Florida War of the Worlds mosquito invasion of 1954, the Greased Lightnin’ Dance Marathon held in 1978, and a horror/slasher version starring Mistress Morgana, the radio station’s 80s version of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Our vote is for this last one first.

In addition to seeing the play, other joyful activities at the theater include free hot chocolate, Friday night caroling with holiday drinks, Saturday evening gift exchanges, and talkbacks with the cast and crew on Sundays. Anyone feeling generous is invited to bring an unwrapped toy for the donation box.

And don’t forget to hug your pizza person because they need love too. Just kidding, don’t do that.

Britin Haller is a freelance author and an editor for Turner Publishing. Her latest short story “So Many Shores in Crookland” can be read in the 150th issue of Black Cat Weekly. Britin’s latest edit, a cozy mystery novel called Dumpster Dying is by Michelle Bennington and available where books are sold. Find Britin across social media.

The Last Christmas from New City Players runs through December 22 at Island City Stage 2304 N. Dixie Hwy, Wilton Manors, FL (south of Oakland Park Blvd.); Fri-Sat at 8 p.m. Matinees Sat-Sun at 3 p.m. Running time approx. 100 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $40, or $25 with a student ID. Call 954-376-6114, or visit newcityplayers.org.