It’s Christmas Eve, the Las Vegas flight has been delayed, and die-hard Elvis fans, cousins Frankie and Marty, find themselves at a loose end in an airport lounge in Caroline Curran’s bittersweet comedy Elvis Yourself a Merry Little Christmas at Belfast’s The Mac.
Reuniting with Rhodri Lewis and Patrick Buchanan (and several artificial Christmas trees) following last year’s Are Yule Being Served?, Curran, who also doubles as various characters passing through, delivers another 70-minute sweetener for the season.
There isn’t, in truth, much flesh on the bone here, characters and storyline sketched rather than inked in, but what there is is presented with lashings of festive bonhomie and gusto that plays broad front-cloth comedy off against the poignant coincidence of Marty’s dementia diagnosis and Frankie’s 50th birthday
The comedy is unabashedly unsophisticated and none the worse for that. Much is made of the low-key facilities of the Barra Best Regional Airport, its name a nod to BBC Northern Ireland’s weatherman. And of the assorted eccentrics the cousins encounter.
Buchanan and Lewis are personable cousins, Curran changing wigs, posture and demeanour with aplomb, taking obvious relish in playing slithering airport employee Kathy Bates—more vampire than vamp; blousy Hen Do escapee, Boozy Brenda; and “Diva Divorcee” Joanne.
An hysterical Santa and a drunken reindeer also put in an appearance before all is resolved in a happy ending: the delayed flight starting to board and a hint of romance between old school flames Marty and Joanne.
A rousing Elvis medley, all three impersonating the King at different ages with Curran in vintage 1970 Las Vegas guise, rounds things off to crowd-pleasing effect.
It’s striking to see the audiences—largely, in topical parlance, women of a certain age—that Curran attracts. And to witness their response to material perfectly pitched for, and at, them. They’ll want to know that Curran is reviving the Maggie Muff character, written by Leesa Harker, that first attracted her a loyal following at The Mac in January.
Reviewer: Michael Quinn