‘Cool Yule’ is a holiday musical premiere for Wichita’s Forum Theatre
Forum Theatre’s new Christmas revue, “Cool Yule,” was more than a year and a half in the making.
Delayed from last year because of COVID precautions, the holiday show opens this weekend for the first of 14 performances.
Simeon Rawls, one of the seven performers and the director/choreographer of “Cool Yule,” said it had the makings of becoming a Christmas tradition for Forum.
“We wanted to create something special that gave Wichita something sparkly and shiny that would make Wichita go, ‘Wow, that was a Christmas show that I want to see every year,’” he said.
Rawls, Forum artistic director Kathryn Page Hauptman and music director Anjelica McRae Breathett started creating a master list of songs in the middle of 2020.
“We went through the processing of adding, deleting, adding back the deleted ones and creating the musical story we wanted to tell,” Hauptman said. “It gave it a lot of variety.
“The whole process of creation is going with what works,” she added. “You may lose a few of your favorites in the creation, but you add more favorites.”
The results include a range from a modern-day version of the Andrews Sisters to a current Christmas hit by Kelly Clarkson, as well as ‘50s R&B and Gene Kelly-style dancing.
“We wanted it to be ‘cool,’ and I put that in quotes, but we didn’t want to cross that generational gap,” Hauptman said. “We want things that are cool today, but also a style that’s cool that never goes out of style.”
Hauptman said she told Rawls to watch shows such as “Smokey Joe’s Café” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” the latter of which Forum will stage next year, to get an idea about keeping the music flowing from one song to the next.
“We want to take people on a journey,” Hauptman said. “It’s joyous, joyful to watch. The dancing is great, the music is all infectious. The arrangements are so good.”
Cast member Sarah Gale McQuery says “Cool Yule” is glamorous looking, but there are “moments when I feel very sassy.”
“It’s sparkly and it feels very fresh,” she said. “The whole thing feels really fresh, no matter what time period we’re nodding to.”
One of her favorite moments in the show is a duet of “Merry Christmas Baby” with Alexander Ogburn. “It’s a romantic song but it’s just fun and a little sexy and goofy.”
Other cast members are Megan Ahern, Ted Dvorak, Chelsey Ehresman and Ashley Strella. Ahern and Strella are both newcomers to Forum, Hauptman said, and are Wichita State students.
“It’s been so much fun to have new people in the cast,” Hauptman said. “The dynamics of the new performers with the veterans just makes everybody work harder.”
“Cool Yule” by Forum Theatre
When: Nov. 27 to Dec. 19; performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: Wilke Center, First United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway
Tickets: $25; $23 for Thursdays, at forumtheatre.org or 618-0444