Do They Know It’s Christmas?
Caroline Treanor (Gladys Herdman), Dax Crawley (Leroy Herdman), JC Carter (Charlie Bradley) Kaitlyn Connolly (Grace Bradley) and Kendis Stokes (Elmer) stage a unique version of the Nativity play in “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical.” Photo credit: Jason Collins Photography
Originally published by Style Weekly
by Rich Griset
December 12, 2024
Cadence Theatre Company serves up “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical” at the Dominion Energy Center.
When it comes to Christmas pageants, Desirée Dabney has seen her fair share.
As a child, her participation in the annual Christmas pageant at Third Union Baptist Church in King William was considered compulsory by her family.
“I have been everything under the sun except the baby Jesus,” says Dabney of all the time she’s spent adjacent to a manger. “I think it added to my love of being involved in a [show] around Christmastime.”
Dabney, who is an assistant professor and head of musical theater at Virginia Commonwealth University’s theater department, will continue the tradition this week when she takes the stage in Cadence Theatre Company’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical.”
Based on Barbara Robinson’s beloved 1972 children’s novel, this musical adaptation relates the story of the Herdmans, six misfit children who are notorious for their love of cigars, jug wine, cursing, shoplifting and the occasional bout of arson.
In both the novel and the show, the Herdmans decided to attend Sunday school for the first time after hearing that they have snacks. It’s there that the Herdmans learn the story of Christmas and decide to play the lead roles in the church Christmas pageant. Hilarity ensues when they decide to “revise” the tale of Jesus’ birth.
“The show is just hilarious,” says Dabney, who plays the sassy church lady Luanne in the musical. “The Herdman children wreak havoc, but they also teach everybody how to love again, how to forgive each other for their sins.”
A Style Weekly file photo of Desirée Dabney, assistant professor and head of musical theater at Virginia Commonwealth University’s theater department.
Director Taylor Bernard says she’s loved the novel since she was a kid and appreciates the new dimensions that the musical adds to it.
“Each song has a different feel,” Bernard says. “One of my favorites is ‘Die Herod Die,’ which is the chaotic moment when the Herdmans join a rehearsal and they want to know why this guy Herod, who wants to kill the baby Jesus, doesn’t show up in the Nativity play at all.”
The show also features holiday classics like “Away in a Manger” and “We Three Kings.”
“There’s a lot of use of traditional Christmas songs and carols, but they’ve been spun around,” Bernard explains. “They took the ‘Carol of the Bells’ and made it this ‘Mean Girls’ trio that is so creative.”
Joel Furtick, who plays Reverend Hopkins in the show, grew up in the church and says that both the book and the musical have a ring of familiarity for him.
“You always had those kids in church who would act up,” he says. “I was never that. I was always a perfect angel.”
Furtick adds that he’s not really “a kid person,” but his bite-sized co-stars have won him over.
“They’re so sweet and so passionate,” he says. “You can’t help but not be charmed.”
Bernard says the show is a light-hearted musical romp for the whole family.
“This story is relatable to everyone, whether you played sheep No. 2 in your Christmas pageant every year as a kid or you’ve never even heard the story or seen a Nativity before,” she says. “It’s really a reminder of what the Christmas story is all about, about being welcoming and offering joy and love to everyone.”