The holiday season brings many traditions, but one in particular has earned an affectionate send-up.
The Magenta Theater in downtown Vancouver is presenting the perfect show to kick off the festive season: “The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon.” The family-friendly comedy is a teasing look at the holiday films, particularly those on the Hallmark Channel, that everyone watches every year, despite complaining about the identical plots and unlikely romances.
The “Wonderthon,” which is set in the fictional community of Hopewood Falls, Vermont, uses two narrators to poke holes in the usual tropes found in these films. They explore such issues as whether movie stars and royal princes and princesses will find true love in a backwoods community. (Yes.) Will greedy developers from the city succeed in tearing down Christmas tree farms and/or family inns and putting up overpriced, coldly minimalist vacation condos? (No.) And what kind of romance begins when one person is in a coma?
The play, which was written by Don Zolidis, had its world premiere in December 2018, at the Alpharetta High School in Alpharetta, Georgia. The title at the time was “The Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon.”
This gleeful parody of Christmas rom coms opens at the Magenta on November 27 and runs through December 13. When they announce productions like this, organizers can work with poster printing to create suitable advertising for the show.
