Kelilah Berwald, Vivian Harrison, Eva Muchungu, Mason Yang, Noukou Nepal, Cal Prideaux, and River Clementson Photo by Dan Norman

The story obviously has staying power, which makes it a great choice for Park Square Theatre to mount as part of their "Family Series" this season. Their production, directed by Ellen Fenster-Gharib, is a complete delight. It is well staged, with the action smoothly transitioning from scene to scene, and with a cast that seems to feel completely committed to the source material. That cast, by the way, numbers twenty-one actors, only three of whom are adults. Fenster-Gharib's capacity to produce such strong results working with so many young actors is genuinely impressive.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has the feel of a children's play, but it is not a play to attend only because you know one of the kids in the cast. Rather, you should see it because it is warm-hearted, funny, has an engaging story line, and delivers a message totally in keeping with the tenor of the holiday season. It urges us to look below the surface of those who seem to be different from us, to see and embrace our common humanity. In fact, it eventually demonstrates this message with an actual embrace, in a moment that rings true because the plot believably builds slowly but surely to that point, and the actors have created authentic characters.

The play takes place during the weeks before Christmas in an unnamed community as families are preparing for the holiday. It opens with young Charlie and his older sister Beth (who acts as the play's narrator as well as being a character in it) along with their two dads, Gabe and Ned, decorating their Christmas tree, and their church is preparing for the annual Christmas Pageant in which children of its member families enact the nativity story. When Mrs. Armstrong, the stalwart director of the pageant for many years, lands in the hospital with an injury, Gabe steps up to assume the director's duties.

For Charlie, church serves a major function, having nothing to do with beliefs, Christian or otherwise. It is the one place he is able to avoid the taunting and bullying of the Herdman kids, a family of six siblings who run roughshod over Charlie and all the other kids at Woodrow Wilson Elementary. The Herdmans never go to church. Their father took off after the youngest, Gladys, was born, and their mother is too busy working multiple jobs trying to make ends meet to keep track of her brood. The Herdmans are notorious for cussing, shoplifting, drinking wine, smoking, and stealing–including the dessert from Charlie's lunch. To save face, Charlie tells Leroy Herdman that he gets all the desserts he wants at Sunday school.

This prompts the Herdman kids–all six of them–to show up at church for those free desserts. As it turns out, it is the week that Gabe begins work with the students on the upcoming pageant. The Herdman kids all volunteer for roles in the pageant. Not wanting to provoke their wrath, none of the other kids dare volunteer, so the Herdmans end up with all the lead roles. They have never been exposed to the nativity story before and find it pretty interesting, surprisingly relatable, and often appalling–like immobilizing an infant in swaddling clothes. Where was child welfare? The two oldest Herdmans, Imogene and Ralph, are Mary and Joseph, while Gladys is the Angel of the Lord, whom she models on a character from Amazing Comics, leaping on stage in a super-hero pose. With the Herdmans questioning every aspect of the pageant and inventing their own ways of telling the story, all the other kids and the church ladies are certain it will be the worst Christmas pageant ever, and even the minister is concerned. Well, the author may be guilty of a spoiler by titling her book (and play) as she did, but we wouldn't want it to wind up any other way.

Whether it was Fenster-Gharib's intention to tweak the story by giving the Bradley kids two dads instead of a mom and a dad, as the story was written, or the decision was simply a matter of casting the two best actors who auditioned, the change works without any hiccups, nor any noticeable alteration in the plotline. No one at any point mentions the same-sex couple–why would they?–and clearly theirs is a welcoming church, all of which adds to the positive spirit of the play.

As the oldest of the Herdman kids, Imogen represents not only their snide attitudes and crass behavior, but also their struggles. River Clementson is remarkable in the role, conveying the transformation that occurs when, as Mary, she feels responsible for baby Jesus and becomes a subject of dignity and repose. Victoria Mitchell is a well-centered Beth, conveying the older sister's efforts to be "the mature one" and, as narrator, to put events in some kind of perspective. Johan Anderson as her brother Charlie acts with a bit of delightful bluster, adding a sense of drama to incidents around him. Lulou McGinley is winning as Alice, Beth's friend whose expectations of being the star of the pageant are torn asunder by the Herdmans. Freya Larson, as Gladys Herdman, breaks up the house with every entrance and utterance.

As for the adults in the cast, Berto Borroto is terrific. He delivers the playfulness inherent in Gabe's personality, and shows the test of his patience as he struggles to work with the Herdmans, rather than exclude them from the pageant. Veteran actor Beth Gilleland is marvelous portraying self-important Mrs. Armstrong along with a bevy of other church ladies and the Reverend Hopkins. Though given less to do, Nathan Tylutki is effective as Ned, supportive of his husband and children, and just darling when Ned provides encouragement to the smallest of the pageant's "baby angels" to help her overcome stage fright.

The production gets strong marks for Rebecca Garnder's costume designs, which include both street wear and pageant wear for all of the kids in the cast, and makes a case for dads' bathrobes as the ideal wardrobe for the wise men. Kirsten Lee Jolly's functional set design, Shannon Elliott's lighting design, Richard Graham's sound design, and Brandt Roberts' prop designs all serve the production well.

If you are looking for a holiday-themed show to take young children to, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is an excellent choice. Then again, if you aren't bringing children along, you will still have a good time, entertained by a well-crafted narrative and earnest performances from the entire cast, including some very young actors, and touched by its message of recognizing that "the least of us" may have something to teach the rest of us.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever runs through December 22, 2024, at at Park Square Theatre, 20 West Seventh Place, Saint Paul MN. For tickets and information, please visit www.parksquaretheatre.org or call 651-291-7005.

Playwright: Barbara Robinson, based on her novel of the same name; Director: Ellen Fenster-Gharib; Assistant Director: Jack Moorman; Set Design: Kirsten Lee Jolly; Costume Design: Rebecca Gardner; Lighting Design: Shannon Elliott; Sound Design: Richard Graham; Properties Design: Brandt Roberts; Choreographer: Karla Nweje; Production Manager: Molly Heil; Director of Production: Austin Stiers; Youth Company Manager: Emily Ebanks; Stage Manager: Gianna Haseman; Assistant Stage Manager: Nicholas Carlstrom.

Cast: Jonah Anderson (Charlie Bradley), Kelilah Berwald (Baby Angel Dottie), Berto Borroto (Gabe Bradley), Terrell Brown (understudy), Willa Buchanan (Baby Angel Juanita), River Clementson (Imogen Herdman), Caiti Fallon (understudy), Beth Gilleland (Church Ladies/Rev. Hopkins), Harold Ginsburg (Elmer), Luka Gleeson (Hobie), Vivian Harrison, (Beverly), Annabelle Jeffrey (Baby Angel Shirley), Savannah Jeffrey (Baby Angel Doris), Freya Larson (Gladys Herdman), Lulou McGinley (Alice), Victoria Mitchell (Beth Bradley), Eva Muchungu (Maxine), Chufue Nepal (Ollie Herdman), Noukou Nepal (Diane), Thor Oseid (Claude Herdman), Cal Prideaux (Ralph Herdman/firefighter), Nathan Tylutki (Ned Bradley/firefighter), Mason Yang (Leroy Herdman).