Some holiday shows this year will feature Charles Dickens memorable curmudgeon-turned-caring-soul, and others will feature tales of quirky characters from bygone years, but one show will take you by the heart and not let go until a magical transformation has occurred, and its audience is left with a tickled funny bone and a different view of one English family's world.
Oh, and I should mention, this show also features a Chinese Elvis impersonator (Ken Wong, in a standing ovation-earning role), who helps the above mentioned family navigate successfully through a series of difficult emotional rapids.
Set in a small, English town in the late nineties, “Martha, Josie and The Chinese Elvis” (now on stage at the Burien Little Theatre until Dec. 19th) tells the story of Josie Botting (the delightfully powerful Alexandra Novotny), her 'younger than her years' daughter, Brenda Marie (a witty and funny Kelli Mohrbacher), and their attempts to reconcile the 'death' of Brenda's twin sister, Louise (spunky, plucky Angelica Duncan).
Also part of this interesting dynamic is the fact that Josie has a very interesting job 'counseling' men who need her rather unusual talents to help them function better in society. Let's just say her 'skill set' doesn't involve her taking orders, but more giving orders.
Along for this, at times, hilarious ride are also a cleaning woman (an unforgettable performance by Geni Hawkins) with a compulsion for counting to the number five, in order to handle the evils of the world and keep disaster at bay, and one of Josie's regular clients (a soft-spoken part, played with humor and candor by Gerald B. Browning), Lionel Trills.
This quartet swirls around each other, quipping and giving us an ever clearer picture of an extended family that lives by their own rules, and even has a kind of invented magic, which crackles on the stage, and in several instances, had the opening night audience in stitches with laughter.
Ah, but the most magical moments in 'The Chinese Elvis' happen when these aims collide, as Josie's client plans a 40th birthday celebration that soon becomes an ever opening flower of revelations and unspoken truths.
I won't spoil the surprises, or the moments in this gem of a play that had me open mouthed with awe, but I can say that this is one you should make every effort to put on your list to see for the holidays.
Burien Little Theatre is located in the Theatre Annex to the Burien Community Center on 4th Avenue. Southwest. and Southwest 146th Street in Burien, and the show runs weekends at 8 p.m. For more information on tickets, call 206-242-5180.