Christmas productions set to light up stages

Things you can always bank on for the day after Thanksgiving — festive lights on Temple Square ... holiday sales at the stores ... and the annual flood of Christmas productions. Six holiday shows are opening this coming weekend, including the first of countless Scrooges and Herdmans (those rowdy urchins who nearly destroy yet another Nativity pageant).

• THE 1940s RADIO HOUR could be the least "Christmasy" of the lot.

Playing from Friday through Dec. 22 at Rodgers Memorial Theatre, 292 E. Pages Lane, Centerville, it's built around a live radio broadcast of "The Mutual Manhattan Variety Cavalcade" on Dec. 21, 1942, from the Hotel Astor's Algonquin Room.

The theater patrons become the audience in the radio studio, where they're prompted by the traditional "on the air" and "applause" signs.

A few seasonal songs — notably "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Jingle Bells" — are mixed in with such timeless tunes as "Ain't She Sweet," "Blue Moon," "Our Love Is Here to Stay," "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo."

Jim Christian is directing and choreographing a double-cast ensemble that includes R.B. Archibald and Drew Thompson as band leader Zoot Doubleman, Daniel Frederickson and Josh Madsen as crooner Johnny Cantone, Brian Lucas and Craig Smith as trumpeter Biff Baker (spending his final night on the Cavalcade before shipping off to war), Nathan Riddle and Dallin Garber as station manager Lou Cohn, and Michelle Smith and Jennie Whitlock as singer Ginger Brooks.

Performances are Mondays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $9-$16 (298-1302).

• SANTA'S ELVES, A NORTH POLE MUSICAL marks a major seasonal departure for northern Utah's venerable Pickleville Playhouse, renowned for its family summer productions at Bear Lake.

It's scheduled for 12 performances between Friday and Dec. 22 in Utah State University's Eccles Conference Center, featuring an optional holiday buffet catered by Hamiltons, a Logan restaurant.

The musical revue is built around four of Santa's favorite elves — Buster, Zippy, Holly and Winnie — who become involved in an adventure to save the magic of Christmas for the world's children.

Performances are 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with two additional weekday performances on Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 5 and 6. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m.