Review: Office Christmas Party, Grinch in Fight with Rudolph, Police Called

The Purple Rose Theatre raised the curtain on its 2024-25 season with a world premiere play, Office Christmas Party, Grinch In Fight with Rudolph, Police Called, written and directed by Michigan/Chelsea native Jeff Daniels.

In the program notes, Daniels quoted Sir Laurence Olivier, who said, “I adore the funny ones because I’d much rather make people laugh than make them cry.” Daniels went on to write, “I’m glad you’re here. Maybe you needed to get out of the house, maybe you haven’t had a good belly buster in a long time, or maybe you just wanted to see what a professional theatre company can do when it takes comedy seriously.”

In Office Christmas Party, Daniels and the cast indeed take comedy seriously. The set for Office Party is simple, somewhat sparse actually. It includes a desk, chair, phone and two side chairs placed in the corners of the set. There is a large portrait picture on the wall behind the desk, which, at critical points in the plot, comes to life.

Ryan Carlson, last seen in The Antichrist Cometh at the Purple Rose in 2023-24 season, delights everyone as Wally Wilkins Jr, the CEO of the Middletown Fudge Factory, as he appears in his Santa costume, scolding actors Paul Stroili (Grinch) and Henri Franklin (Rudolph), after the pair fought during an office Christmas party. In the scolding, the audience learns that Wally cares for his employees, having spent $1,562.38 to cater food for the party. As The Grinch and Rudolph fight, the food flies, and poor Connie from accounting ends up face-first in the punch. And from there, the laughs were non-stop.

Carlson perfectly balanced his righteous indignation with his two employees for fighting with compassion and a more humorous, devious side. Juji Berry, cast as Bernice Wilkins, Wally’s daughter, is internet savvy and possesses a keen sense of how to use the internet to help the Fudge Factory make some much-needed money.

Daniels pulled together a very funny cast that kept the dialogue moving along while allowing the audience in on every joke. As Daniels said following the performance, “Some things just struck me as funny, so I used them over and over.”

One of the recurring jokes involved actress Ruth Crawford, who played Madge Milbury and Connie in accounting, as well as several other roles. Crawford was so funny, it created show-stopping moments where the audience laughed and applauded her performance.

Each time Crawford made her entrance, whether as Madge, Connie or the young reporter from the local television station reporting on the big fight at the Middletown Fudge Factory, she plodded along in the same slow, unsteady gate. Looking bewildered and baffled by everything, Crawford delivered some of the show's funniest lines in the same deadpan style to the delight of the audience.

At the end of the play, Crawford is saying a vintage Jeff Daniels line that leaves the audience laughing and applauding.

Crawford, as the news reporter on the scene of the fudge factory, was at her finest. Using the internet as her main source for verifying information, she reports that both The Grinch and Rudolph were killed. As “facts” on the internet change, Scillion is brilliant as he tells his young reporter that reporting only things that are true is especially important.

In desperate need of money to save the Fudge Factory, Wally and their daughter Bernice devise a scheme to stage a blood fest fight between Grinch and Rudolph on Christmas Eve, on a pay-per-view event on the internet, partnering with internet promotor Blood Fest Fights. Though both Grinch and Rudolph object to the fight, Bernice is able to convince her father that it is OK sometimes to do things that “may not be right, maybe even illegal” if it will save the company.

Poor Wally, who struggles to stave off “the big one” throughout the show, replaces his father in the picture on the wall as daughter Bernice takes over the fudge factory. Under her leadership, the factory is thriving.

And, of course, the biggest selling fudge is named after an oft-repeated line throughout the show, “Go Fudge Yourself.”

Office Christmas Party will run through 12-22-24. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday, 3 p.m., Friday 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 & 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

If you find yourself in need of a good time, you can’t go wrong with the Purple Rose production of Office Christmas Party.

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