LIVE: “The Santaland Diaries” @ Shakespeare & Company, Lenox [GailSez]

Oh, I’ve been waiting all my life to write this sentence: Winkles twinkles as Crumpet the Elf.

There was no doubt in my mind from the moment Shakespeare & Company announced that one of their top physical comedians, Ryan Winkles, would be starring in The Santaland Diaries that I would have a chance to pen that immortal sentiment. Winkles just is elfin – and funny! – and this is a play about a funny man who takes a job as an elf at Macy’s Santaland…and not just at any Macy’s, THE Macy’s…the one in Herald Square. As elf jobs go this is just a heartbeat away from the North Pole.

Since David Sedaris first read his essay recalling the year he worked as an elf in Macy’s Santaland on NPR in December of 1992, The Santaland Diaries has become the cynics choice for a holiday treat. In 1996 Joe Mantello’s one-man stage adaptation debuted, and the holiday sneer has continued to spread.

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