A Beer Carol You’ve got to hand it to Steve Mosqueda and Sean Benjamin. They’ve stayed true to their vision even at the risk of their livers. Their Drinking & Writing Theater is all about the creativity that flows from inebriation, and their shows are paeans to the alcoholic beverage. Especially beer. Even hallowed yuletide traditions get bent (as it were) to their intentions. First staged in 2011, A Beer Carol recasts Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol as the inspirational tale of Bud Miller, ruthless CEO of the Milweiser Beer Company, whose piss-purveying ways are changed by visits from the spirits of beer’s key ingredients: water, grain, hops, and yeast. There are some odd and funny passages, especially when it comes to Carolyn Shoemaker-Benjamin’s performance as a very peculiar Tiny Tim. But the show is more amusing than uproarious overall—a pleasantly goofy way to pass an hour while nursing a beer. —Tony Adler
A Christmas Carol: The Musical The Christmas Eve conversion of miser Ebenezer Scrooge is put to music in this 1994 adaptation of Charles Dickens’s beloved novella. Lyricist Lynn Ahrens (who also wrote the book, with Mike Ockrent) and composer Alan Menken have been involved in the creation of many notable musicals, but it’s unlikely that their contributions here, which have more in common with “Good King Wenceslas” than “Silent Night,” will be appearing on anybody’s caroling set list any time soon. Andrew Park’s production for Quest Theatre Ensemble is filled with cheer and goodwill, but poor traffic control on a small stage causes trouble throughout. Nick Rupard’s papier-mache puppets stand in for the children in the tale; Tiny Tim bears an unfortunate resemblance to alleged serial killer Robert Durst. —Zac Thompson
Holidazed and Confused What makes this show remarkable isn’t its structure. Anyone who’s been to Second City will recognize the format—one sketch after another, some with songs, some without, some laugh-out-loud funny, some not. What makes it noteworthy is the quirky, likable cast, a diverse and hilarious gaggle of misfits, each of whom finds a way of communicating her or his own brand of funny in the well-worn Second City formula. Jasbir Singh amazes with his Chaplinesque physical comedy. Martin Morrow and Ali Barthwell kill in an audience-participation piece about Kwanzaa. But to single out three is hardly fair in a show packed with energetic, eager, and able performers. —Jack Helbig
Sexy Saturdays Get in the holiday spirit by watching performers in circus makeup crack raunchy jokes and take their clothes off, possibly while sporting Santa beards. Every weekend the Uptown Underground features a different lineup of holiday-themed cabaret and burlesque performances, courtesy of the Cabaret Project, Kiss Kiss Cabaret, and Pervesk’ Burlesk’, among others. Expect music and hammy acts—including a Bette Midler tribute if you go on the right night—and lots of inventive striptease from the betasseled Kiss Kiss Coquettes. The latter are introduced by a rotating comic emcee whose modern stand-up patter (“You guys”) can seem at odds with the old-school ribaldry on offer. One ticket gets you into the whole evening, though midnight general admission is also available. —Andrew Lapin
