By Kent Straith

FERNDALE, MI–Do you love Christmas? Do you love Barbra Streisand? Do you like the style and fashion of the mid 1960s? Are you curious to see what the story of the birth of Jesus Christ could possibly have to do with the most famous living Jewish American? If you answered yes at least twice, the Ringwald Theatre in Ferndale has a show for you and forty nine other people at a time that doesn’t take any of the above all that seriously but is definitely a cute, funny, and incredibly short way to spend an evening out this holiday season.

Set in a Manhattan television studio on Christmas Eve of 1967 (and yet somehow existing outside linear space/time, as the characters make several references to things that will happen in the future), the conceit of the show is that Barbra Streisand is spending this very snowy night (that’s gonna be important in a minute) performing songs from her newly released Christmas album on a live primetime broadcast to America, along with special guests Sammy Davis Jr., Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, and Liberace. That lineup certainly would have the potential to be a great evening of television, assuming the special guests all showed. But here’s the thing…

When a massive blizzard shuts down travel in the City, and not only do none of the special guests show up, but most of the station’s tech crew also call out, rather than cancel and throw up a rerun of Bewitched or Lawrence Welk, Barbra decides to do the show anyway. And instead of guest stars, she’s going to dress her publicist, the show’s director, the cameraman, and the janitor as her friends and have them lip-sync to recorded material. Hilarity predictably ensues.

The Ringwald, a performance space inside Affirmations Community Center, is light on real estate (it seats fifty people in a three sided thrust configuration), but directors Brandy Joe Plambeck and Joe Bailey make very creative use of the available space, and while the show doesn’t exactly interact with the audience, the closeness of the actors to the patrons make you feel like you’re part of a cabaret experience.

At this point, it feels important to mention that in this production, Barbra Streisand is played by lead Richard Payton as a drag queen who would easily be the tallest member of the cast even if he weren’t wearing platform heels through the entire show. Payton, a longtime veteran of the Detroit theater scene, fiercely and fearlessly chomps on the scenery as Babs, clad in a muumuu and a turban (only the best for Christmas Eve), as her minions try to control the chaos, couple up on cold night and accomplish that most American of pursuits: “Let’s put on a show.”

On top of being funny, Jingle Babs is family friendly (admittedly, it’s difficult to think of any really dirty Christmas shows), with the obvious caveat that anyone under thirty five isn’t going to know who any of these celebrities are. There are no weak spots in the cast, but special attention must be paid to Melissa Beckwith as Roz, the terrified publicist thrust against her will into an imitation of Judy Garland (playing her intentionally or not as a dead ringer for Kristen Wiig’s SNL character Mindy Gracin, the terrible actress who’s bad at Password), and Katie Akers, who (as Barbra’s treacherous, self-dealing personal assistant) is one of the very few members of the company who gets to show off her own singing voice rather than pantomime to a track.

Jingle Babs isn’t going to be for everyone, and the cultural references impenetrable to anyone who doesn’t remember the Clinton administration, but it’s a fun 70ish minutes with people who make you feel like they’re your friends, and that’s a very merry and bright way to spend an evening.

(Jingle Babs is playing at the Ringwald Theatre in Ferndale, now through December 18^th. Tickets are available at www.simpletix.com or by calling the Ringwald at 248-545-5545)