arts&life

movies

Dancing Dreidels &
Singing Sufganiyot

JULIE SMITH YOLLES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The hit

Chanukah musical

MeshugaNutcracker!

is in movie theaters

one-night only.

34

December 14 • 2017

P

lan to spend the last
night of Chanukah, Dec.
19, at the movies — the
Maple Theater, to be precise.
For one-night only, a family-
friendly filmed live perfor-
mance of an unusual holiday
musical will be screened.
Four years ago, the Jewish
congregations of Palo Alto,
Calif., had a pow-wow meet-
ing with the three founders of
Guggenheim Entertainment.
“They were desperate to have
some family-friendly outings
to attend together during the
holidays that weren’t the usual
White Christmas, A Christmas
Carol or The Nutcracker,”
Shannon Guggenheim says.

jn

“A little kibbitzing about the
potential craziness — or
meshuganah — of develop-
ing a full-length Chanukah-
themed musical production
led to the creation of the
MeshugaNutcracker!”
Using Tchaikovsky’s The
Nutcracker as the musical back-
drop, Shannon started writing
lyrics and developing choreog-
raphy for what would turn into
an eight-member professional
cast (including Shannon), with
a ninth special guest.
“The ninth person [Emmy
Award-winning and Broadway
star Bruce Vilanch] also
symbolically represents the
shamash to our eight-person

cast, or menorah,” Shannon
says.
Shannon’s husband, Scott
Evan Guggenheim, is the
researcher, content master
and stage director of the
show. Scott’s brother, Stephen
Guggenheim, is the musi-
cal director and also stars as
Mayor Gronam Schmegegi.
A world-class opera singer,
Stephen is also an ordained
cantor and has performed
locally with the Flint Symphony.
“It’s the music of Tchaikovsky
with klezmer-Broadway fusion
styling,” Shannon says. “There
are dancing dreidels and sing-
ing sufganiyot celebrating the
Festival of Lights through eight

stories in the town of Chelm
[a fictional town of fools]. Our
story combines current-day
themes that are just as timeless
as they were 100 years ago.”
The inherent silliness of the
folklore of Chelm blends with
Judah Maccabee’s triumphant
saga, tales of perseverance dur-
ing the Holocaust and the first
Chanukah in the new State of
Israel. “There are teachable
moments in the show about
perseverance, hope and tri-
umph over evil,” she says. “But
we’ve still made it very theatri-
cal and family-friendly.”
Up until now, The
MeshugaNutcracker! has toured
as a live stage show each