Friday, December 12, 2008
Contributed Photo -- In the cast of "Monteagle Christmas Stories" are Sean Dixon, Alexandra Weiland, Chris Rippy, Alexandra Connell, Dwayne M. Strickland, Kaydee West, Shara Connell, Amber West, Marc Allen and Christopher Carnett, from left.
The holiday show at Bear Hollow Dinner Theatre originally was intended to be “A Christmas Story.” Instead, the action stays closer to home with “Monteagle Christmas Stories.”
This montage of favorite stories and songs was conceived by George W. Manus Jr., who was hired about two months ago as executive director of the dinner theater at the Monteagle, Tenn., resort.
When the rights to produce “A Christmas Story” weren’t available, he decided the best idea was “to find something suited to the actors we had,” he said. “And we really wanted to do a musical.”
His compilation runs the gamut from funny to poignant, with songs ranging from “I’m Getting Nothing for Christmas” to “O Holy Night” and messages taken from stories as varied as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Gift of the Magi.”
The goal was to make it fun for the cast and audience, while still conveying the true meaning of the season, said Manus, who is directing the production.
“I wanted to avoid the commercial turn we seem to have taken,” he said. “I wanted to remind people why we celebrate Christmas, but still keep it fun.”
In the show, stories are told and songs are sung by 10 extended family members as they gather at home for Christmas.
Bear Hollow owner Jim Masiella said the seasonal scene, complete with a 12-foot-tall Christmas tree, pushes all the right buttons.
It’s touching, he said. “Just the thing you need at Christmas.
IF YOU GO
What: “Monteagle Christmas Stories.”
When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (dinner at 6:30 p.m. with 24-hour notice) and 2 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 21 (times are Central).
Where: Bear Hollow Dinner Theatre, 11885 Highway 41, Monteagle, Tenn.
Admission: $15 for show, $30 for dinner and show.
Phone: (931) 924-2327.
Web site: www.bearhollowtn.com
Comments
Dreadful. TFP shouldn't advertize shows of this quality. We felt it was about as professional as a Kindergarten pageant. For $30, see something worth paying for, like The Nutcracker at the Ballet, and save your family that awful drive up the mountain and the time-zone switch, which makes it all the more dreadful. We will never go back, even the food was bad.
We saw this thing up there that was supposed to be Monty Python sketches but it was just some people on stage doing things to entertain themselves like singing bad country and nothing to do with The Pythons. We didn't eat, but I thought the same thing as Choo-Choo about the quality. They all seemed drunk or strung-out. It's a neat place, but $15 dollars was too much for worse than a middle school talent show. Thumbs down, we won't go back either.
We too have been disappointed by the recent lapse in quality of both food and entertainment at Bear Hollow. It was great for a while, then it got mediocre, then really great, and suddenly bad. Their summer kids shows are the best. We don't have the drive up the mountain or the time change, and we used to go all the time, but for the same drive and lots less money, you get a lot better show at Tullahoma's South Jackson Civic Center. Just my opinion
I saw You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown there, and it was positively abysmal. The cast didn't know the words to the songs, and only half of them could hold pitch well enough to distinguish the melody, not to mention the cheap canned music they used as accompaniment. Any director who cannot coach an actress to sing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata should not be working in the theatre. There was minimal choreography, most of the acting was (poorly done) line reading, and there were blackouts between every short scene or song. The show, which I have seen elsewhere and enjoyed, ran at least fifteen minutes longer as a result of the sloppy scene breaks. Frankly, I was embarrassed for the performers. I certainly would be ashamed to ask an audience to pay to see drivel like that.
Bear Hollow used 2 B the best thing going N the area. Warren Gore had the place running & he & the lady he worked w/ were wonderful. Then I went 2 Little Shop of Horrors & heard there were some personal issues & that didn't work out & they left. They brought N a drama teacher from a local high school who really did some cool stuff, Pump Boys and Dinettes was the best show done there that I saw. They were doing 2 shows a month & when I went there were good audiences. Then he disappeared & its just been audiences of 3 or 4 people when I go now & I agree w/ the other comments here saying it's just been terrible. The shops R never open & nobody eats dinner. The audiences R just family members of people N the show. U cant charge the theater going public 30$ 4 that & survive. It just isn't worth it. I think Bear Hollow is gasping its last gasps as the best N the area. It's a real disappointment 2 b/c the place had so much potential.
Well, from what I hear the play was awesome and that drama teacher was arrested for sexual battery of a teenage boy, got mad at the Bear Hollow employees for turning him in to the police and after making bond has harassed and slandered their business.
He's posted slanderous things all over the internet, including HERE, obviously. It's interesting that all the shows that were GOOD on this board were shows that the drama teacher ROBERT T. ALLEN JR, and his friends had done before he went to jail, and all the other shows are garbage.
Coincidence? You decide.
http://media.timesfreepress.com/docs/2009/04/Grundy_court_documents_0406.pdf
CHECK IT OUT- THIS GUY IS SERIOUSLY A LOSER!!! HAHAHAHA