A Christmas Story, the Play

Humorist Jean Shepherd's memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940s
follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB
gun under the tree for Christmas. Ralphie pleads his case before his mother,
his teacher and even Santa Claus himself at Higbee's Department Store. The
consistent response: "You'll shoot your eye out!" All the elements from the
beloved motion picture are here, including the family's temperamental
exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully; the boys' experiment with a
wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphie's
father winning a lamp shaped like a woman's leg in a net stocking; Ralphie's
fantasy scenarios and more. A Christmas Story has become a theatrical
holiday perennial.
‍

"A Christmas Story is still ... one of the more enchanting ways to be transported to
a world beyond our own. Yet it also serves to remind us how lucky we are to live a
culturally rich life ... and Philip Grecian's thoughtful stage adaptation preserves the
old ... references." —Plain Dealer
‍

"Classics bloom quickly in modern times ... you don't have to have grown up with
9-year-old Ralphie Parker and his ache for an air rifle under the tree to think of A
Christmas Story as a Christmas must. And [this] version is just as kindly and just as
cockeyed as A Christmas Story is meant to be."
—Orlando Sentinel
‍

"Grecian's script retains Shepherd's wry, tongue-in-cheek humor."
—Orange County Register

‍