Arts & Entertainment

Blah-liday

By Paul Friswold 

Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale The Little Match Girl is notable for its very un-fairy-tale ending: The Little Match Girl freezes to death in the wintry street. Transforming such an uplifting story into a holiday show seems like a bad idea -- but only at first glance. Honestly, by about December 20, wouldn’t you rather freeze to death than continue living in a world that has entirely capitulated to forced merriment? Office parties, housewarming parties, televised holiday parties, surprise holiday parties, pity parties (those are the ones you have in your studio apartment when everyone else has gone to the party to which you weren’t invited) — enough with the parties! Bring on the cold, bony hand of the reaper! Enter “The Man Who’s Had Enough,” a New Yorker determined to spend New Year’s Eve in blissful solitude watching his DVD of The Little Match Girl. Then, a determined salesgirl peddling anti-seasonal affective disorder light bulbs breaks into his private world, drawing him into a real-life version of the Anderson story. So it goes in Striking 12, the new musical created and performed by the pop trio GrooveLily. From the warped Christmas carol of “Hey La La” (sample lyrics: “This is the sound of a party you don’t get to go to/All over town there are people who won’t get to know you./It’s underground, they’re so hip and they are eating tofu/They think it’s fun to be vegetarian.”) to the mid-’70s Stevie Wonder-esque vibe of “Screwed Up People Make Great Art,” Striking 12 covers a broad musical range and gives the hectic pace of the holiday season a thorough send-up. GrooveLily performs Striking 12 at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday (November 16 and 17) at Washington University’s Edison Theatre (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; 314-935-6543 or edisontheatre.wustl.edu). Tickets are $18 to $30.
Nov. 16-17, 2007