Book and Lyrics: Valen Shore and Alison Zatta
Music: Valen Shore
Director: Riley Rose Critchlow
Christmas is a time to think of others and for all the broken-up boybands of the world who have watched one of their number go on to extraordinary solo success without them, it is also a time of bittersweet regret. Valen Shore and Alison Zatta’s 70-minute parody musical imagines the pain of ex-*NSYNC member Chris Kirkpatrick while being vaguely recognised in Starbucks. Filled with references from the 1990s and early 2000s, Chriskirkpatrickmas at Seven Dials Playhouse is a nicely constructed alternative to standard festive shows.
Mashing up It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol, the heavens send the spirit of Marky Mark (now separated from the actor Mark Wahlberg) to grant lonely boyband star Chris Kirkpatrick a Christmas wish in 2009. Hosting a party for his former bandmates, Chris clings to the belief that Justin Timberlake will attend and a chance to reform the band will present itself. Revisiting their shared past, Chris is encouraged to find a new dream.
Shore and Zatta have created a very entertaining spoof musical with 10 original songs, and although none of them feature any *NSYNC material, the writers seamlessly work in a line about copyright issues. Having set the audience expectations, there is plenty of fun to be had by turning the clock back first to 2009 with references to new hit show Glee, a gag with a disposable camera and early smartphones calling a landline. As the story goes back further in time to the band’s formation in 1995, there are a similar number of jokes that recall the era and a series of silly wigs as Justin Timberlake changes his hairstyle.
Chriskirkpatrickmas leans more into its A Christmas Carol structure as it unfolds but remains largely focused on the past, relieving the glory days of *NSYNC and the build-up to Timberlake’s departure which Chris is comically deluded about. But the show slows down in its second half and is less sure what to do with the characters once *NYSNC have parted ways. An unexpected mid-point twist sets up an alternative reality parallel plot but the opportunity to dramatise the life they could have led is never seized upon which is a shame, offering a much stronger direction for the second half of the story, while Marky Mark’s angel begins an existential crisis that also fades away without proper resolution.
But the styling is great fun; choreographer Lili Fuller has done a good job in creating some entertaining boyband numbers that reference *NSYNC’s original dance moves as well as character-driven pieces including Timberlake’s budget showgirl song Everyday is Christmas (When You’re Me). Shore carries Kirkpatrick’s style into the music as well with plenty of trills and earnest falsetto that shows affection for the style.
Shore plays Chris with a bewildered charm that wins the audience around while Nicole Wyland’s Justin develops from a gauche 14-year-old into a self-satisfied egoist. This is a show aimed primarily at anyone who was there, so anyone born after 2000 might not recognise any of the characters, but you’ll certainly end the show hoping that Chris Kirkpatrick finally gets his Christmas reunion wish.
Runs until 30 December 2023
