In Christ! What a Night, this year’s Little Andromeda Christmas show, it’s the night before Christmas at the Stickitt Inn, Bethlehem, the least soundproofed motor lodge in the greater Tauranga area.  

Fusspot proprietor Matthew Mark (Tom Sainsbury) has been hiding something significant about the motel’s crippled finances. His much younger husband Lucan John (Chris Parker) is feeling underappreciated and unloved, his interior design ambitions shot down again and again. The motel is falling to bits – as is their marriage – and their attempts to cut costs and rustle up some extra publicity are as flat as their bookings.

Enter their mysteriously pregnant niece, Mariah Faith (Bianca Seinafo), whose waters are close to breaking and whose reputation as a chaste Christian social media influencer is at stake. She’s supported by her boyfriend, Joe King (Tom Eason), a mulleted, vaping, energy drink-swilling builders’ apprentice with a heart of gold, jeans that hang halfway down his ass and a sudden fear of commitment. He’s adamant they’ve never gone the whole way and is freaked out that God might have had sex with his missus – if that’s how it works? – but it’s soon clear that there might truly be a whole slate of Christmas miracles lined up.

Add in a local granny slash drug kingpin (Seinafo) whose patience has disappeared, a visit from an uptight evangelical reporter keen on a seasonal scoop (Eason), and a special guest cameo from a local performer – tonight, singer Naomi Ferguson, in a gorgeous white outfit and with a voice like an angel – and it’s a recipe for chaos. Although perhaps the second coming might be just the publicity boost that the financially floundering Stickitt Inn needs?

All this is a vehicle for bawdy character comedy, double entendre, malapropisms, misunderstandings, revelations and a great deal of histrionic flapping. Director Holly Chappell-Eason emphasises the show’s farcical elements, quickly escalating the action and making good use of the tight space. Parker and Sainsbury, who wrote the show, fling themselves around Chris Reddington’s perfectly tacky 90s motel lobby set, twirling and mincing, chain smoking and bickering, their rapid fire dialogue piling up so quickly you can’t keep up with the gags.

I love Seinafo’s leering, shuffling portrayal of Mrs Bubbles, who’s just as likely to kindly offer you a sultana pastie as she is to demand blood payment for unserviced debts. And I don’t think anyone else does physical comedy like Eason. I particularly appreciate that even at its most ridiculous, his rubbery-limbed portrayal of Joe – as with his performance as Woody in the Court Theatre’s 2019 production of The Pink Hammer – is grounded in heart.  It’s not just an easy piss-take of a blue-collar stereotype.

The show is fast and loud and very funny, with a fittingly outrageous musical finale (MDed by Andy Manning). The audience is beside themselves throughout. Christ! What A Night has also sold out, been extended, sold out, been extended and sold out again. It’s a clear vote of confidence in Little Andromeda and their original programming, and evidence of a desire for smaller-scale, local shows with recognisable talent at this price point.

A very Merry Christmas gift indeed, and one that closes with a clear and vital message: God loves the gays. 

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