A holiday miracle is currently taking place on stages around the country.
But it took some time to get there.
“Miracle on 34th Street the Musical,” with three shows this week at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, has been around for more than 60 years, but seldom staged and never taken on the road until this year. With music and script by Tin Pan Alley songsmith Meredith Wilson — including the standard “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” which he wrote 12 years before — it’s an adaptation of the 1947 film that’s become a Christmas classic. The musical was staged under the name “Here’s Love” due to copyrights and spent nine months on Broadway, from October 1963 to July 1964.
Fun fact: One of its songs, “She Hadda Go Back,” became “Trouble,” with different lyrics, in Wilson’s subsequent show, “The Music Man.”
When Jim Vollersten of Rochester, New York-based Premier Theater Productions was looking for a new holiday show for the 2015 season at the city’s Kodak Theatre, he came across the musical, which had since been retitled, and thought, “Why hasn’t this been done before … and why has this never toured?”
“It is a Christmas show,” Vollertsen explains. “It only works during the Christmas season, which means it has limited appeal on the road. Usually, when you put up a show, you want to be able to do 40 weeks, which wouldn’t work for this.” What piqued his interest in touring the show, however, was reading survey stories about people’s favorite holiday movies. “(‘Miracle on 34th Street’) came up in every single survey as one of the Top 5 Christmas movies — in every one. So I made the decision to go forward with and look at it as a long-term project and build the thing into a Christmas tradition.”
“Miracle on 34th Street the Musical” has a 23-member cast, plus three musicians and a conductor, adding 15 local musicians to the orchestra at each stop. Another 20 people are in the production crew, including parent chaperones for the two lead youth actresses. (Photo courtesy of 313 Presents)
“Miracle on 34th Street the Musical’s” first-ever tour opened Nov. 21 in Rochester and will play in eight cities this year, according to Vollertsen, wrapping up Jan. 4 in Syracuse. It features a 23-member cast, plus three musicians and a conductor, adding 15 local musicians to the orchestra at each stop. Another 20 people are in the production crew, including parent chaperones for the two lead youth actresses.
By contract, the story — about a young girl (Susan Walker) and her cynical, divorced mother (Doris Walker) encountering the real Kris Kringle working at Macy’s department store — and musical numbers cannot be altered, right down to using a dated term like “dame.” But the touring production makes use of five video walls for scene changes, in line with contemporary Broadway standards.
“You don’t want it to look too modern, because it is a period piece, but we had to give it dazzle to keep the kids interested,” explains Vollertsen, who also worked with Eddie Money on his musical “Two Tickets to Paradise.” “It’s a first-class production. My investors will tell you we spent too much money on it, but we spent the money for the future, not just one year.”
He’s already eyeballing the future, in fact. Vollertsen says booking has already begun for the musical’s 2026 run, which he intends to include two companies, East and West, ala the Harlem Globetrotters or Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
“There’s no question in my mind that you need a fresh Christmas show out there,” Vollertsen says. “It’s got a great score; great songs. We’ve got some great voices (in the cast). It’s got history. People know what it is, but they’ve never seen it (as a musical) before. Hopefully, once they do, they’ll want to make it a part of their holiday every year.”
“Miracle on 34th Street the Musical” plays at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, Dec. 16-18, at the Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com. A discounted ticket, with $5 from each going to Make-A-Wish Michigan, can be purchased via 313promos.com/wish. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.
By contract, the story told and the musical numbers performed in “Miracle on 34th Street the Musical” cannot be altered from the original, right down to using a dated term like “dame.” But the touring production makes use of five video walls for scene changes, in line with contemporary Broadway standards. (Photo courtesy of 313 Presents)