By Ernest Kearney — If you watch enough of the shows produced by that Fringe stalwart Michael Blaha you realize he knows one of the great secrets of successful producers. Forget helicopters flying over the audience or high-tech computerized video effects or a Kà stage with grid rigging and hydraulic rising platforms. All one needs to make great theatre is a space, solid acting, and a story worthy of being told and worthy of being heard.
That is exactly what Last Christmas offers.
Tom is a miserable unpleasant A-hole, who is rude and dismissive to just about everybody, and from the moment he opens his mouth, the audience begins to wonder how they’re going to survive the next hour with this annoying moaner.
“Last Christmas” Producer, Michael Blaha (HFF18)
And then Welsh playwright Matthew Bulgo takes us down the rabbit hole of Tom’s humanity, and along the way allows us the chance of testing our own.
Last Christmas is an introverted take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a kind of It’s a Wonderful Life; only we start and finish in Pottersville and Jimmy Stewart is nowhere in sight.
Co-produced by Matthew Quinn and deftly directed by John Coppola, Evan McNamara is the sullen and crabby White Rabbit of the evening and upon whose strength and talent the success of the piece depends.
It is somewhat akin to witnessing Lawrence Talbot’s transformation in reverse; seeing as he changes from snarling beast to a suffering soul. It is a 
transformation that doesn’t just make for great theatre but serves as a needed reminder to look before we judge.
For the well-applied lesson a GOLD MEDAL.
♦ ♦ ♦
Last Christmas
Playing During the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2018
on
Friday, June 22 2018, 10:00pm
at
6448 Santa Monica Blvd.
Last Christmas
Is Extended To Play
on
Monday, July 09, 2018 @ 8:30pm
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