When most people think Christmas, they think Bruce Willis and an office complex swarming with German terrorists. OK, maybe not most people. But when MCL Chicago managing director Michael Shepherd Jordan asked his fellow improvisers for suggestions for a holiday musical parody, that's what jumped to performer Alex Richmond's mind immediately. "'Die Hard' was the first thing I thought of," Richmond said. "We always watch action movies in my family and it is a great holiday film." The idea evolved into "Yippee Ki-Yay, Merry Christmas: A Die Hard Christmas Musical," an original spin on the 1988 hostage flick now playing at MCL's Lakeview space (formerly Studio Be). In keeping with the production's seasonal spirit, RedEye gathered 12 tidbits about the show from cast and crewmembers-unfortunately, a young Alan Rickman in a pear tree didn't make the list.
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'Yippee Ki-Yay, Merry Christmas: A Die Hard Christmas Musical'
Go: 7:30 p.m. Saturdays through Jan. 10 at MCL Chicago, 3110 N. Sheffield Ave. Special late night holiday performance at 10 p.m. Dec. 27.
Tickets: $15. 773-610-5930; mclchicago.com
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1) Christmas-ier than you remember
Before writing the script, Shepherd Jordan, who's also the director, carefully rewatched the movie-about a New York cop (Bruce Willis) who goes to his estranged wife's holiday office party in L.A. and unwittingly becomes the group's only hope when a pack of German criminals takes the company hostage-and realized the film included more Christmas elements than he remembered. There are 12 terrorists. Holiday music plays throughout. Even Willis' character's wife's name is Holly.
2) More socially conscious than you remember
The other major takeaway Shepherd Jordan and music director Stephanie McCullough Vlcek found was an overwhelming-and very 1980s-theme pitting the blue collar heroes against the villainous greed and excess of the white-collar characters, commentary Shepherd Jordan and McCullough Vlcek played up in their script. "We were sitting here like, 'Wow, "Die Hard," very socially aware,'" Shepherd Jordan said.
3) Bad guy style
Criminal mastermind Hans Gruber (played by Rickman in the movie and Mark Rudy in MCL's production), perhaps strays the furthest from the film version, Shepherd Jordan said, as a few references to the character's fashion sense and slick charm are amplified. "Now Hans is the epitome of that person you don't want to meet. That heterosexual white male that is fashion- and money-obsessed," Rudy said. "It's a fun line to walk between having people hate you and at the same time be simultaneously mesmerized."
4) Get it?
References to other nostalgic pop culture are sprinkled throughout the show. Hans Gruber becomes Hans Solo. Al the cop, played by "Family Matters" dad Reginald VelJohnson in the film, gets his "Family Matters" character's name, Carl Winslow.
5) Action unpacked
"The hardest part of doing this whole thing was trying to figure out what action sequences we could turn into a stage version," Shepherd Jordan said, "because while that movie is like an hour and a half long or something like that, 35 minutes of it is Bruce Willis running around getting shot at and things blowing up in the background." As a result, the new script follows the general plotline, but cuts down on the pyrotechnics.
6) Totally '80s
With 11 original songs, the musical sticks with an '80s sound-from video game soundtrack-style music to pop and punk.
7) Lines begging to be songs
Shepherd Jordan says he and his team fit in traditional musical numbers like a love song, but he was also inspired by some of the film's more famous lines, like "Shoot the glass!""The way Alan Rickman delivers that stupid line is so perfect that it was like, 'Well, that's a song,'" Shepherd Jordan said.
8) Stuck in time
There's no modern update turning the movie's clunky walkie-talkies into iPhones. The action stays in the '80s.
9) Previously, on 'Die Hard'
Never seen the original or can't remember all the explosive details? A 20-minute preshow montage of crucial clips, music and the movie's original trailer play in the theater while patrons are taking their seats.
10) Light it up
For the explosions and gunfire left in the script, sound and light cues-and the audience members' imaginations-are essential. "Our tech guy is up there pushing lots of buttons throughout the whole show," Shepherd Jordan said.
11) Sorry, no sequels
"Die Hard 2" gets a brief mention, but references to the rest of the series will have to wait for another parody.
12) 'Goonies: The Christmas Musical'?
So what other '80s and '90s action movies deserve the Christmas musical treatment? Cast and crew members' wish list included the rest of the "Die Hard" films, "Lethal Weapon,""Predator,""The Terminator" and kids' classic "The Goonies.""It's not your typical action film, but there's action," MCL artistic director Alex Garday said. "It's an adventure story."
gpurdom@tribune.com | @gwenpurdom