Kansas City Repertory Theatre kicks off the holiday season with a Christmas present that audiences of all ages will embrace and cherish. The world premiere of A Christmas Story, The Musical!, based on the hilarious 1983 Warner Brothers film A Christmas Story, will capture every child’s holiday wonder with deliciously wicked wit, a nostalgic eye and a heart of gold as it follows the boyhood exploits of Ralphie and his quest for a Red Ryder BB-gun. The Rep’s artistic director Eric Rosen will direct.

“A Christmas Story, The Musical! is the Rep’s first-ever out of town try out for a large-scale commercial musical and it is now slated to open on Broadway in 2010,” said Rosen. “One of the great things about the life of A Christmas Story, The Musical! is that future productions, wherever they may be staged, will always credit Kansas City Rep for having the world premiere.”

The Rep and its producing partners have high expectations for the show, which is significantly outselling previous years of the theatre’s holiday production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Impressive early ticket purchases are tracking almost two-to-one over the previous highest holiday show sales at the Rep and many early run performances are approaching sold out status.

A Christmas Story, The Musical! is based on the now-classic movie, which itself was based on stories by legendary radio humorist Jean Shepherd (1921-1999), author of In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd was a raconteur and sometimes-controversial host of New York’s popular radio program “Live at the Limelight,” during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

A Christmas Story, The Musical! has a cast of 20 actors, eight of them children:  Kansas City native Becky Barta, (Broadway: Frankenstein, A New Musical) as Miss Shields; John Bolton as The Old Man; Aaron Conley as Flick; Troy Doherty as Scut Farcus; Patrick DuLaney (Into the Woods), chorus; Karen Errington, chorus;Seth Golay (Winesburg, Ohio), chorus; Jennie Greenberry, chorus;Dakota Hoar (A Christmas Carol) as Schwartz; James Judy (The Writer,  Winesburg, Ohio) as Jean/Ralph, narrator; Katie Kalahurka (Into the Woods), chorus; Katherine McNamara (A Christmas Carol) as the Girl;Orville Mendoza, chorus; Alan Mingo, Jr., chorus; Anne L. Nathan (Lucienne Homenides, A Flea in Her Ear) as Mother;Kip Niven (Into the Woods), chorus; Zachary Rand as Grover Dill;Zachary Carter Sayle (national tour, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) as Ralphie; Vanessa Severo (A Christmas Carol), chorus and Jake Siegfried as Randy.

 A Christmas Story, The Musical! is produced by Grammy^®Award-nominated Gerald Goehring (Off-Broadway: the musical Frankenstein, A New Musical and Raisin’ Cane with Jasmine Guy. National tours: God’s Fool with Jack Klugman); Michael F. Mitri (Off-Broadway: Frankenstein, A New Musical, The Moment and The Dock Porter) and Bartner/Jenkins Entertainment (Robert G. Bartner and Michael A. Jenkins), whose recent credits together include the Broadway shows Guys and Dolls, Tony^® Award-winning Boeing-Boeing, Flower Drum Song, Legally Blonde and Brooklyn the Musical. Mr. Bartner’s additional recent Broadway credits include Memphis, Superior Donuts and Tony^® Award-winning The Norman Conquests. In London, he has produced Prick Up Your Ears, La Cage Aux Folles, Carousel, Guys and Dolls (Olivier Award) and the upcoming Legally Blond.

The book for A Christmas Story, The Musical! was written by Joseph Robinette whose work has been produced at the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City and at Lincoln Center Theatre, Pittsburgh Playhouse, Dallas Children’s Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Connecticut Children’s Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre and on BBC. Robinette collaborated with author E.B. White on the authorized stage version of Charlotte’s Web. His other authorized dramatizations include Stuart Little, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Paper Chase.

Composer/librettist Scott Davenport Richards’ works intersect music and drama and include Charlie Crosses the Nation, an opera in jazz idiom; A Thousand Words Come to Mind, a musical monologue staring Tony^® Award-nominee Barbara Walsh; A Star Across the Ocean and Dance of the Holy Ghosts, which premiered last year at Yale Repertory Theatre.   On stage, Richards originated the role of Sylvester in the Broadway production of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and assisted his father, the director Lloyd Richards, in the origination of three other Wilson works.

A Christmas Story, The Musical! runs November 20 through December 27 at Spencer Theatre in the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center on the campus of the UMKC campus. Tickets prices are $15-$60 and may be purchased by calling the Rep’s box office, 816-235-2700, or by visiting the website, www.kcrep.org.