Celebration Arts' A New Song for Christmas celebrates celebratory attitudes.

With A New Song for Christmas, James Wheatley and Celebration Arts take a new approach to telling the Christmas story. Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus are there, but only as they relate to a church Christmas concert.

Wheatley has crafted an interesting story in which choir members of a small church in the Central Valley mutiny when music director Sister Michaels (Elaine Douglas, a wonderfully adept comedian) informs them that this year’s Christmas concert will be “traditional,” just like last year’s and the year before, and—well, every other one she has led. Two young strangers, a recently returned Iraq war vet named Arman (Angel Perez) and his wife Aisha (Jenabah Koroma) arrive in need of assistance and wind up helping spur the choir—and even Sister Michaels—into trying something new.

Earnest as can be, the uneven production is a bit of a disappointment. It’s not really bad, but with the talented Wheatley as writer, director, choreographer and performer in a small role, it had the possibility to soar.

Wheatley’s “new” songs are not that different than the “old” Christmas songs the choir in the story is rebelling against. They are sung with conviction, but with the exception of a couple of songs (“Brand New Day” and one that could be titled either “Different World” or “Where There Is Love”—no song titles are listed in the program), they don’t explore new themes or tempos.

Wheatley uses the new folks’ arrival to comment on small-town mistrust of strangers, law enforcement’s actions against perceived illegal immigrants and the role of the church today as a refuge of human kindness.

In the end, you have to applaud the production’s joyful Christmas spirit, and its suggestion that a celebratory attitude is a good approach to each and every day.