Hasty pudding

Something went haywire on the way to Christmas at the B Street Theatre, which has been on a hot streak of late. As recently as mid-November, the holiday show was promoted as a new play by James McClure. But what opened last week was a new script credited to the B Street’s Buck Busfield. It feels like hasty pudding.

The title is Baby, It’s Cold Outside, but it’s not in the same class as the sexy, oft-covered song, and the connection with the holidays is faint. The story involves a lonely woman (Elisabeth Nunziato, a favorite, though she’s given little to do here aside from looking good in pajamas) sipping a cocktail of painkillers and booze in her plush living room when in comes a robber (handsome Jason Kuykendall). It turns out he’s a conflicted lefty pacifist pushed by circumstance, which echoes the more vivid gun-pointing liberal Protestant pastor played by Tom Redding in a previous B Street holiday show.

The remaining 80 minutes’ worth of the show is contrived, albeit with some cutting one-liners. People pop through the door: a cabbie, the robber’s wife, the lonely woman’s worthless boyfriend (a wonderful drop-in by Greg Alexander). The best surprise is the careless bed partner that the worthless boyfriend has brought along—a scantily clad dancer working at an Indian casino (young North Carolina intern Lowery Raines). Raines also did the clever costumes, including her own sexy, clingy, revealing red dress.

There are plenty of possibilities here, and the cast goes overboard trying to make the best case for the text. Perhaps Busfield will think on the project and make amends. For now, though, this show’s half a loaf.