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Chaps! A Jingle Jangle Christmas

Full-Length Musical, Comedy  /  1w, 5m

A hilarious, heartwarming holiday entertainment! On Christmas Eve 1944, frazzled employees of the BBC scramble to present a Country Christmas show when America’s favorite singing cowboy, Tex Riley, fails to show.

Chaps! A Jingle Jangle Christmas

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    1w, 5m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Christmas/Holiday, Period
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Appropriate for all audiences

Details

Summary

The audience-favorite BBC musical Chaps! now rewritten as a hilarious, heartwarming holiday show!

Whoa, Britannia! Panic at the BBC! It’s Christmas Eve 1944. America’s favorite singing cowboy, Tex Riley, and his troupe are late for a special holiday broadcast at the BBC. Out of desperation, Mabel, their tour manager, and Miles, the frantic young producer, grab whomever they can – a snobby announcer, an amiable soundman, a passing soap opera actor – slap them into costume, hand them scripts (after all, it’s radio!) and shove them in front of the studio audience. The resulting performance, full of Christmas songs and quirky cowboy tunes, is one England will never forget.

History
Chaps! A Jingle Jangle Christmas was first produced in 1998 by the San Jose Stage Company in San Jose, California.
Cast Attributes

ARCHIE LEITCH – Cockney sound engineer. Down-to-earth and quick with a quip. Plays the guitar, loves cowboy songs--and knows quite a few of them.

MILES SHADWELL – Intense young producer who’s responsible for bringing the Singing Cowboys to Great Britain. If this broadcast doesn’t come off, he might as well kiss his job good-bye. If he wasn’t so neurotic, he’d be a nice guy.

LESLIE BRIGGS-STRATTON – Imperious snob of a BBC announcer, á la George Sanders. Loathes cowboy songs. Is convinced he is civilization’s last line of defense against the rise of vulgar populism on the radio.

CLIVE COOPER – A radio personality of sorts, Clive is the “Saltey’s Fish ‘n’ Chips Man.” An old school tie kind of guy, he really thinks of himself as a great “h’ac-tor.”

MABEL HALLIDAY – Tex Riley’s tour manager. Mabel is used to being a behind-the-scenes wallflower. But once she steps up to the mike, she’s a rose in full bloom.

STAN – The sound effects man. Like Buster Keaton, this shell-shocked veteran is a man of few words.

  • Time Period 1940s / WWII
  • Setting Studio B at the BBC in London. Christmas Eve, 1944.
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Additional Features Physical Comedy, Play w/ Music
  • Duration 90 minutes
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Media

“A toe-tapping holiday hoe-down for the entire family.” – Eugene Weekly

“As quirky a Christmas show as you’ll find – funny, nonsensical and just sweet enough to get you through the holidays with a smile on your face.” – Orlando Sentinel

“Rustles up a stampede of old-time radio nostalgia and campy humor.” – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“An unbeatable mix... endearing characters with classic Western tunes, corny jokes and WWII nostalgia.” – Tacoma City Paper

“Hits just the right note... superlative entertainment.” – The News Tribune

Chaps!... rides tall in the saddle!” – Portland Oregonian

Videos

  • Chaps! A Jingle Jangle Christmas youtube thumbnail

    Chaps! A Jingle Jangle Christmas

Music

  • Musical Style Country/Western
  • Vocal DemandsModerate
  • Orchestra Size Small/Combo
  • Chorus Size No Chorus

Licensing & Materials

  • Licensing fees and rental materials quoted upon application.

Music Rentals

Concord offers a full suite of resources to help you put on the show of a lifetime!
10 Full Scores containing Vocals, Rhythm (Guitar, Glockenspiel), Bass, and Fiddle

Add-Ons

Take a look below at how you can enhance your show!

Authors

Jahnna Beecham

Jahnna Beecham (playwright/lyricist) and composer Malcolm Hillgartner (composer/lyricist) have been commissioned to write musicals for Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Cleveland Playhouse, Hope Repertory Theatre, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Or ...

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Malcolm Hillgartner

Malcolm Hillgartner has written songs and lyrics for eleven musicals, including Chaps! and Dog Park: The Musical for Concord Theatricals, They Came From Way Out There, The Doll People and Holmes and Watson Save the Empire, which won an Ovation Award for Best Small-Cast Musica ...
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