Winter Wonderettes is a musical comedy written by Roger Bean

Roger Bean

Roger Bean is the writer and director of the hit Off-Broadway Musical The Marvelous Wonderettes, now playing at the Westside Theatre on West 43rd Street in New York City. The Marvelous Wonderettes was first written for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, where Mr...

. It is the sequel to the musical, The Marvelous Wonderettes

The Marvelous Wonderettes

The Marvelous Wonderettes is a musical comedy with a book by Roger Bean. It was recently played off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in New York. The show, which uses pop songs from the '50s and '60s as a vehicle to tell its story, pays homage to the high school Songleader squads of the 1950s...

, also written by Bean. Winter Wonderettes is set in 1968, a few months after the events that occurred in The Marvelous Wonderettes

The Marvelous Wonderettes

The Marvelous Wonderettes is a musical comedy with a book by Roger Bean. It was recently played off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in New York. The show, which uses pop songs from the '50s and '60s as a vehicle to tell its story, pays homage to the high school Songleader squads of the 1950s...

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Synopsis

It is Christmas, 1968 and the Marvelous Wonderettes, Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy, have been asked to entertain at the Holiday Party for Harper’s Hardware, where Betty Jean has worked since high school. The audience become fellow employees, friends and family, and the girls have decorated the hardware store, turning it into a winter wonderland! Every year, as is tradition, Mr. Harper is scheduled to appear dressed as Santa Claus at the end of the evening to pass out the employees holiday bonus envelopes. Trouble ensues when Mr. Harper misses his cue multiple times. Betty Jean runs off to find him and returns to the stage with what she thinks are the bonus envelopes. The envelopes are passed out to the audience, but upon opening them they discover pink slips instead of Christmas bonuses. It seems that Harper’s Hardware is closing!

As is Missy's nature, she tries her best to cheer things up by sharing happy Christmas memories as well as a tribute to Christmas around the world. After everyone is feeling better, the girls decide to bring on their own Santa: Missy’s new husband Bill (an audience member). After serenading Santa onstage, Suzy discovers another set of envelopes in the Santa bag. It turns out the first set of envelopes were a trick! Harper’s Hardware is staying open and everyone receives a huge holiday bonus!

Musical Numbers

Mister Santa	Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree	Jingle Bell Rock Jingle Bell Rock "Jingle Bell Rock" is the name of a popular Christmas song first released by Bobby Helms in 1957. It has received frequent airplay in the United States during every Christmas time since then. "Jingle Bell Rock" was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal , and James Ross Boothe...
Jingle Bells Jingle Bells "Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857...	A Marshmallow World	Little Saint Nick
It’s Christmas Time All Over the World	¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?	Mele Kalikimaka
O Tannenbaum	The Man With the Bag	We Wanna See Santa Do the Mambo
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town	Sleigh Ride	Run, Rudolph, Run
Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day	This Christmas	Suzy Snowflake
All Those Christmas Clichés	Snowfall	Ring Those Christmas Bells
Winter Wonderland Winter Wonderland "Winter Wonderland" is a winter song, popularly treated as a Christmastime pop standard, written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith . Through the decades it has been recorded by over 150 different artists.-History:...	What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?	Santa Baby Santa Baby "Santa Baby" is a 1953 Christmas song written by Joan Javits and Philip Springer. Although Tony Springer is listed as co-writer, he was a legal fiction created for purposes of membership in the performing rights organization BMI.The song is a tongue-in-cheek look at a Christmas list sung by a...

Productions

The first production was done at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre from November 7, 2003-January 4, 2005.

In December of 2010 a studio cast recording of Winter Wonderettes featuring Julie Dixon Jackson, Darcie Roberts, Misty Cotton and Bets Malone was released on LML Music.

Summer "Christmas in July" Production staged at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Starring Denise Devlin, Mia Gentile, Sara Mackie and Brooke Rucidlo
Production staged at Stages Repertory Theatre, November 9 - December 24, 2011, directed by Melissa Rain Anderson, who directed The Marvelous Wonderettes at Stages in 2010. The production stars Rachael Logue, Holland Vavra Peters, Chelsea Ryan McCurdy and Christina Stroup. The production was dedicated in honor of Sofia V. Mendez, a swing for all the characters in the ten month run of The Marvelous Wonderettes

The Marvelous Wonderettes

The Marvelous Wonderettes is a musical comedy with a book by Roger Bean. It was recently played off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in New York. The show, which uses pop songs from the '50s and '60s as a vehicle to tell its story, pays homage to the high school Songleader squads of the 1950s...

. Sofia was set to play "Missy" in Winter Wonderettes, and passed away on October 1, 2011 just before rehearsals began.