Wickedly funny Kuntz lights up 'Santaland'

WATERTOWN -- Perhaps this year's most beguiling one-size-fits-all Christmas present for the grown-ups on your list would be tickets for New Repertory Theatre's "The Santaland Diaries." This 1996 one-man comedy is adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris's radio piece about his seasonal employment as a Macy's elf in "Santaland." At New Rep, the sublime John Kuntz is Crumpet, Santa's most beleaguered helper.

Kuntz has played the role in previous area productions, experience that undoubtedly adds to the complexity in a gloriously rambunctious performance. As the show begins, his character is charmingly rueful about actually needing this post. "I am a 33-year-old man applying for a job as an elf," he declares. As he discusses the process of becoming a Macy's elf (which includes studying the "Elfin Guide" and hearing motivational cheers, both of which he finds appalling), Kuntz brings an emotional depth to material that is already hilarious.

Kuntz's versatility as a performer is simply awe-inspiring. In Wesley Savick's crisp and imaginative staging (which makes some judicious trims in the script), Kuntz also embodies a constellation of other characters and often marches into the aisles of the cozy and steeply raked Downstage @ New Rep auditorium. This kinetic performance is always smartly controlled.

Sedaris is a rare modern humorist whose observations can also be piquant, and Crumpet's consistently redeeming quality is the humanity he sees in, well, humanity. Crumpet's vexation at the job is acute, and Kuntz's increasingly frantic faces during voice-overs announcing "five more shopping days til l Christmas" are finely nuanced.

We sympathize at the treacly banalities he needs to utter in his elfin persona -- "Oh my goodness, I think I see Santa!" -- and nod in agreement when he concludes that "forced merriment" actually hurts your mouth. Kuntz captures the blunderings of knuckleheaded parents and makes the various vanities of his Santaland inmates, which include St. Nickses, fellow elves, and a parade of crazed families, multifaceted and worthy of analysis. In Molly Trainer's whimsical and witty elf costume (green velvet tunic, red and white striped sleeves and leggings, bell-bedecked jester's cap), Kuntz brings an Advent calendar's worth of characters to life.

"12 Days," and "Ronnie's Christmas Audition," written by Kuntz, are the curtain warmers that precede the main event, and both are enjoyable vignettes. In the former, Kuntz describes being the recipient of the various items listed in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" carol. Between the partridge and its feathered friends and all those maids a-milking and lords a-leaping, he notes that his apartment has become a combination of "bird sanctuary and 'Stomp.' "

"Audition" is essentially an extended (and ingeniously choreographed) lip-synch to Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now." Kuntz's character, Ronnie, a fluttery dancer, yuks it up with audience members, acting out Dion's gushy ballad with the campy panache that's wisely abbreviated in "Santaland." All in all, a sparkling addition to the Yule season.