The tenth incarnation of Theatre Unleashed’s A Very Die Hard Christmas, Josh Carson’s deliciously clever spoof of the Bruce Willis megasmash as seen through a Saturday Night Live lens (with puppets and songs thrown in for hilarious measure), may lack the production design pluses of its earlier North Hollywood incarnations, but the laughs keep coming fast and furious at Hollywood’s Hobgoblin Playhouse as part of this year’s Frosty Fest.

 Action movie-ready Steven Vogel delivers the most dynamic and sexy of star turns as NYPD’s John McClane, bound and determined to foil dastardly Hans Gruber (Evan McNamara) and his armed band of Teutonic terrorists (Gregory Crafts, Leonard J Moore II. and Lee Pollero as Karl, Douche, and Schnell) in their plan to steal $640 million in bearer bonds from L.A.’s towering Nakatomi Plaza.

Serving as our narrator is portly, life-sized puppet Snowman Sgt. Al Upton (voiced and manipulated by Pollero), whose “It’s A Very Die Hard Christmas” (sung more or less to the tune of “Holly Jolly Xmas”) warns the audience in advance that “it’s rated R, they go too far, and your mom might get pissed” while pointing out that diehard Die Hard fans probably “know the story so well you can’t wait to point out the glaring errors that are about to happen.”

Moore doubles as McClane’s driver Argyle, blissfully unaware of the events unfolding high above him on the 30th floor, where Christmas Eve partygoers include John’s estranged wife Holly Gennaro (Claudine Pierre-Louis), her pregnant coworker Ginny (Elle Shaheen), and coke-snorting junior exec Linus (Pollero).

As for the quickly dispatched CEO Mr. Takagi, it’s a different audience member every night who gets recruited to step into the part because “someone forgot to cast the role.”

Aiding and abetting the Hans Gruber Gang are Theo (Pollero, sock-puppet mouse on hand), a toe-headed Elf (Pollero again, manipulating a miniature Hermie), Yukon Cornelius (Crafts), and none other than Jimmy Stewart himself (Moore), hat tips to such movie/TV classics as An American Tail, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and It’s A Wonderful Life.

 Adding to the fun and mayhem are musical takeoffs on nearly a dozen holiday favorites including Holly’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” the terrorist trio’s harmonizing to Alvin and the Chipmunks’ “Christmas Song,” and a full-cast “Snow Miser Song” from The Year Without a Santa Claus (“He’s Mr. Hans Gruber, and he’s in charge. Although he’s West German, he sounds British by in large.”), and if only McNamara and Shaheen have bona fide musical theater pipes, you’ll be laughing so hard, you won’t mind some of their castmates’ inability to carry a tune.

 It also doesn’t matter that only Shaheen is a trained dancer given that choreographer Soda Persi has tailored moves to fit the cast’s strengths in one wild-and-crazy production number after another.

 Director Veronica Carey proves the perfect choice to take over for longtime AVDHC director-turned-star Crafts, the latter of whose towering stature has allowed him and Carey to reconceive the role of Karl from Teutonic blond (as played by Russian ballet dancer Alexander Godunov in the movie) into the next best thing to Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator (and Twins) mode, and Craft is a mountainous red-bearded charmer as mountain man Yukon Sam to boot.

McNamara’s facially hirsute Hans Gruber may look nothing at all like the movie’s Alan Rickman, but he plays the part with  a combination of debonair charm and demonic resolve.

Pierre-Louis and Shaheen earn laughs galore as Holly and Ginny, a hilariously multi-tasking Moore steals scenes right and left as driver Argyle, TV reporter Thornburg, and douche terrorist Douche, and longtime Theatre Unleashed favorite Pollero proves a cast standout as a cocky, coke-snorting Linus and a vocabulary-challenged Schnell in addition to puppeteering teeny tiny twosome Theo and Hermy and a great big holly-jolly Al.

 Last but not least, this reviewer’s third “guest” outing as Mr. Takagi turned out to be my finest (and only) stage performance since December of 2019.

J. Anthony McCarthy’s expertly choreo graphed fist-to-fist stage combat sequences will have you asking is that real or are they only pretending to slug it out, while Aaron Lyons’ sound design once again integrates dramatic musical underscoring, multiple effects (including gunshots galore), and karaoke tracks.

Indeed, the only way A Very Die Hard Christmas falls short of its previous North Hollywood incarnations is in its now nearly nonexistent scenic design, though producer Jenn Crafts does score multiple points for her quick-change costumes and plenty of props, from a bonsai Christmas tree to firearms galore.

 A Very Die Hard Christmas may have concluded its all-too-short 2025 run, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it back next year and beyond, and when that happens, as it surely must, Christmas action movie fans will once again be in A Very Die Hard Heaven.

The Hobgoblin Playhouse, 1516 N Gardner St, Los Angeles.
www.frostyfestla.com
www.theatreunleashed.org

–Steven Stanley
December 21, 2025

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Tags: Die Hard, Hobgoblin Playhouse, Los Angeles Theater Review, Theatre Unleashed