With a whopping 40 new Hallmark Christmas Movies debuting this holiday season (not to mention 5 more premiering on Netflix), the time could hardly be riper for Wisteria Theater Company’s off-the wall-wacky, R-rated musical parody Frost My Life.

Not every Christmas TV Movie trope gets spoofed in Frost My Life, but quite a few do, among them:

Small Town vs. Big City: No sooner has High-Powered Marketing Executive Julie’s (Parissa Koo) sure-thing promotion to senior partner gotten torpedoed by her male chauvinist pig boss George (Christopher R. Smith) than she hightails it out of L.A. headed for Small Town Ohio, Ohio and the welcoming arms of her salty-tongued mother Evelyn (Dynell Leigh).

The Widow(er) with a Precocious Child: It wouldn’t be a Hallmark Christmas movie without a hot-as-blazes flannel-sporting male lead, and Frost My Life’s is local doll maker Brady (Jordan Iosua Taylor), whose preteen spawn Kayla (Abby Espiritu) is as cute as she is diabolic.

The Mid-Movie “Almost Kiss”: Julie and Nick find themselves repeatedly standing under mistletoe only to have it inconveniently blown away just as the would-be lovers are about to make lip-to-lip contact.

The “Santa” Figure: This time round it’s the aptly named Nick (Smith), who keeps popping up to offer advice as only a man who either just happens to share Santa’s first name or might actually be the real Santa can do.

Writer-director Brett Takeshita’s nearly four years working as a Junior Executive in Original Programming for Hallmark Media make him an ideal choice to helm a musical parody of the genre, and song writers Josh and Lexi Collins have come up with a bunch of tuneful, clever musical numbers, among them the rousing “Best Day,” Julie’s aptly-named “High Powered,” and a “Small Town Ohio” that will have you exiting the theater unable to refrain from singing the catchy refrain all the way to your car.

Preshow announcements make it clear that “this is not your grandmother’s Christmas movie. It’s holly, it’s jolly, and it’s a little unhinged,” though that may be an understatement given that a) Julie and Brady’s meet-cute involves the accidental death and subsequent body disposal of the town taxi driver (Kolt Atchley), that b) Brady’s daughter Kayla’s love of knives may just be the tip of the iceberg where the devilish imp is concerned, and that c) doll-maker Brady’s adorable creations sound something like Linda Blair in The Exorcist when you press on their tummies.

Oh, and do leave the kiddies at home because Frost My Life is rated R for language, Granny Evelyn in particular peppering her speech not only with fucks galore but a bunch of other four-letter words as well.

Act Two could stand some trims (it’s got less than half as many songs as Act One but seems to run just about as long), but for the most part Frost My Life works as an irreverent musical spoof of a genre just ripe for the spoofing.

It helps enormously that a stunning Koo has the both perkiness and power pipes to captivate an audience, and leading men don’t get any more heartthrob handsome than Taylor, with vocals as velvety as his cheekbones and torso are sculpted.

L.A. musical theater treasure Leigh has a field day playing fifty-plus-and-frisky Evelyn, and Wisteria favorite Espiritu’s Kayla outdoes her Little Red Riding Hood and Marcy Park where preteen spirit and satanic spunk are concerned.

Donnie Riddle is a scene-stealer as Small Town Ohio, Ohio’s one-and-only sassy black gay; hissably horrid boss-from-hell George is just one of the roles the always terrific Smith brings to life; and Atchley makes an impressive Wisteria debut as at least four different characters both gay and straight and alive and dead.

Madison Mi Hwa Oliver proves herself a choreographer on the rise in multiple production numbers and (Lexi) Collins excels as music director.

Last but not least, because this is a Wisteria Theater production, audiences can rest assured there’ll be a cinematic look to the whole shebang, LED video designs just one of (Josh) Collins’ topnotch design contributions (he’s also designed lighting and sound), and assistant director Renée Wylder and (Lexi) Collins’ set design, costumes, and props add to the show’s movie-like appeal.

Following Avenue Q, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Wedding Singer, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Xanadu, and Into The Woods in the most dazzling of debut seasons, Wisteria Theater Company’s Frost My Life not only gives audiences something fresh and new for the holidays, it does so with a heaping helping of pre-Christmas pep and pizzazz.

Wisteria Theater, 7061 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood. Through December 21. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8:00. Sunday at 3:00.
www.wisteriatheater.com

–Steven Stanley
December 16, 2025

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Brett Takeshita, Josh Collins, Lexi Collins, Los Angeles Theater Review, Wisteria Theater Company