I love what “Striking 12” is supposed to be. It’s a deliriously hip holiday entertainment that takes the sad, sad New Year’s Eve story of “The Little Match Girl” as inspiration and swings it into the tale of a grumpy office worker who, dumped by his fiancee, is date-less for the big night.

 

He is visited by a Goth-y door-to-door light bulb saleswoman, and for 75 minutes we should be swept up in a clever (and satisfactorily heart-wrenching) musical riff on a story that most of us have forgotten.

 

New Stage Collective introduces the show to Cincinnati audiences (through, appropriately, Dec. 31) and pop the champagne cork for Mikhail Roberts, the little drummer boy who gets it right – what this show needs are singing actors, and that’s what Roberts is (although music seems to be a serious sideline, considering his percussion work here and guitar accompaniment in CCM Drama’s “Anon(ymous)” earlier this autumn.)

 

But aside from Roberts, nobody is having enough fun, or, more to the point, making sure the audience is having enough fun. Lara Courtney can sing, but she’s no actress. Alan Patrick Kenny can tickle that keyboard like nobody’s business, but he’s no actor. There’s no program credit for a director, which shows.

 

A director probably would have told the ensemble, “Turn on the charm. Have fun.”

There certainly needs to be a tickle of something between the gal and the guy. When the tunes are this good, and a show is smart enough to reference Bing Crosby, David Bowie, Jean-Paul Sartre and Yanni – the audience is with you.

But you gotta give us an emotional connection. We want hope -- that the guy is going to find meaning in this night, and maybe for a long time to come.

Man of all hats Kenny (he’s the show’s music director, too, as well as the theater’s artistic director) needs to breathe deeply. New Stage is a great addition to the Cincinnati theater scene, but there’s not a lot of room for bad calls.

 

New Stage’s “Striking 12” is strictly by the numbers. The band isn’t into it, either – although they play well. The original was performed by GrooveLily, a band with a shared history, and they must have had the audience cheering and dancing in the aisles.

 

Everybody at New Stage has to loosen up and enjoy each other before we paying customers can enjoy it with them. (Remember, it’s not a job – it’s Christmas.)

My New Stage wish for 2008 – that the theater is discovered (not a moment too soon) and some restaurants open within walking distance. “Striking 12” is a show that is part of an evening. At 9:15 everybody should have the opportunity to exit the theater and do the pedestrian thing to some great neighborhood cafés.