Neil Haven’s R-rated Christmas show

Santa’s dead, and it’s your job to figure out who killed him: Rudolf? The sexy Little Drummer Girl? Frosty the Snowman? Or any of the other usual holiday suspects?

That’s the premise of Neil Haven’s Who Killed Santa? Playwright Haven has produced and directed a revival of his R-rated show, to run Tuesday, Dec. 20 through Dec. 30 at Carte Blanche Studios.

Haven, a child of the 1980s, grew up with Christmas as conceived for 1950s television: Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, all the stop-motion Santa Claus cartoons, Frosty the Snowman, the Little Drummer Boy, all those shows that still turn up on TV in December.

“All that Eisenhower holiday Pleasantville wholesomeness,” Haven said, in an interview Saturday, “was ripe for parody.”

As a Milwaukee theater person, Haven was also intimately acquainted with holiday stage staples such as The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol. Not to mention the awful school pageants of elementary school days.

Haven, along with Bo Johnson and Dan Katula, tied all of that to a merry cherry bomb called Who Killed Santa? and dropped it down Milwaukee’s chimney in time for Christmas of 2008.

“Bo read the script and immediately thought of using puppets,” Haven recalled. He was all in on that, as it added a “twisted Muppet show” thrill to the proceedings. Besides, puppets can’t say no if you want them to do really terrible things in pursuit of a laugh. Dan Katula joined the team to create the puppets that starred in Who Killed Santa? in 2008, 2009 and in the current production.

“It’s so ridiculous… puppets getting drunk and killing people,” Haven said. “We never stop laughing.”

All but one member of the 2008 cast reassembled for 2011. Many of them have improvisational comedy experience and added jokes in past productions. Haven has incorporated many of them into the recently published final script.

“Jokes that are not really mine kept getting in,” Haven said. “They’re mine now!”

Even that script leaves room for spontaneity. The show more or less comes to a halt as the audience votes on the direction of the plot in this choose-your-own-ending murder mystery. That gives Johnson, an improv and stand-up veteran, time to work the crowd on his own terms.

The show was Haven’s first real hit. When he gave it a rest in 2010, people kept asking him to bring it back, so he self-produced the piece in Racine Dec. 1-17 and now in Milwaukee. Ticket sales have been brisk. Sex, violence and comedy sell, even during the most wonderful time of the year.”

“Milwaukee has eight Christmas shows running,” Haven said. “If you’re sick of going places with grandma and the kids, Who Killed Santa? is the show for you.”

Cast and Credits: Alison Mary Forbes, Amy Geyser, Bo Johnson, Rick Pendzich, Nate Press, and Liz Shipe. Puppets created by Dan Katula, costumes and photography by Amanda Schlicher, written and directed by Neil Haven.

Who Killed Santa? runs 10 times Dec. 20-30, at Carte Blanche Studios 1024 S. 5th St. Tickets are $20; advance purchase online recommended, as several shows are nearly sold out. The exception is the pay-what-you-can performance on Dec. 26, which is walk-up only.