While there are many holiday traditions when it comes to film and television, ranging from “A Christmas Story” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” there is one beloved TV special that has always deserved a larger audience.
“Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas,” created by Muppet master Jim Henson with songs by celebrated songwriter Paul Williams, first aired in 1978 on HBO and has lived a quiet existence since then on cable and streaming platforms.
The warmhearted holiday show has always had its small group of diehard fans. Among them were choreographer Christopher Gattelli (Tony Award winner for “Newsies”) and playwright Timothy Allen McDonald (“Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach,” “The Book Thief”), who in 2005 landed on the idea of creating a stage adaptation featuring actors along with Henson’s puppets.
Soon Williams (who wrote additional music) and the Jim Henson Foundation were on board, and they were off and running, puppets in tow.
Co-written by Gattelli and McDonald, a first adaptation of “Emmet Otter” debuted in 2008 at Connecticut’s Goodspeed Opera House; a revamped version played to sold-out audiences last year at New York’s New Victory Theater and is about to make its Chicago debut at the Studebaker Theatre.
“What I love about ‘Emmet Otter’ is that it has so much heart,” says Gattelli, who also directs and choreographs the show. “Plus it has all this Muppet wit that is hilarious. It’s my absolute favorite show to work on and one that I will always happily come back to.”
Based on an illustrated children’s book by Russell and Lillian Hoban, “Emmet Otter” is set in Frogtown Hollow, where Ma and son Emmet Otter get by on Ma’s income from doing laundry. As Christmas nears, Ma (a singer) and Emmet (in a jug band with his furry friends) separately enter a talent contest to win the $50 prize to buy each other a present. The heavy-metal hooligans of the River Bottom Nightmare Band mess up their plan, but in the end they discover love and family are what’s important.
Williams’ songs are playful and heartfelt. To this day he’s not exactly sure why Henson asked him to join the project, since at the time he was known for writing hits recorded by the likes of Barbra Streisand, The Carpenters and Three Dog Night.
“I think I was kind of being auditioned for ‘The Muppet Movie,’ which was a big risk for them at the time,” says Williams, who would later go on to write songs for that film and receive a best song Oscar nomination for “The Rainbow Connection.”
The “Emmet Otter” music has a rootsy Americana vibe with a tinge of ’70s California folk, something that Williams admits was new to his songwriting. Among the songs are the lovely “When the River Meets the Sea” (later sung at Henson’s 1990 memorial service) and the very funny “The Bathing Suit That Grandma Otter Wore.”
“It was a rare and beautiful experience working with Jim,” Williams recalls. “There was a playful and creative freedom that Jim really inspired in others.”
Adds Gattelli: “Paul tapped into something wonderful with his songs. He understands the human heart.”
The 75-minute stage adaptation is a blend of actors and puppets, with Broadway actors Andy Mientus (Emmet) and Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone (Ma) leading the cast.
And in a story where you can’t have too many puppets, more have been added, including a sassy group of squirrels and a Christmas ghost reincarnation of Pa, Emmet’s late father.
Mientus may not be manipulating any of the puppets created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, but he says he is tapping into their world.
“It’s kind of amazing to put on this intricate costume and play Emmet and sort of meet the puppets half way,” Mientus says. “To let go of your human instincts and to play into puppet logic and animal logic and not be human for a while.”
Everyone involved with “Emmet Otter” since its inception agrees that Jim Henson is its heart and soul. While Henson achieved many of his Muppet dreams in the 54 years before his untimely death, there was one that eluded him: Broadway. Rectifying this omission is a special goal for the “Emmet Otter” team.
“Jim gave so much to so many people and Broadway was the one thing that he didn’t get to do” Williams says. “I think everybody was pretty excited about the possibility of finally getting his last wish fulfilled. So we are trying our best.”
Gattelli agrees: “We’ve been working on ‘Emmet Otter’ for 15 years and the goal is to take it to Broadway.”
