Bing Crosby is singing, a goose is resting, and a noisy aunt is commenting on everyone’s weight: it’s enough to make you double-check your calendar. This may be October, but there’s already a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the Hampstead theatre stage, which James Cotterill’s stylish design has transformed into the Upper West Side apartment of a non-religious Jewish family gathering for the holidays.
Christmas may come earlier every year, but it has taken a while for this one to arrive: this is the UK premiere of Richard Greenberg’s Broadway hit from 12 years ago. It’s 1980, and the “ruthlessly” cheerful Julie is hosting along with her husband Ben, whose hopes for his college-age son Scotty extend all the way to the Presidency. Scotty’s earnest Harvard friend Jeff navigates his way naively around both the apparently endless rooms and the extended clan, which includes an “odd” cousin and a sketchy brother-in-law.
