December 6. Day 340. He's gonna find out who's naughty and nice

If you let yourself think about it for too long, the whole Santa thing is just a bit creepy. This dude is watching all the little kids and finding out who's naughty and nice. He sneaks into bedrooms at night. In an innocent child's eyes, that's the magic of Christmas. For adults it's all very ho, ho hum. Watching Elf and attending Carols in the park are all well and good but Christmas is for everyone not just the kiddies. Enter Alex Woodward and the team from Understudy Productions who this year are putting the pant into the Christmas panto. A Very Naughty Christmas, which opens at the Brisbane Powerhouse this week is a raunchy cabaret-style spoof of the Christmas concert. Alex, the producer and co-creator of the show admits that while he is a fan of Love Actually (because all the best people are), the sugar sweet Christmas shows "kind of killed me a little bit".
His plan was to create a celebration to be enjoyed with "your other family", the important people around you that you don't always get to see at Christmas itself.
"There are so many people who don't have kids and people who do have kids who also want to do something at Christmas that isn't child-friendly... I think this is an opportunity for them."
There are the reindeer and Saint Nick as you've never seen them before, a live band and versions of Christmas songs quite unlike what you'll hear in the shopping centres. Throw in 10 very talented performers and, from the little bit of the tech rehearsal we saw today, the result is bound to put you in the Christmas Spirit.
Be warned, this is not the show for people who still hope to be on Santa's nice list .
Be good for goodness sake and listen to our chat with Alex (who claims Santa will forgive him because he's been so nice all year)