Richards’ concerns do raise a substantial question: How do those of Chinese descent feel about the scene? While one can assume that some must be at least mildly offended by the joke, some believe the scene is all in good fun.
“I never saw anything wrong with it,” Valerie Mah, the wife of the late Daniel Mah, says. “I always understood it was a joke. Some people get worked up about that sort of thing, but not me.”
Daniel Mah was one of the waiters in the movie, along with headwaiter Dr. John Wong, Johan Sebastian Wong, and Fred Lee. According to his wife, Mah was hired through Faces & Places Talent Agency in Toronto, along with the other actors. When he was instructed to sing off-key it was an easy request. He came from a musical family but had always been the odd man out for his inability to carry a tune. A Christmas Story ended up being a perfect opportunity for the actor, and proof that everyone really does possess a unique talent — even if it is bad singing.
© MGM/UA Entertainment / Photofest
Ironically, as easy as the singing was for all of the actors, it was the talking that provided the biggest challenge. All of the actors were Canadian-born, and a speech therapist was brought in to help them achieve a stereotypical heavy Chinese accent.
Mah kept in touch with the other actors and they would get a kick out of watching A Christmas Story with their friends and families during the holiday season. They didn’t expect the movie to have the legs it did, and they certainly weren’t expecting to continue to receive residual checks after three decades. “I still get royalties,” Valerie Mah says. “We joke that [Daniel’s] still sending us money even after he passed on. There isn’t much after the many deductions, but it’s the thought.”
For Mah’s family, the scene has always been something to be proud of. In fact, when they were told that the Chinese restaurant was omitted from Philip Grecian’s production, the reaction was extreme disappointment. “I don’t know how Daniel would feel about that,” Valerie says. “That was his big moment.”
Besides the dust-up over the show’s final scene, the other significant change that took place for A Christmas Story, the Musical! that year was that Ralphie Parker’s alter ego, Peter Billingsley, had signed on as a producer. The news was a welcome addition to the creative team and A Christmas Story fans, but curious to some of the film’s cast members. While the majority of the actors continue to remain involved in promotional activities, Billingsley has elected to make very few appearances to promote the movie that helped put him on the path to being the brightest star of the film’s alumni.
Billingsley continued to work steadily after A Christmas Story and, in 1990, he was cast in a CBS Schoolbreak Special film, The Fourth Man, with the then unknown actor Vince Vaughn. The two were cast as friends and, after a short while, they became best buddies in real life. Over the two decades that followed, their friendship remained constant while Vaughn’s career took a drastic swing upward. His popularity reached a fever pitch when he was cast in the 1996 film Swingers, which has since gone on to achieve a cult following of its own. He later went on to star in Gus Van Zant’s 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and became regarded as one of Hollywood’s hottest funnymen with his appearances in Old School and Wedding Crashers.
In 2005, Vaughn started Wild West Picture Show Productions, the company responsible for helping to bring high-profile movies like Four Christmases, Elf, and Couples Retreat to the big screen. Billingsley joined him as a producer and, as a result, has become a high-profile Hollywood producer in his own right.
“I’ve sort of taken a journey through a lot of different facets,” Billingsley says. “I was in post-production for a while and wrote and directed for TV and did other stuff. I just eventually wanted to move into other things. Acting was great but I’d been doing it since I was two-and-a-half, you know. You crave other challenges and you want to break into new stuff.”
Although his interest in acting has waned in recent years, Billingsley does turn up in his films from time to time, including in The Break-Up, where he appeared alongside Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. “I did do a little part,” he acknowledges. “Every now and then I come back and do a little acting. I love it. I did a little cameo in Elf, which I didn’t take credit for, where I was one of the elves in Santa’s shop. It’s fun to do it that way. I acted for a long time and it’s fun to come back. And if I’m doing stuff with friends, I got to play a friend of Vince’s in the movie and do a couple of scenes with him, so it was actually really fun.”
Peter Billingsley directing Couples Retreat © Universal Studios / Photofest
While having Vince Vaughn for a best friend would have been impressive enough, Billingsley is also good friends with actor/director Jon Favreau. When Favreau signed on to direct Robert Downey Jr. in the mega-budgeted film Iron Man, Billingsley joined as a producer. The film went on to gross over $585 million worldwide, helping to not only raise Billingsley’s profile but also make him quite wealthy in the process.
“Peter is a different duck,” says Scott Schwartz. “He sort of swims in a different pond now, with the producing and directing and making six or seven figures every time he walks out of the house.”
According to Schwartz, prior to his involvement with the musical, Billingsley hadn’t done any public appearances to promote A Christmas Story with the exception of some events associated with the twentieth anniversary in 2003. To celebrate the milestone, the cast and director Bob Clark were invited to a screening in southern California, complete with limousines, paparazzi, and a red carpet.
“The guy who [planned the event] was friends with Bob Clark and Bob told Peter, ‘I’m going. You’re going,’” Schwartz explains. “They were friends and Peter would never say no to Bob. Ever. We did this Toys-for-Tots drive once. We didn’t get paid anything, we didn’t charge anything, we went there, we signed autographs, we took pictures at this movie theatre, 1,500 people showed up. It was a really nice thing. They put out a nice luncheon for us, for all of us to sit and schmooze. But that’s really the only appearance that Peter’s done with us.”
Schwartz, who owns a baseball cards and movie collectibles shop, acknowledges that Billingsley has helped stock his store with merchandise over the years. “He’s signed some things for me before that I’ve paid him for,” he says. “It’s not free because he knows that when we go to places, we sell them. If I sell a photo for twenty-five dollars, I’ve paid Peter to sign that photo. In the last couple of years, Peter hasn’t signed anything. He just doesn’t have the time and he certainly doesn’t need the money. He couldn’t care less. For him to even take fifteen to twenty minutes out of his day at any given time, it’s just not worth it for him so it is what it is.”
Brian Jones, the owner of the Christmas Story House, has faced similar challenges in getting Billingsley to participate in promotional appearances. “I faxed him on a couple of occasions,” he says. “I don’t exactly know why he hasn’t been to the house. He doesn’t seem all that interested in coming out, so I don’t really push the issue.”
Actress Tedde Moore, who played Miss Shields, Ralphie’s schoolteacher, has also failed to remain in contact with the actor. “I haven’t had any interaction with Peter since the day I said goodbye to him on the set, which I might not even have done,” she says with a laugh. “I haven’t ever had anything to do with him. I completely understand. He’s doing his own thing now, he’s very, very busy. He’s often not available when things are happening, so I haven’t seen him, no.”
During the half-decade that followed after Brian Jones invited the cast to the Christmas Story House’s inaugural event, several members of the cast and crew appeared together at public events. For Yano Anaya, Tedde Moore, Ian Petrella, Scott Schwartz, and Zack Ward, appearing together was a defining experience in their careers. Many fans across the United States had the opportunity to meet and receive autographs from the majority of the memorable characters f
rom the movie, all in one sitting. However, for some, the unusual cohesion in their unit caused an arguably undeserved question to be asked by fans at many appearances — “Where’s Ralphie?”
Ian Petrella, who played his younger brother, Randy, doesn’t think that Peter Billingsley’s absence at public events is because he is trying to avoid being associated with the film that put him on the trajectory to fame and fortune. “I’m very empathetic to people like that,” he says, referring to actors who resist the pressure to participate in reunions. “If they don’t want to do it, then they don’t want to do it. They have their reasons. But you also have to understand there’s a difference between any of us and, say, like Eve Plumb [who is best known as Jan Brady and has opted out of public appearances over the last several decades]. The Brady Bunch has been around for years and years and years and years and years, where A Christmas Story has only really gotten its popularity since 2003. That’s not that long ago. Contact me in another fifteen years and see what I have to say then.
“But as far as Peter is concerned, he’s also got other things going on in his life that he’s doing,” he continues. “If I was producing and I was directing, then you know what, I’d probably have a different story, too. There are people out there that want to move on from that one thing that they had and that’s fine. I understand that. Everybody’s trying to move on from that one thing, but given the situation that you’re in — where I’m in — if I can use that one thing to help me move on to the next level in life, then that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not going to shy away from it because this may be the only option that I have. I have to take it and run with it. If you get to be part of a popular movie that everybody loves, well, see where you can go with it. See what you can do with it. If that can help you move on to the next level, then so be it.”
Nevertheless, Petrella still thinks it would be nice to have Billingsley around from time to time. “There’s a part of me that wishes Peter would want to do more, but if he doesn’t, I’m not going to force the guy to,” he says. “He was the executive producer of Iron Man! I mean, c’mon, he’s doing fine! He doesn’t need to do this shit. I saw him last year at the musical for about ten minutes and talked to him and he’s doing great. He’s fine. He’s involved with the musical, so he doesn’t hate A Christmas Story. He’s just moving on with his life. I know everyone asks, ‘Why doesn’t Peter do this,’ or ‘Why doesn’t Peter do that?’ Maybe he will, I don’t know. Why don’t you leave the guy alone?”
But then, why A Christmas Story, the Musical! as the exception to what seems to be Billingsley’s rule? When he signed on as a producer, this was a common question he faced from journalists. Was he really a guy disinterested in being associated with the movie, or had he been given a bad rap over the years? “I didn’t really talk about the movie until these last couple of years,” he said in 2011. “It was always just this nice nostalgia trailing behind me.”
However, it is virtually impossible for Billingsley to avoid being associated with the film. For one, even though he has thinned out and lost his signature round-framed glasses, he still bears a striking resemblance to the boy who nearly shot his eye out on screen thirty years ago. “I get a lot of double-takes, a lot of looks, especially around Christmas,” he says. “People stop me on the street, say hi, and move on. It could be the elephant in the room, but I just kind of embrace it. There’s such a distance from it at this point. I can appreciate it as a film.”
Billingsley’s appreciation may have come with time, or just might be the side effect of having young relatives who enjoy watching the twenty-four-hour marathon. “My nieces and nephews in Miami love it, and they’ll have it on,” he says.
Having not attended many events, Billingsley is perceived as the most estranged actor from the film — which is a little unfair, especially considering Melinda Dillon has never granted an interview about her experience working on the movie — but he has actually done a great deal of promotion for the Christmas Story brand over the last decade. He contributed to the commentary track and special features on the twentieth anniversary DVD, as well as spoken highly about the film in interviews while promoting other film projects. However, with his busy schedule and seemingly sporadic forays down memory lane, it did seem somewhat incongruous that he would sign on to a big-budget production that must be demanding of his time. What made the musical worth his time when so many other Christmas Story–related ventures, like the extremely popular Christmas Story House, haven’t been high on his priority list? For Billingsley, the answer is simple: “People have pitched me many things over the years,” he says. “In particular, they kept wanting to remake the movie. But I think you only remake bad movies. Why would you want to remake a movie that has endured for more than twenty-five years? But [the musical] felt different — more like an extension of the film.”
According to those familiar with how the actor joined the musical’s business team, Billingsley was asked to sign on as a producer by those involved with the Jean Shepherd estate primarily because they aren’t really involved in show business. They wanted Billingsley, being a recognizable actor from the film and a Hollywood heavyweight, to ensure that the essence of the original film was retained as the size and scope of the production grew through its various iterations. In this way, they were able to promote that Ralphie had come home and lent his endorsement to the musical. The advantage for Billingsley was that he was given part ownership of the show and an opportunity to make sure that the legacy of Bob Clark’s and Jean Shepherd’s work was properly conveyed on stage.
Even though co-producing a musical was uncharted territory for the man who has almost done it all, it seemed as though Billingsley got a kick out of joining the musical’s business team. “It is an eccentric film,” he said in 2011. “We broke a lot of rules with the fantasy sequences, the intentional overacting. And yet at the same time, the Christmas morning sequence was very truthful and the film is, at its core, a very real portrait of a working-class family in the years after the Depression: there’s a little dysfunction in that family, but a lot of love. It really does slip organically into a musical.”
Billingsley also elected to share the love with Clarke Hallum, the twelve-year-old actor from Olympia, Washington, who stepped into Ralphie’s winter boots for the musical adaptation. “I told him to follow the interest of the character, because you don’t want to be a carbon copy,” Billingsley said. “And he’s such a talented kid. I was blown away. But mainly I told him to just enjoy it, enjoy life.”
© Sofrina Hinton
With Billingsley on board, the musical pressed on. The next leg in its journey wasn’t Broadway, as the producers had originally hoped, but a formal “Commercial Tryout” run at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle. Over the course of the 2010 holiday season, close to 69,000 theatergoers saw the show; its box office haul once again made a lasting impression. A Christmas Story, the Musical! became the second-highest grossing show in the history of the venue.
Instead of setting up shop in just one city, the following year the producers opted to change directors — Eric Rosen was replaced by John Rando, who won a Tony Award for his direction of Urinetown — and launch an ambitious national tour. After spending a month rehearsing at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, the musical played Hershey, Pennsylvania; Detroit, Michigan; Raleigh, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Chicago, Illinois. Once again, the singing Parker family met enthusiastic audiences and even managed to impress some cynical critics.
“The cast is both experienced and stellar,” wrote Chris Jones at the Chicago Tribune. “There’s no reason why A Christmas Story should not be on Broadway next season . . .”
“With a cast of thirty, this is a big show playing a giant house, but it avoids feeling overblown,” said Steven Oxman in Variety. “That’s an awfully good quality for a Christmas show to have, and it gives A Christmas Story, the Musical! a real shot at becoming a seasonal staple.”
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In June 2012, it was announced that the musical would finally be arriving on Broadway, a major development for a show inspired by short stories first broadcast on the radio and printed in the pages of an adult magazine. Previews began November 5, and the gala opening night performance was on the 19th.
Dan Lauria © Carol Rosegg
With the larger-scale production came other changes. Billingsley and the other producers remained on board but were now joined by over half a dozen new financial contributors. The large cast was completely upended: in the initial Broadway press release, no actors were announced as being associated with the show. Auditions for the roles of Randy, Flick, Schwartz, Scut Farkus, Grover Dill, and Mary Beth and Esther Jane, two characters exclusive to the musical, were set for June 16 at Pearl Studios on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.
One of the first significant pieces of casting news was not about one of the child actors but, rather, about the narrator. Dan Lauria, known to most people as the father on the hit television show The Wonder Years, was cast as the Jean Shepherd character. For hardcore fans of the film and Shep’s career, the bulletin was a welcomed, if not slightly ironic, announcement.
When the film version of A Christmas Story was in development back in the early ’80s, Shepherd was insistent that there be a voice-over narration. Not only would it connect the movie with his radio show, but it would also enable Shep to comment on the difference between the 1940s, when young Ralphie was growing up, and the 1980s, when the film was released. Unlike the other characters, the adult Ralphie could have the hindsight to comment on “the good old days.”
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