Review: Yippee Ki Yay: The Parody Celebration of Die Hard, Cullen Theater at Wortham Center, December 20, 2024

Whether Die Hard “Whether it’s a Christmas movie or not” is a debate that’s sure to break out at office parties and merry family gatherings this time of year. Watch out Yippee Ki Yay: The parody celebration of Die Hard As the thrilling unfolding in front of us in the Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater made us wonder whether the debate should actually be “if.” Die Hard whether it is a romantic comedy or not. After Richard Marsh’s love letter to the 1980s Bruce Willis action film was finished, we left the auditorium with all the warm and fuzzy feelings these films try to evoke.

Before the blood of this new debate begins to boil, let’s summarize by addressing the old (and frankly tired) question: Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, at least according to Marsh, who proclaims as much in the first 10 minutes of his one-man show. (He also made a strong argument in a recent chat with the Houston Pressis Vic Shuttee). Marsh is an English poet, writer, performer and comedian, but at the start of the show there is a sense that all of these achievements are somewhat overshadowed for him personally as he steps into the shoes of John McClane, which, as film fans know, he does , soon the case will be started.

Marsh begins where the film begins: on a plane, where McClane receives important advice from a fellow passenger. The notable difference in the scenes, however, is that Marsh converts the film’s dialogue into poetic verse. He is a London poetry slam champion, so the piece is sometimes presented this way. As it progresses you notice the rhyme schemes changing and shifting, which is a blessing as 90 minutes of couplets can be annoying even for a skilled and clever wordsmith like Marsh. Instead we get everything from free verse to a few well-timed limericks and who knows, maybe even a sonnet or two.

Thanks to Marsh’s compelling performance, we may have missed some of the more complex poetic devices. After introducing us to McClane, he splits his personality back onto himself, the show’s creator and sole performer, greeting the audience and thanking them for “the best poetry-action film you’ll see on stage today” and warning: “This show will contain spoilers.” ” You may be wondering if you need to see the iconic film to enjoy it Yippee Ki Yay and the answer is no. But the jokes – and there are a lot of them – might hit even harder if you’ve only seen them once. Marsh surveyed the crowd and only one person said they hadn’t seen the film. She was sitting right behind us and seemed just as engaged as we were, having seen the film dozens of times.

However, Marsh doesn’t just welcome us onto the show, he sticks around. Yippee Ki Yay is not limited to a parody, but also contains a secondary and seemingly autobiographical storyline that tells of the courtship and marriage of the characters Rich and Jen, who meet on a trip Die Hard Join the discussion forum on Reddit and start a life together. This story winds its way through the Die Hard scenes and is filled with much more relatable pathos than, say, the question of whether or not it’s a good idea to drop a chair strapped with C-4 explosives down an elevator shaft.

This approach allows Marsh to be with us as a fan of the film, not just as a faceless and impartial narrator, but as a human being as interested as we are in this important piece of American popular culture. Due to the accompanying plot, many pop culture Easter eggs are scattered throughout the piece and are miraculously allowed to exist in both timelines, with the Zoom phone app creeping into the last century (when it didn’t exist, of course) and NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes, game of ThronesHBO’s Consequencethe John Wick films and Harry Potter’s Professor Snape are all mentioned in a play about a film that seemingly has nothing to do with them.

Speaking of Snape, Marsh saves his most enthusiastic role-playing for the Alan Rickman lines he delivers Yippee Ki Yay. Thanks to Alice White, the play’s voice and accent coach, and Emma Webb, whose direction of movement gave Marsh some of Willis’ swagger, especially in some funny fight scenes, he convincingly becomes a tough guy when he transforms into Bruce Willis as McClane. Marsh softens his voice when delivering fake lines once uttered by ’80s actress Bonnie Bedelia and returns to his natural speaking voice for the Rich Jen story. But he shines most when he delivers his theatrical homages to the film’s two major villains: Alexander Godunov’s character Karl and Rickman’s Hans Gruber, a total movie villain. Marsh has a lot of fun on stage, but he shares the love by engaging the audience and making them active participants Die Hard The love festival also sometimes turns us into “fellow hostages” and “wedding guests,” among other roles we take on.

While the play elicits plenty of laughs, there are also some poignant moments. One in particular was a scene that was masterfully lit by lighting designer Robbie Butler and directed by sound designer Ben Hudson. The scene reflects on the life of a sphere, on the existential dilemma it must feel in the face of its life’s mission. We couldn’t have been the only viewers pondering this Brit’s take on American gun culture in a week when another school shooting occurred in the United States. Marsh draws heavily on his slam poetry experience in this short but brilliant section, with the script’s lines never seeming judgmental but still giving us plenty to think about. It’s truly powerful to take a moment and think about the actual violence inherent in a gunshot when celebrating a film that features thousands of them.

There’s also something cool that happens as Marsh tells the respective love and marriage stories of John and Holly and Rich and Jen. In some ways they are all intertwined in this fictional-factual story, but to say more would perhaps be giving away too much of the good thing. Let’s put it this way: every great romantic comedy is about whether the love of its protagonists will survive a crisis. True love doesn’t need a Christmas miracle. It takes the punches, the bullets, the glass in the feet and it goes on. True love dies hard.

Yippee Ki Yay: The Die Hard Parody Celebration continues Saturday, December 21st at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 22nd at 3:00 p.m. at the Cullen Theater at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas, continue. For more information, visit performingartshouston.org/events. $39-$69.