Viewers of the frequent holiday screenings of A Christmas Story may not realize there is an alternate version for the stage with at least one actor who swears he has never seen the 1983 movie and has no intention of ever doing so, Jack W. Hill writes in Thursday’s Style section.
“I grew up listening to Jean Shepherd on the radio,” says John Ottavino, who narrates the play and is the adult version of Ralphie Parker, the story’s centerpiece. Ralphie’s misadventures are the heart of the show, with his quest to convince his parents to buy him an “Official Red Ryder Carbine Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle”.
“I’m not going to see it,” Ottavino says of the movie. “I will not. I never want to see what someone else did before I do it, and then after I do it. Sir Laurence Olivier could do it, and I’m gonna hate it, because he’s not gonna do what I do.”
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for the full story.