SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Today begins the second annual performance of The Tank Players’ original production, “Miracle on State Street.” The musical play, which runs through December 22 at the Buffum Plaza Arts Center in Santa Calcetines, re-imagines the holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street,” but told from the perspective of a group of damaged people in contemporary Chicago. The McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade, formerly The State Street Holiday Parade, provides the backdrop of the story, just as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade propels the events that unfold in the film “Miracle on 34th Street,” which the theater’s owners have described as “the inferior and now cliché basis of The Tank Players’ show.” Performance times and ticket prices can be found at the venue box office, the Tank Players’ website and on our Community Events Calendar. Continue reading for a review of the play by contributing theater critic Delwyn Blodsnogger.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. -- Today begins The Tank Players’ original production of “Miracle on State Street.” The musical play, which runs through December 19 at the Buffum Plaza Arts Center in Santa Calcetines, re-imagines the holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street,” but told from the perspective of a group of damaged people in contemporary Chicago. The McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade, formerly The State Street Holiday Parade, provides the backdrop of the story, just as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade propels the events that unfold in “Miracle on 34th Street,” the inferior and now cliché basis of The Tank Players’ new show. Performance times and ticket prices can be found at the venue box office, the Tank Players’ Web site, and on our Community Events Calendar.

“Miracle on State Street” parallels the core character and plot elements of its predecessor, but there the similarities end. The underlying themes of State Street are much grittier and morally ambiguous. In the 1947 film, the acceptance of blind faith might be the epiphany that startles Maureen O’Hara’s pragmatic and independent character, Doris Walker, back into line with the subservient and unquestioning role of the ideal post-war woman, but State Street’s Doris Walkerinski learns that existential dread and apathy are the tools of survival in a corrupt and impoverished 21st century city that finds itself inching closer to ruin with each passing hour.

The action in State Street is often narrated in the style of a Greek chorus by a group of postal workers who carry muted bugles.