Robert Miller’s hair has gone through extremes this year for his Wagon Wheel Theatre performances. In “Hairspray”, he was clean shaven and tightly cropped to play the mother, Edna Turnblad. Now for the Christmas show, “Miracle On 34th Street – The Musical”, Miller’s hair hasn’t been this long since he was in high school and his beard, usually trimmed, is grown out. “I do walk into places and get called Santa,” Miller said during an interview Monday afternoon. Miller plays Kris Kringle, who believes he is Santa Claus. Whether or not Kringle really is Claus, Miller said, that’s up to the audience to decide. Kringle shows up to the Macy’s Day Parade and the “Santa” at the parade is incapacitated. Kringle takes over as Santa, but when he tells everyone he is the real deal, he ends up on trial, accused of not being sane. While Miller has appeared on the stage for the past 20 years, his 9-year-old co-star, Lauren Housel, has just been in Wagon Wheel shows for the last five years. “She holds it together better than most adults,” Miller said of Housel. “I think I’ve learned a lot from Bob. Since he’s been here longer than me, he knows how to get with the flow better,” Housel said. “I try to keep her from being too serious,” Miller responded. In “Miracle on 34th Street”, Housel plays Susan Walker. “She is a very grown-up little girl who doesn’t believe in Santa Claus until the end,” Housel said. Housel first appeared on the Wagon Wheel stage in “The Sound of Music”, playing Gretel. In her first performance, Housel said, she waved at a neighbor in the audience, and has never lived that down since. Miller’s first show also came with a moment he has never been able to live down. “Brigadoon” was his first show in 1991, directed by then-artistic director Tom Roland. In his first show, Miller was in a kilt. When Miller came out on stage in the kilt, his daughter could be heard exclaiming, “Ha ha! Daddy’s wearing a dress!” His co-star Ann Whitney often reminds him of that moment. Since his start at the Wagon Wheel, Miller said, he’s done about everything there, but it’s all been fun. He said he knows he’s getting old when kids from that first season, who were Housel’s age then, are now having kids of their own and some are Housel’s age. “But it’s fun. That’s the whole part of coming to this theater. It really is a community theater that has generations to it,” he said. “Miracle on 34th Street – The Musical”, Miller said, is based on the original movie from 1947. He said the movie is a classic people should see at Christmas as it is about the message that “everyday we should go out of our way to be nice to each other. That’s what I like about it. I think it has a really good message.” The musical features such songs as “Here’s Love”, “Pinecones and Hollyberries”, Housel said. She likes them because they are good Christmas songs and energetic. Miller said the reprise of “Pinecones and Hollyberries” Housel sings with him is mashed up with “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas” by Meredith Wilson. The music in the show has the same feeling as Wilson’s tune. “It’s familiar,” Miller said of the music in the show, “but it hasn’t been run into the ground for you yet.” The size of the cast is moderate, Miller said. Add in the eight or nine kids in the cast, and it’s even bigger. There’s six sets of dancing pairs, and the leads. “Miracle on 34th Street” also has never been performed at the Wagon Wheel either, Miller said. “It’s another new one for them. The hardest thing for a theater is doing something people will come and see,” he said.A theater can do “A Christmas Carol” often, but other shows like “A Christmas Story” are so often played on television, people aren’t as inclined to pay to go see it at theater. While there are about four different versions of “Miracle on 34th Street”, Miller said, “It’s not played that much. It’s not been force-fed to the people.” The cast for Wagon Wheel’s production of “Miracle” is also great, Miller said. Jennifer Dow plays Doris Walker. “She is always fun to watch,” Miller said. “She’s just one of those people you can enjoy watching.” Greg Pragel, he said, plays Marvin Shellhammer and is very funny. “There’s just a lot of stuff audiences will enjoy and get out of it,” Miller said. “Miracle on 34th Street” will be presented at the Wagon Wheel Theatre Dec. 2-18. Adult tickets are $30 for all shows, tickets for students 13 through college are $16, and children 12 and under are $12. Groups of 15 or more save nearly 40 percent and senior rates are available for Sunday and Thursday matinees. To order tickets or for more information, call the box office at 574-267-8041 or visit the Wagon Wheel website at wagonwheeltheatre.org
