When the 1988 action movie Die Hard was released, the initial reaction was a tad ho-hum, just another film with an invincible hero and a lot of noisy explosions. But Bruce Willis’s performance as a lone good guy who just barely succeeds at besting a horde of bad guys won a lot of fans. The bombastic film is set in an under-construction Los Angeles office tower where investors come together for a flashy holiday celebration that goes a long way off the rails when a team of Eurotrash criminals invade and try to pull off a big-time heist of bonds secured in a heavily protected vault. The chaos begins at a swanky party and continues with a lot of holiday folderol that has resulted in many people feeling that “40 Stories of Sheer Adventure” is truly a Christmas movie with a happy ending despite the astonishing amount of carnage.
The film – selected by the Library of Congress in 2017 for preservation in the National Film Registry – spawned a host of imitators about a hero battling impossible odds in a challenging environment. But it seems unlikely that anyone has seriously considered transforming it into a holiday stage show. Until now. Creative Cincinnati playwrights Alexx Rouse and A.J. Baldwin have partnered to create a clever script, and director Tatiana Godfrey is staging the show as Know Theatre of Cincinnati’s seasonal offering.
Here’s the concept, as portrayed by Know’s publicity: It’s “set inside the suburban home of a family on the brink of collapse. It’s Christmas Eve, and Holly has invited her estranged husband Mack back home to provide a ‘normal Christmas’ to their kids. But when he picks Die Hard for the family’s movie night, the classic ‘Is this a Christmas movie?’ debate takes on a life of its own.”
Godfrey, in a recent phone conversation with CityBeat, explained how this unfolds. The premise is that the events of Die Hard happened in real life, and three years have passed. The “real” Mack has written a book about these events, and it’s getting turned into a movie. Mack and Holly are on the outs, but the kids are scheming a plan. “They have decided that in the same way that Parent Trap tricked feuding parents, they’re going to Die Hard their parents to get them back together. The action portions of the movie — lots of deaths and explosions — are reflected in the home of the family,” rather than in an office tower.
Godfrey assures theatergoers that “you don’t need to know anything about the movie to have a great time. The way that it’s structured, the way we have them following the movie’s plot, it will tell you everything you need to know. If you just show up for a good time, it’s a different choice for families to come together.” In fact, she speculates, “This is going to be beloved in this city. We hope to be doing it as a family holiday tradition for years.”
Godfrey is shaping the production with four actors who play about ten characters in all. “A lot of whom die,” she mentions, “and come back as someone else.” Playwright Rouse plays Lane, the daughter, as well as “multiple goons.” Andrew Ian Adams is her brother, Mack Jr. … but also the villain Hans Gruber (the malevolent role played by Alan Rickman in his first movie). Phineas Clark plays the dad, the “real” Mack. Another busy local actor, Beasley, will be the mom (as well as Al, the down-to-earth police officer who helps Mac).
Godfrey says there are plenty of a-ha moments in the show’s storytelling for anyone who recalls the 1988 movie. “People who love the film will say, ‘Oh, yeah, I recognize that.’ There are a bunch of Easter eggs, and also things that are not like hidden Easter eggs, they are just moments from the movie that people know and love.”
Asked what else people should expect, Godfrey says, “Everybody can enjoy this show whether you’re a die-hard Die Hard fan or somebody who’s not that familiar with the story of the movie. The thing to take away is that there is something here for everyone, including a lot of shenanigans and buffoonery, which we all love. But it’s definitely grounded in the idea of family and what families come together to do at the holiday season.”
In 2018, 20th Century Fox celebrated the film’s 30th anniversary with a re-edited Die Hard trailer portraying it as a traditional Christmas film. Now that Know will push the storytelling to another level the question as to whether Die Hard is a holiday movie, should be resoundingly — dare I say, explosively — answered. Godfrey urges Cincinnatians to get in on the ground floor.
Die Hard is a Christmas Movie, presented by Know Theatre of Cincinnati, opens on Dec. 6 and continues through Dec. 22. More info: knowtheatre.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s Nov. 27 print edition.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 10, 2024.
