Hack and Slash are proud to present their 9th Annual Christmas Special...

“A Hack & Slash Christmas Carol, the Musical!”

This page has all the details you need to take part in this totally unique evening of fun and help make a difference by supporting the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

On this page you'll find:

1. •Links to purchase tickets through TicketLeap
   

2. •Links to video trailers and podcasts interviews as they are released
   

3. •Dates, times and show location
   

4. •Fun details on this year's amazing cast and what's new in this year's show
   

Enjoy and keep checking back in because we’ll be adding exciting new content regularly, as the show approaches!

Purchase Tickets Online Now

Use the discount code on your flyer or join the email list for the best discount!

What  is it? And what's NEW?

Once upon a time Hack and Slash thought it would be funny to do a Christmas Special in the middle of October, as a joke. Years later we're selling out a big theatre and producing a real, honest-to-goodness musical! We've based the show on Charles Dickens' classic tale, "A Christmas Carol" and included our funniest and most talented friends, professional musical theatre performers, a professionally produced musical score, animation and much more into what amounts to the wildest, coolest, craziest show you'll see all year!

We always try to change things up a bit each year, to keep things exciting. This year, we’ll see new cast members and new comedy segments from Slash, The London Broil, Michael Rosman and others. We’ll also be re-writing the story a bit and adding a few very funny scenes. (More on that as the show gets closer.)

Folks may notice that our “Christmas Special” is often being billed as a “Christmas Carol” now. Over the years, the Dickens dimension of the show has grown so much, we wanted to make the concept of the show more accessible to folks who haven’t been before or don’t know Hack and Slash from the Renaissance Festival. With that change, we’ll be getting the creative team together and really looking at the cherished old tale to see what else we can do to bring magic to Dickens’ most popular story. We’ll also be hiring a sound consultant to make sure that the musical performance sparkles like never before.

The Cratchits are back! Tiny Tim’s family was such a big hit last year, we knew we had to bring them back. We’ll feature the guys from the London Broil Comedy Show and other folks from our cast as our Cratchit family! They'll be singing, juggling, cracking jokes and more.

The ladies from Hey Nunnie Nunnie are back as Christmas Past and the other ghosts will be played by outstanding, professional musical theatre performers, including Matt Snyder as Christmas Future and introducing Nathan Hedrick as Christmas Present. Michael Rosman will return to present his Hannukka contribution to our holiday festivities and, of course, the Christmas Ninja Stage Crew will return to perform all the set changes. As always, look for more special announcements and additions to the cast as December approaches. When ticket sales pass a certain point, we are thinking about bring on some surprise guests!

Xmas Show Commercial, 2008
Last year’s was perhaps the most bizarre, amusing and intriguing Xmas Show commercial yet. Animation! Fighting! Ninjas! And a kitty cat!
Watch it now! Now, now!

Presidential Xmas Show Endorsement, 2008
You won't believe who's endorsing this year's Christmas Special! This was filmed backstage last year just before the curtain opened. Enjoy!
Presidential Xmas Show Endorsement, 2008
Impersonation by Jim Neib: buyabush.com

The Hack & Slash YouTube Channel
More great Hack & Slash videos on the Hack & Slash YouTube channel!

The New Best of the Christmas Special DVD! 

Folks have been asking like crazy for the video of all of our previous years’ performances. Well, it’s coming soon! How soon? Very soon. We’re working to have it done in time for Christmas, but it will certainly be out in 2010. Join the email list to get the official release announcement and buy it at a discount in our Pre-Release sale!

The Album!

Hack and Slash and Maia Rodriguez have been working for several years to gather an exceptional cast of professionals to record the musical score of the "Hack and Slash Christmas Carol." The album was recorded in Burbank, CA and will feature new musical tracks of live performances from professional symphonic, theatrical and rock and roll musicians, as well as wonderful vocalists from both coasts. Visit our MySpace and Reverb Nation pages to hear some great tracks from the album.

Got more questions? Email us and we'll try to answer 'em.

OK folks, Uncle Slash has to sleep some time, so check back in a few days and this page will have more updates!

What  else? Are you serious about the pajamas?

Since the very first H&S Christmas Special, it has been tradition for the audience to get into the Christmas spirit and participate in this "fireside storytelling experience" by wearing pajamas. So, get out those fuzzy slippers, grab your teddy bears and come join us at the only Holiday event you can enjoy, jammies-style!

How  do I get tickets?

Tickets will be available online from TicketLeap.com. The show has been the number one selling holiday event on TicketLeap for several months each year!

Click here to Purchase Tickets Now!

When  is it?

There are Three Great Shows! Friday and Saturday, December 11th & 12th at 8pm and Sunday December 13th at 2pm. The shows tend to sell quickly, so to get the best seats, go to TicketLeap and choose your spot from the easy to use, interactive seating chart.

Where  is it?

The Chesapeake Art Center is just minutes from the Baltimore beltway, in Glen Burnie on Ritchie highway. It's a beautiful theater and the parking is free! Visit their website for directions. They aren't selling the tickets this year, so go to our online broker TicketLeap to purchase them. The venue is beautiful with ample, free parking and both a general admission and VIP lobby. The theatre hosts such notable acts as "The Temptations" and other international performing artists when they visit the Baltimore area. The Hack and Slash Christmas Special, the Musical! has garnered some of their all-time largest audiences, and they provide outstanding technical support and audience hospitality to our event.

For you MapQuest.com or GPS users, the address of The Chesapeake Art Center is: 194 Hammonds Lane, Brooklyn Park, MD, 21225.

In the past, the backstage crew wore the traditionally theatrical black clothing with a Santa hat for holiday cheer. One day, we were looking at a picture of them and Slash said, "Geez, they're just a mask away from being some kind of twisted yuletide assassins!" and thus, the Christmas Ninjas were born. In the past, martial artists Patrick Barry and "Ninja John" Bouthner have joined comedians Steve Wannall, Stephon Walker, Paul Belliveau, Lisa Oberg, Dave Olsher and Tim Grieb, as well as acrobat Dan Thurmon and "professional blonde bombshell" April Canter to provided spectacular and silly set changes. This year's troop promises to add new creative dimension to our production... though you may or may not actually see them... until they want you to.

Michael Rosman has entertained enthusiastic and loyal audiences for years at the Maryland Renaissance Festival as a high-wire walker and comedy juggler. He is credited with organizing the world's most unique and creative gathering of variety artists, Motionfest and is well known and respected for this in the thriving industry of circus performers, magicians, jugglers, comedians, mimes and performance artists. We love him though because he's funny as heck and Christmas Special audiences always appreciate his very funny tributes to the Jewish holidays. Over this years Michael has drunk a glass of wine balanced upon his forehead, without the use of his hands; spun a giant beautiful-girl-filled dradel; juggled the candles from a giant flaming menorah and made holiday treats in a blender strapped to his head. What will he pull off this year? Your guess is a good as ours!

The London Broil are Duncan Pace, Louie Szkaradek and Matt Connelly. Together, they are the hilarious Cratchit family. Duncan, who provides the animations for our show and DVDs will appear as the fiddle playing Bob Cratchit, Ebenezer's much oppressed employee. If you know the zany and adorable Louie, then you will appreciate why we have cast him as Tiny Tim Cratchit. Matt Connelly will appear in drag as the tuba-playing Mrs. Cratchit. After seeing Matt's performance, the audience will know the meaning of our latest favorite catch-phrase, "Fear the tuba."

Matt Snyder made a huge splash last year as Christmas Future. The devilishly dark and good-looking Snyder has a beautiful voice and when we heard it on Maia's "Evernight" project we knew we had to have him sing in our special. Check out his intense and spooky vocal performance on our MySpace page!

We are proud to introduce Nathan Hedrick as the Ghost of Christmas Present! Nathan was also featured on our album as the booming and merry voice of Christmas Present. Based in the Los Angeles area, Nathan is a professional opera and musical theater performer for the Los Angeles Opera and up and down the west coast. He is also a stunt and movement artist with credits from the History Channel, Universal Studios Hollywood and Disney’s “Jack Sparrow Stunt Show”.  Hedrick is trained in the circus arts and will be bringing that unique skill set to portray our brand new, “larger than life” interpretation of Christmas Present!

John Davis (Hack) recorded the vocal tracks, now supported by the live string accompaniment that Rodriguez has arranged and directed. The addition of Hack's lament, "Too Late to Change" has given John a new opportunity to stretch his dramatic singing talents and added new depth our story.

Hey Nunnie Nunnie are Dana McCain and Shannon O'Brian. These ladies have entertained audiences for over fifteen years, performing as hilarious singing nuns and have been one of our most popular and most requested special guests. They will return as Christmas Past and will offer a revamped version of their piece of the Dickens tale. They are also expected to join the boys from the London Broil, double cast as additional members of the Cratchit family!

Maia Rodriguez wrote the original musical score and it's amazing! This year's show will include the rerecorded and remixed versions of our entire score from the album. Maia will be featured in the upcoming podcast with behind the scenes discussions about the upcoming album, show, and how we will be evolving the production this year. Maia will also discuss her new project "Evernight" a fantasy, musical storytelling experience which has brought together outstanding professional musical theatre, recording and movie industry artists from her stomping grounds in Hollywood.

Spencer Humm is Slash of the Hack and Slash Shakespeare Company and in this production he will play "Marley's Ghost," "Ebenezer Hack's" deceased business partner. Spencer is the Christmas Special creator along with Maia Rodriguez as composer and musical director. In originally conceiving the show as a musical, he wanted to both take advantage of Maia Rodriguez's musical talents and provide an opportunity for himself and partner John Davis (Hack) to indulge their shared passion for musical theatre. Spencer sang on and produced the new "A Hack and Slash Christmas Carol" album. The soundtrack for those sessions will provide the musical score for the live show this year. Spence also performs standup comedy and recently started a series of local shows n the DC/VA/MD area called, “The DC Comedy Lab”.

Who  is in the show?

Baltimore’s Scariest Christmas Tale...

is also...

Baltimore’s Funniest Christmas Musical!

December

11th,12th& 13th

Chesapeake Arts Center,

Baltimore

Benefits the

Make-a-Wish

Foundation

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Xmas Show Commercial, 2009
The best thing about this year’s promo trailer is music from the all original score by Maia Rodriguez! It also feature performances by the London Broil, Brad Howard, Hey Nunnie Nunnie, Matt Snyder, Ninjas, Michael Rosman and more!
Watch it now on YouTube

Will  this be the last year?

It takes about six months, numerous volunteers and tens of thousands of dollars in capitol to mount this amazing event! The technical planning and rental efforts start January 2nd and demand constant attention with ten hour work weeks beginning in July and escalating to 100 hour weeks in December. We are very proud of this volunteer event and what we’ve been able to accomplish for out audiences and our charities.  As a theater company, Hack and Slash need to take a break and refocus our effort for a season. We will be reevaluating things for next year and hope to come back with something new and different. We appreciate your feedback and support. Who knows, what the future holds? So it’s not goodbye to the show, so much as a heads up. We’ll be sending out surveys to our email list next year to see what people would like. Something new? Bring it back? Let us know what you think! We’ll do our best with our time an energy to keep you all laughing!

It’s coming!