With ‘Yippee Ki-Yay Merry Christmas,’ Lab opts for over-the-top naughty over holiday schmaltz
This season, Laboratory Theater of Florida is bound and determined to answer the age-old question – is or is not Die Hard a Christmas show? Regardless on which side of the divide you land, you can count on one thing – Yippee Ki-Yay Merry Christmas! A Die Hard Musical Parody is a world apart from 
Tchaikovsky and Dickens. With non-stop action, explosions, dance numbers and jokes galore, Yippee Ki-Yay will leave you feeling nostalgic for one of the greatest action films and film stars of the ‘80s – while placing you, albeit somewhat perversely, in the holiday mood.
“We are coming into the holiday season. The heart longs for family, snow, and heartwarming traditional stories like A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker. 
Yippee is like neither of those things. It’s crass, ridiculous, over-the-top, naughty fun,” notes Lab’s Producing Artistic Director Annette Trossbach with a lilt in her voice. “The music is great, made even better by Earl Sparrow‘s rich harmonies. And it’s a delight to see all of these 1980s Aquanet and mullet hair-dos again.”
Trossbach is 
also proud to stage yet another premiere at The Laboratory Theater of Florida.
“This is only the second production [of Yippee Ki-Yay] in the country,” Trossbach adds. “It’s destined to become a cult classic, just like the movie it was based on.”
Yippee Ki-Yay Merry Christmas! A Die Hard Musical Comedy features Mark King as Bruce McClane, Shakiya Boucher as Holly, John Alday as Nakatomi, Katherine Suero as Terrorist Tony/Klaus, Daniel Sabiston 
as Hans Olo, Reuben Morgan as Carl, Fabrique, Theo, Jency Emo as Willis, Robert Taylor as Arnold and Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Jonattan Declet as FBI Johnson, with Ariana Milian and Tillman Emo joining them in the ensemble.
Yippee Ki-Yay Merry Christmas! runs through December 23. Go here for play dates and times.
December 4, 2023.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.