Serving Some Sentiment, Straight Up or With a Twist : A Warped View From ‘X-Mas Files’

Some Christmas plays are heartwarming. Others are rib-tickling. Still others are time-wasting. Here are reviews of just a few of the holiday-themed theatrical offerings in Southern California.

*

Here’s a Christmas comedy for the age of the daytime talk show: “The X-Mas Files,” in which eight very articulate, anthropomorphized reindeer take the stage to discuss the terrible scandal that has so polarized opinions at the North Pole.

Children should not read this review, let alone see this show. Santa Claus has been more than naughty; he’s accused of raping Vixen and molesting Rudolph.

Jeff Goode’s series of monologues is tasteless, of course, but it’s also wickedly funny for those who can drop their defenses. And most of it is acted with such conviction in Allison Gendreau’s staging at Hudson BackStage that you might start to take it seriously--until you remember who we’re talking about.

It helps that the reindeer are such a varied lot--as expressed in their costumes as well as their performances. It might help even more if the play were crowned with testimony from the Fat Boy (in Dasher’s words) himself. Although Comet mounts a brief defense of Santa, generally this show will make you want to plug up your chimney on Christmas Eve.

* “The X-Mas Files,” Hudson BackStage, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Tuesday, Wednesday and Dec. 20, 8 p.m. $7. (213) 851-4355. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.