When Calgarians are asked about their favourite Christmas theatre traditions, unquestionably Theatre Calgary’s long-running A Christmas Carol would come to mind.

But for the past decade, Forte Musical Theatre Guild’s Naughty… but Nice! has been a not-so-secret Christmas musical theatre sensation that eschews the supernatural for silly, sweet, and often sincere storytelling and songs about what people actually experience during the holidays.

Sweet but risqué is how the show describes itself.

Take fan and actor favourite Baileys For Breakfast, about just wanting to take the edge off the Christmas season with a dash—and much to the punchline of the song, not so much a dash—of Irish cream with coffee. Exactly in that spot of being just a little bit racy, but also entirely relatable.

But much like the wrapping paper cleanup of Christmas mornings gone by, this year, unfortunately, marks the last time that Naughty… but Nice! will be performed by Forte.

“This one is going to be really bittersweet having had a chance to be in it for eight of the 10 years, and it has become such an alternative Christmas tradition,” said actor Scott Olynek.

“What’s been really fun is every single year, we get to see just more and more return faces. And more and more it’s become, I don’t know if this is the right way to put it, but almost like a like an inside the inside scoop that everyone shares.”

He said that the annual return of fan favourite songs, including Baileys For Breakfast, Pin My Tree, and Come to the Table (confidently also favourites of Olynek’s to perform) have become irreverent classics for attendees and are joyous for the cast to perform each year.

“Come to the Table, I’ve always just loved the feeling of the song, and I love singing it, and the performing of it,” he said.

Another song that has been in the show since the first season, To the People We Lost, is another one that despite being more saccharine than silly, has been an emotional hit for attendees for the past decade.

Olynek describes it as one of the down-to-earth anchors of the show that also brings a lot of heart to a show about Christmas.

Quality of the production has been at the heart of a decade of shows

Part of the reason why Olynek said that Naughty… But Nice! has been run for a decade has been as a result of the high quality of the production itself, from the musical direction of Joe Slabe, songwriting by Dan Perrott, the direction of JP Thibodeau, to the choreography of Danielle Desmarais among others.

“It’s an early Christmas gift that comes every year for the last eight of the 10. It’s not hard work to come up with these characters because they’re so well written, it’s not hard work to make this sound good because it is a good song,” Olynek said.

Slabe said that he along with Perrott have been really able to step into the shoes of the characters they’ve written, and have often been able to write with specific actors in mind.

“Katelyn [Morishita] suggested an idea for a song last year, and to sort of entice her to come back, I said, ‘well, if you come back, I’ll write the song for you called Holiday Love,'” he said.

“She suggested the idea about a woman who, she sees all the happy couples around her during the holidays, and she wishes that she had her own sort of holiday love. So that’s part of that complicated relationship with the holidays, right? You’re almost expected to have a partner between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day.”

He said that overall the show has tended to be about the joy and sometimes nostalgia of the holiday season.

“I don’t think that you can diss the holidays. I really feel like there is a reason why we do it every year, and it’s about family or chosen family or friends, and also it’s about marking the passage of time,” Slabe said.

“There’s things about it that we love, there’s nostalgia for our childhood wrapped up in it. But it’s also a time when you might feel pressure to get together with people that you might have a strained relationship with, or you might feel pressure financially that you have to give gifts. So there’s, there’s that baggage that comes with it, but there’s also a lot of joy and nostalgia and happiness.”

All good things must come to an end… but not just yet

Slabe said that this year, the 10th season of the show, felt like the right time to go out on top.

“Every year we’ve gotten a bigger following, but 10 seems like a really great number to go out on,” he said.

He said that this year they reached out to as many alumni as they could from previous years to entice them to return to the stage.

Although not everyone could because of other commitments, or having moved away from Calgary, he said that many were able to send back video messages of what they liked best about doing the show.

“We also have the idea that all the songs from previous shows are sort of gifts. So, at a certain point in the show, the audience has the choice of, do you want to choose this song or this other song, and whatever song they pick, we will do it. We’re also asking people for their favourite traditional Christmas songs, and we’re gonna weave those into the show, too,” Slabe said.

“I’m really celebrating 10 years of all these amazing songs that we’ve done. It’s been 60 songs over the last 10 years that we have programmed as part of Naughty… but Nice!”

For Olynek, he said that audiences shouldn’t miss what was going to be one of the funnest and funniest nights of the year—or afternoon should they take in one of the matinees.

“You will look back on and think ‘man, like I’m so glad we did that.’ You’re gonna leave with a big smile on your face… and this is the last chance. This is it. Like, don’t miss out if you’ve been putting it off. This is the last opportunity,” he said.

“To the people that have been a part of it from year one, or from year two, or five, or whenever people have come in and have gotten on the train with us: It’s going to be really wonderful. But even the people that come for their very first time this year, I think that it’s really hard for newbies not to get swept up with it.”

Slabe said that the success over the years has been remarkable, with some people buying 5, 8, 10, or even 20 tickets for them and their friends.

“People come in big groups to see the show, which I think is really unique. It really feels like a super fun night out. People laugh a lot, they have a good time, and they also get in the spirit of the holidays, because we always have that as part of the show,” he said.

“It’s meant to be something that you share with those that you care about.”

Performances for the final season of Naughty… But Nice! run from Dec. 6 to 23, at cSpace. Tickets are available on sale now at www.fortemusical.ca/tickets.