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December 7, 2010

In “Looking at Christmas,” now playing at the Flea Theater. The pleasures … may be fleet and superficial, but they’re a welcome break from the leaden romance that surrounds them.

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Karl
Levett

December 7, 2010

One of the first confectionary offerings of the season, Steven Banks’ "Looking at Christmas" is being delivered by the Bats, the Flea Theater’s lively resident company of young actors. Banks, the head writer for "SpongeBob SquarePants," has concocted for them a Christmas pudding of a show that is heavy on the sugar, with insufficient spice in the mix.

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December 7, 2010

In Steven Banks’ Looking at Christmas, playing at the Flea, a man and a woman embark on a journey through Manhattan to take in the seasonal displays in department store windows after meeting cute in front of Bloomingdale’s on Christmas Eve. However, after the incipient couple gazes at the tableaux that celebrate the season, the figures in each of the windows come to life, offering commentary on their existence and the vagaries of their legacies. Unfortunately, this exercise in holiday-time revisionism often proves to be anything but merry, given Banks’ strained attempts at humor.

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December 7, 2010

The head writer for "SpongeBob SquarePants," Steven Banks also moonlights as the dark and twisted Billy the Mime. Now, he tries to reconcile his sugar-and-spice sides in a new play, "Looking at Christmas." But the romance is overly saccharine, and what’s meant to be edgy, while mildly amusing at times, doesn’t cut very deep.

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