Houston has a present under its tree this year, as the writer/performer/comedian Richard Marsh is spending his last days before Christmas performing his one-man reproduction of Die Hard through Performing Arts Houston as Yippee Ki Yay: The Parody Celebration of Die Hard from December 20-22.
But wait, you annoyingly protest – how is the acclaimed Bruce Willis action flick considered a Christmas classic again? Marsh has heard this debate and intends to end it. “For me, it is absolutely definitely a Christmas movie,” he says without fear. “It’s a Christmas movie that I watch not only at Christmas: It’s an all year round Christmas movie. But I think the reason for the disagreements on this comes from the unspoken agreement that a Christmas movie is a movie that you can watch with children. You would watch Home Alone with kids. You would watch Muppet Christmas Carol with kids. I haven’t watched Die Hard with my kids yet. There’s a bit of swearing, a man gets his throat cut open on some glass and there’s a fair bit of cocaine use.”
He concludes: “Some people think it’s a Christmas movie because it’s set at Christmas. And others think it’s a Christmas movie if it’s set at Christmas and you can watch it with children. And Die Hard is one, but not the other. I think that’s where the great battle of our time comes from.”
With this controversy settled, now larger questions can be answered – namely, how did this one-man stunt-filled poetry retelling come to be?
“My ideas often start with something that makes me laugh,” the affable Brit says simply. “In this case, the idea of telling a story by poetry which doesn’t feel like it a poetic story: What’s the opposite of poetry? Action movies. And what’s the greatest action movie? Obviously, Die Hard. Second, whether you have a photo of me or not, but my skinny bespectacled self playing Hollywood hero John McClain felt like a funny thing as well. So that’s two funny things and I’m ready to go.”
While the ingredients were evident, Marsh took longer to cook than expected as other projects found their time to develop. “This was an idea I had on the back-burner,” he explains, “A procrastination project. Then it was during lockdown. Like many people, my life had changed. I was homeschooling my children and that thing I had been writing up to that point, I didn’t feel like writing that perfectly decent but quite sad story. I want to do something that is fun and has as much humanity and comedy and love as I possibly can. I’m gonna try and write my Die Hard show and see how it goes.
The show has since had a life, which is absolutely incredible to me. I’ve been all around Britain, this is my second time to America and I’ve been to Australia. All from this ridiculous idea of retelling Die Hard as this one person poetry play! We also tell a personal story of what it is to be a Die Hard fan. It involved me thinking about what this story actually meant to me.”
Many stories of our youth do not hold up in the light of day. However, Marsh argues that Die Hard has spoken to him across his life for very different reasons. “When I first watched it when I was bit too young [and it was on] on VHS. As a teenager back then, it was the tale of kicking ass.
But watching it again as a parent in mid-life, it was the story of this married couple who had been split apart and are trying to reunite. Like many couples, they argue at Christmas time. And unlike many couples, they then can’t reconcile due to a terrorist attack. I really found myself thinking of John McClain at this family man, fight to get back to Holly this entire movie. I watched it again with an eye of how I’m going to adapt this story and tell it. We tell it pretty faithfully. Everyone comes to this for Die Hard but they leave having laughed their asses off and seeing these crazy stunts done by one person on stage. But also, it is a surprisingly moving show.”
While all audiences matter, Marsh admits that he did recently have a coup: getting to show his ridiculous send-up to one of the first film’s original writers. “I had the immense honor to perform the show to Steven E. De Souza… when he was over in London for a film festival. We put on a special performance of the show for Steven. He came to see it and it was a very strange performance because the audiences were people like me, fan boys, and they came not only to see the show but to see what Steven makes of the show.
“When you watch it’s absolutely the creation of someone who loves Die Hard, but also we have fun with the movie. We talk about what things would be different if you made the movie today, and the somewhat humorous aspects of the film. Very early on, I heard this voice laughing and I think it was Steven E. de Souza, and the crowd kind of broke.”
“It was extraordinary. He did a Q&A and we even got to have dinner with him. That meant a lot to be able to perform for him. He’s a thoroughly excellent human being.”
In the end, it seems Marsh is not only getting laughs, but also is a part of an unofficial movement, as theaters more and more are into booking parody-versions of popular franchises to be seen live.
Look no further than off-Broadway: Friends: A Musical Parody, The Office: A Musical Parody, Singfeld: An Unauthorized Musical Parody About Nothing and even the James Cameron-Celine Dion mash-up Titanique, this is something of a new genre: designed by fans that can both honor and roast with the same brush.
“There are definitely a lot of people doing parody shows at the moment,” Marsh concedes. “One reason is the name recognition, so a lot of people come. Also parodies tend to not have as many actors: shows with small casts are cheaper to produce. I really didn’t know if ours could be staged initially, I really just wanted to write it to lift myself during lockdown.
“I wasn’t really aware what a parody was, but we are a parody and that’s why we’re allowed to do what we do. But I think part of that is a financial budgetary thing, and partly because all these people have grown up loving this stuff, right? And theater is re-told stories. Not to compare these two writers, but… all of Shakespeare’s histories were existing stories. If you choose to make that comparison, I wouldn’t fight it.”
Yippee Ki Yay runs on Friday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, December 21 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 22 at 3 p.m. at Cullen Theater at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, visit performingartshouston.org/events. $39-69.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
