Review: Yippee Ki Yay: The Parody Celebration of Die Hard, Cullen Theater at Wortham Center, December 20, 2024

Sore Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not is a debate that is sure to erupt at office parties and lively family gatherings this time of year. Looking at Yippee Ki Yay: The Parody Celebration of Die Hard exciting unfolded before us in the Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater, we wondered if the debate should really be whether Die Hard is a rom-com or not. When Richard Marsh’s love letter to Bruce Willis’ 1980s action movies was finished, we left the auditorium with all the warm and fuzzy feelings those movies try to evoke.

Before the blood in this new debate begins to boil, let’s briefly address the old (and frankly, tired): yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, at least according to Marsh, who declares as much within the first 10 minutes of his one-man show. (He also made a strong argument recently in a chat with Houston Press‘s Vic Shuttee). Marsh is an English poet, writer, performer and comedian, but as the show begins, there’s a sense that all these achievements are dwarfed in size for him personally as he steps into the shoes of John McClane, who, as film fans know, will soon be kicked off.

Marsh begins where the film begins, on a plane where McClane is given follow-up advice from a fellow passenger, but the noticeable difference in the scenes is Marsh’s transformation of the film’s dialogue into poetic verse. He’s a London poetry slam master, so the play is presented that way at times. As it progresses, you realize the rhyme schemes change and shift, which is a blessing, as 90 minutes of couplets can be tough, even for a deft and skilled wordsmith like Marsh. Instead, we get everything from free verse to a few neatly timed limericks and who knows, maybe even a sonnet or two.

We may have missed some of the more complex poetic devices, thanks to Marsh’s winning performance. After introducing us to McClane, he shares his personality back to himself, the show’s creator and lone performer, welcoming and thanking the audience for “the best poetry action movie you’ll see on stage today” and warning “this show will contain spoilers.” You might be asking if you had to have seen the iconic film to enjoy Yippie Ki Yay and the answer is no. But the jokes – and there are a lot of them – can hit harder if you’ve seen it once. Marsh surveyed the crowd and only one person said they hadn’t seen the film. She was sitting right behind us and seemed just as invested as us who have seen the movie dozens of times.

Marsh doesn’t just welcome us to the show, he sticks to it. Yippee Ki Yay is not only limited as a parody, but includes a secondary and seemingly autobiographical plotline that chronicles the courtship and marriage of the characters Rich and Jen, who meet at a Die Hard discussion board on Reddit and start a life together. That story weaves through Die Hard scenes and is filled with much more relatable pathos than, say, whether or not it’s a good idea to drop a chair rigged with C-4 explosives down an elevator shaft.

This approach allows Marsh to be present with us as a fan of the film, not just a faceless and impartial narrator, but a guy as geeky about this quintessential piece of American pop culture as we are. Because of the accompanying story, many pop culture easter eggs are scattered throughout the piece and are wonderfully allowed to exist in both timelines, with the telephonic Zoom app creeping into the last century (where it didn’t exist, of course) and NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes , Game of ThronesHBO’s SuccessionThe John Wick movies and Harry Potter’s Professor Snape all get mentions in a play about a movie that has seemingly nothing to do with them.

Speaking of Snape, Marsh saves his most enthusiastic role-playing for the Alan Rickman lines he delivers in Yippee Ki Yay. He becomes a convincing tough guy when he morphs into Bruce Willis as McClane, thanks to Alice White, the play’s voice and accent coach, and Emma Webb, whose movement direction gave Marsh some of Willis’ flair, especially in some hilarious fight scenes. Marsh softens his voice as he delivers bastardized lines once uttered by ’80s actress Bonnie Bedelia, lowering himself to his natural speaking voice for the Rich-Jen storyline. But he is most happy when he offers his theatrical tributes to the film’s two big baddies, Alexander Godunov’s character Karl and Rickman’s Hans Gruber, a movie villain of all time. Marsh enjoys himself on stage, but he shares the love by engaging the audience and making them active participants in Die Hard lovefest too, making us at times “with hostages” and “wedding guests”, among other roles we take on.

While the play provides many laughs, there are also some poignant moments. One in particular was a scene masterfully lit by lighting designer Robbie Butler and given weight by sound designer Ben Hudson. The scene contemplates the life of a sphere, the existential dilemma it must feel given its mission in life. We can’t have been the only viewers pondering this Brit’s take on American gun culture in a week that saw yet another school shooting in the US. Marsh leans heavily on his slam poetry experience in this short but brilliant segment, where the scripted lines never come across as judgmental but still give us plenty to think about. It’s really impactful to take a moment to consider the actual violence inherent in a gunshot when celebrating a movie that features thousands of them.

There’s also a cool thing that occurs as Marsh tells the respective love and marriage stories of John and Holly and Rich and Jen. In a way, they all intertwine in this fictional-non-fictional tale, but to say more might be giving away too much of the good stuff. Let’s just say this: every great rom-com centers on whether its protagonists’ love will survive a crisis. True love doesn’t need a Christmas miracle. It takes the blows, the bullets, the glass in its feet and it goes on. True love dies hard.

Yippee Ki Yay: The Parody Celebration of Die Hard continues on Saturday, December 21 at 14.00 and 19.30 and Sunday 22 December at 3:00 PM in Cullen Theater at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, visit performinggartshouston.org/events. $39-69.