Williamston's Hometown Christmas Comedy Got a Sequel, and This Time Danny Heads to Lansing

"It's time to publicly recognize that the Williamston Theatre owns Christmas." Mary Cusack opened her December 2022 review in Lansing City Pulse with that line, and she was writing about a brand-new play set in the town where it was being performed. Four years later, that play has a sequel. A Lansing Christmas Adventure runs at Williamston Theatre, 122 S. Putnam St., from Nov. 19 through Dec. 27, and tickets have been on sale since Oct. 27.

The sequel matters for more than its dates. Over three productions this story has turned into a local record of downtown Williamston, written by someone who lives close to it. The 2026 schedule also rewards anyone who goes early.

A pen name the whole town could decode

The byline on both plays reads Robert Hawlmark. Said out loud, it sounds a lot like the cable channel behind countless holiday romances, and that's the joke. City Pulse called it "the poorly-kept secret nom de plume of Williamston Theatre co-founder John Lepard." The theatre's own website plays along and calls Hawlmark a "local playwright."

Ken Glickman interviewed "Hawlmark" for the Lansing State Journal before the 2022 premiere. The playwright described how he got ready to write: "I watched 10 of them and I definitely saw many patterns." He said it was his first play and that he finished it in 30 days.

A Very Williamston Christmas premiered Nov. 23, 2022, and ran through Dec. 23, with an official opening night on Nov. 26. In the story, a career-focused woman named Felice is sent home to Williamston by her boss, the villainous Mr. Eared, to acquire a property over Christmas weekend. There she runs into George, her high-school crush and a handsome widower. City Pulse said the script was "chock-full of inside jokes that poke loving fun at Williamston, Lansing and the greater Lansing area."

The script kept pace with downtown

When the play came back for Nov. 14 through Dec. 29, 2024, Emily Sutton-Smith told the Lansing State Journal that Hawlmark had updated the script to include new Williamston businesses and the new name of the Williamston light parade. In between, in 2023, the play ran at Northville's Tipping Point Theatre under the title A Very Northville Christmas. That makes it a template that works in any town once the local jokes are swapped in. The Williamston version is the one that keeps getting rewritten to match its own Grand River Avenue.

Sutton-Smith explained why in the same interview:

"We consume so much media that is national or global. But when you look at anybody's community page, it's full of the local stories. Our daily lives are on a local scale."

She said the lesson Felice forgets is that "it's the everyday, daily stuff that's really important," the things "within your house, on your street, in your school district and in your downtown."

The audience liked the local scale. Heath Sartorius reviewed the 2024 return for Greater Lansing Ubiquitous Theatre and called it "the best way to guarantee laughter for yourself the rest of 2024," citing its Mid-Michigan inside jokes. Encore Michigan praised its "joy and laughter."

Danny was 8, and a grown man played him

The sequel builds on one of the original's running gags. In 2022, George had an 8-year-old son named Danny. City Pulse noted that actor Joe Bailey played Danny along with Mr. Eared, George's father and Felice's fiancé, Jack. Sutton-Smith juggled Felice's mother, her best friend Barb, and an old woman who wanders the park. The script, the review said, acknowledged the quick role changes "with a wink and a smirk."

This year, Danny is the lead. According to the theatre's synopsis, on Christmas Eve he hears troubling news about Santa Claus and sets out across "familiar Lansing pit stops" on a snowy night, meeting new friends while the storm builds and Christmas morning gets closer. The show art puts a Christmas tree in front of the Michigan Capitol.

The first play brought a big-city careerist back to Williamston. The sequel sends a Williamston kid out to Lansing. The theatre hasn't said which Lansing stops he visits, so locals will find out the same way as everyone else, on preview night.

Sutton-Smith is back in the cast with Connor Allston, Jamie Elvey and Patrick Loos. Tony Caselli directs. Bartley H. Bauer designed the set, Shannon T. Schweitzer the lighting, Karen Kangas-Preston the costumes, and Krista Pennington the projections and media.

Twenty seasons in, the founders are still the cast list

The show lands in the middle of a milestone year. Scott Pohl reported for WKAR in September that the same four founders, John Lepard, Emily Sutton-Smith, Tony Caselli and Chris Purchis, are launching Williamston Theatre's 20th season. WKAR traced the idea back to a trip to City Hall. Lepard was living in Williamston in the early 2000s and went in to pay his water bill. He saw posted meeting minutes saying the professional Boarshead Theatre was thinking about moving to Williamston from Lansing. The company's first full production opened on Putnam Street in June 2006.

So the 20th-season holiday show was written by a founder under a joke name, features another founder on stage, and is directed by a third. A company that started with a water bill now writes the town into its own Christmas story.

The first week costs half

The theatre's ticket page lists three price tiers. The first performance is pay-what-you-wish, previews are $23, and every other performance is $46, plus a $2 fee per ticket. The current layout seats 112. In a room that size, the cheapest seats are all in the first four days.

The preview explainer describes what you get for the lower price. The extra Nov. 27 matinee is the day after Thanksgiving, which works for anyone hosting family that week. The Dec. 23 shows are the last chance before the theatre goes dark for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Two box-office rules are worth knowing before you buy. Online sales have no exchanges or refunds. When a performance sells out, the box office keeps a phone wait list, calls people in order, and moves on without leaving a message if you don't pick up.

A week after opening, the parade the play keeps mentioning

The 2024 script was updated for the light parade's new name, and the real parade comes one weekend after opening night. The City of Williamston presents its Winter Wonderland Weekend & Light Parade on Saturday, Dec. 5, and lists the event window as noon to 11:45 p.m. The Choose Lansing listing mentions a holiday Cookie Crawl, a Holiday Market and sleigh rides, with the Holiday Light Parade at 6 p.m. followed by the tree lighting.

Last year the city posted its detailed schedule on Nov. 24, 2025, about two weeks before that parade. Expect this year's Cookie Crawl stops and sleigh-ride details around the same time, about when the curtain goes up on Putnam Street.

For the cheapest seats, catch a preview by the 2 p.m. Sunday show on Nov. 22. For the parade the play has been joking about since 2024, plan on Dec. 5 and get to Grand River Avenue before 6 p.m.

Shelly Hall follows the small things that make downtown Williamston what it is in December, from Putnam Street openings to the parade route. If you'd like to talk about what life near these blocks looks like, request a private consultation.