‘Three’s Company’ alum Richard Kline joins cast of ‘Christmas on the Rocks’ at TheaterWorks

Like any good mixologist, TheaterWorks’ hip holiday theater show “Christmas on the Rocks” keeps adding new ingredients to keep things fresh and newly intoxicating.

The theater has just announced that for this year’s 11th anniversary edition of the show, Nov. 29 through Dec. 23, there’s a new face behind the bar. It’s Richard Kline, who played Jack Tripper’s best friend Larry for eight seasons of “Three’s Company” in the 1970s and ‘80s.

‘Christmas on the Rocks’ celebrates its 10th anniversary at TheaterWorks with new scenes and the return of an original cast member

Kline is the fourth actor to play the bartender in “Christmas on the Rocks”’ 11-year history, following Ronn Carroll, Tom Bloom and most recently “The Love Boat” bartender Ted Lange (plus asterisks for a one-night stand by local playwright Jacques LaMarre plus a disembodied camera when the show was adapted for livestreaming during the COVID shutdown).

All the other roles are played by two actors billed as “The Man” and “The Woman,” each taking multiple roles.

This year the Man is Harry Bouvy, who originated the role(s) over a decade ago and returned to them last year. The Woman is Jen Cody, who took over from longtime cast member Jenn Harris a few seasons ago.

Kline has decades of live stage experience, including in Connecticut. He was in the first national tour of “Waitress” that played The Bushnell in 2019. He played King Arthur in “Spamalot” at UConn’s Connecticut Repertory Theatre in 2016. Most recently, he was in Mark Lamos’ extraordinary production of Young Jean Lee’s transgressive comedy “Straight White Men” at Westport Country Playhouse in the Spring of 2022.

Suzanne Somers, who played Chrissy on “Three’s Company,” died Oct. 15, spurring fresh interest in the series. Kline has been mentioned in many “Where are they now?” articles regarding the cast of the show.

“Christmas on the Rocks”’s set-up is blessedly simple: in each scene, a man or woman walks into a bar and is revealed to be a well-known character from a Christmas holiday special. Among them are Charlie Brown, Ralphie from “A Christmas Story,” Hermie the Elf from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindoor,” Clara from “The Nutcracker.” All the characters are grown-up and facing mid-life crise like bad relationships, failure or depression. They share their suffering with the kindly bartender, as one does, with hilarious results.

Besides occasionally switching up the cast members, TheaterWorks also swaps out older scenes in the show for new ones. Each scene is written by an established American playwright. Two new scenes, one by comedy writer/producer Judy Gold (in collaboration what Jacques Lamarre) concerning the Little Drummer Boy and one by Jenn Harris about Elf on a Shelf, were added just last year.

A TheaterWorks press release says that another new story is being added this year, but doesn’t give any details. Besides Harris, Gold and Lamarre, the authors credited for this year’s “Christmas on the Rocks” are Jeffrey Hatcher (who wrote the Hermey scene), Matthew Wilkas (Harris’ co-author for the “Frosty the Snowman” bit) and Edwin Sánchez (who contributed what is perhaps the consummate “Christmas on the Rocks” routine, the Nutcracker pastiche “Still Nuts About Him”).

It’s a big year for new faces in Christmas standards. Hartford Stage has just anointed a new Scrooge for its resurgent production of “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas.”

For more information on the 2023 edition of “Christmas on the Rocks” see the TheaterWorks Hartford website at twhartford.org.