New Edgecliff is doing its part to provide Cincinnati with a jolly holiday alternative in NPR commentator David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries, the harrowing chronicle of being a Macy's elf.

        Because Diaries is one act, the artistic team has cobbled together a companion piece, Santa: The Man, the Myth, the Legend for after intermission. It makes the evening longer than it should be.

        Diaries is the main event, filled with Mr. Sedaris' ironic, laconic observations. Northern Kentucky University senior David Scott Morgan is a bit too young for the job and doesn't have the New York state of mind the material needs, but he'll be close enough for Mr. Sedaris' many fans.

        We hear about the interviews (including urine and personality tests) that get him to Santaland, the lectures on elf hygiene and the code names for the trail through Santaland to Mr. Claus.

        We hear funny stories about the other elves, Santas, parents and kids and photo moments and even about racism.

        It all gets told on a cozy set with a rocking chair and stockings hung over a mantelpiece. The set is part of the show's problem. There's a sofa that's not necessary for Diaries and completely inappropriate to the news-report format of the show's second half. But once it's there, director Mary Jo Beresford feels like she has to use it.

        Our elf monologuist is all over the stage, at times forcing the material. The truth is the material speaks quietly and wryly for itself.

        In the show's second half, David McCallum and Alana Antolak come on as news anchors for WNPT (that's North Pole Television) with a State of the Pole Report. They look silly on the sofa; the material would have been far more effective at an anchor desk.

        There are several takes on “'Twas the Night Before Christmas,” the funniest being an X Files bit (“The truth is up there!”) and some attention to “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

        Aretta Baumgartner plays a variety of roles from a special news reporter to a physician reporting on Santa's health.

        Some of the material is inherently funny and well chosen by Michael Shooner and Ms. Beresford, but again the actors are urged to force the comedy and they occasionally flatten it.

        What's on stage is an odd combination of too little and too much. Sometimes there's too little inspiration, others there's too much hackneyed, uninspired business.

        There's enough raw talent (Mr. McCallum in particular) that all three make you want to see them in other circumstances.

        Santaland Diaries, through Dec. 23, Aronoff Center Fifth Third Bank Theater. 241-7469.

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