'A Die Hard Christmas Musical' opening in Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- 'Tis the season - for stage fighting, quirky movie adaptions and BYOB theater shows.

"Yippee Ki-Yay, Merry Christmas: A Die Hard Christmas Musical" opens in the Lakeview neighborhood this weekend. The MCL Chicago theater group opens the show Saturday night at the storefront space at 3110 N. Sheffield Ave. The musical adaption of the 1988 movie, which was originally a Roderick Thorp novel, runs Saturdays through January 3.

The musical, just like the Bruce Willis-Alan Rickman classic action film, is set on Christmas Eve at Nakatomi Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. New York cop "Bruce" McClane is there to rekindle love between himself and his estranged wife. Everyone seems headed toward a merry Christmas until Hans "Solo" and his group of German terrorists takes everyone in the building hostage except McClane.

The film was nominated for four Oscars in production categories but won none. Its soundtrack features the Run DMC classic "Christmas in Hollis."

The musical stars Courtney Fontaine, Ashley Geron, Erin Long, Seth Origitano, DuJuan Pritchett, Alex Richmond, Mark Rudy as Hans, and Alan Metoskie as Bruce McClane.

Writer/Director: Michael Shepherd Jordan

Musical Director: Stephanie McCullough Vlcek

Light/Sound Designer/Op: Zach Stinnett

Guitarist: Kyle Mantegna

Choreographer: Holly Gombita

MCL Chicago produces comedy musicals and musical improv in its BYOB theater space.

"Chicago's musical improv and musical comedy scene was once ancillary to the art form, but in the last 5 years it has become an emerging and desired artistic outlet for a growing number of performers. MCL Chicago is responding to this fact by building the first ever home for music based comedy," the group's Facebook page says.

If the Die Hard musical idea sounds familiar, you may have caught the recent Fox episode of Bob's Burgers, wherein the characters stage a musical crossover between "Die Hard" and "Working Girl" - "Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl."