The 1983 movie “A Christmas Story” wasn’t a huge hit when it was released, but its television screenings every December turned it into a cult classic. Certain phrases and moments became iconic: “You’ll shoot your eye out!” A tongue frozen to a flagpole in winter. The pronunciation of the word “fragile.” A double-dog dare.

It became such a holiday touchstone that, in 2009, writers turned it into a musical comedy. Joseph Robinette handled the libretto, and the songs were created by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who went on to become EGOT winners and whose credits include “Dear Evan Hansen,” “La La Land,” and “The Greatest Showman.”

Now, Goodspeed Musicals is staging the musical version of “A Christmas Story” at its Goodspeed Opera House through Dec. 29.

“A Christmas Story,” which is based on Jean Shepherd’s semi-autobiographical book “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash,” is set in 1940s Indiana. Young Ralphie Parker dreams of getting one thing for Christmas: his own BB gun.

Acclaimed director and actor Hunter Foster is helming the Goodspeed production.

When Goodspeed Musicals approached him about directing the show, Foster was immediately excited about the prospect, since “A Christmas Story” is one of his favorite holiday tales, along with “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

“I’ve always just been a big fan of (‘A Christmas Story’) because it’s a bit whimsical and has all the fantasy sequences,” said Foster, who received Tony nominations for his performances in “Urinetown” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Beyond that, he said, “This is one of those shows that — it sounds like so cliché — it’s such a family story. It touches not only younger people — the kids love the fantasy sequences and stuff with the (child actors) — but I think older people reflect on their own lives and what Christmas means to them. It’s a good reminder what Christmas is all about. I think that’s what so great about the ending (after the turkey is ruined, Ralphie’s family has Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant) is that it’s just about them being together, family being together, whether it’s at a Chinese restaurant or at home or wherever. That is the most important thing. Family is the most important thing.”

Music for the ‘Story’

Foster sees the songs in the “Christmas Story” adaptation as heartfelt, traditional music theater with very smart lyrics. He appreciates how Pasek and Paul musicalized the piece. They kept all the elements fans would want to see, like Ralphie dispiritedly wearing a bunny suit he hates and a boy named Flick freezing his tongue to a pole, and “have done a really good job of musicalizing those moments,” Foster said.

Foster noted that a lot of the fantasy sequences seem to be from a child’s perspective, perhaps pulling from tales Ralphie might have heard on the radio. “Ralphie to the Rescue!” is a Western. “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out” is a big speakeasy number where the boys play gangsters.

A bit of trivia: Pasek and Paul both attended the University of Michigan’s musical theater program at the same time as Mara Newbery Greer, choreographer for “A Christmas Story” at Goodspeed. Foster was in the same program earlier on. Pasek and Paul also developed their show based on Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach” at Goodspeed’s Terris Theatre in Chester in 2010.

A big show

Foster didn’t know the musical version of “A Christmas Story” as well as he did the movie, but he knew someone who was quite familiar with it: His wife, Jennifer Cody, played one of the elves in a production of the musical at Madison Square Garden.

Foster also has two people on the creative team of the Goodspeed production who have done the musical version before. Newbery Greer has worked on the show on Broadway and on tour, and music director Andrew Smithson spent several years on the tour.

“There’s a wealth of institutional knowledge they have. Any time we face a challenge, they’re like, ‘Well, we did it this way in order to solve that.’ Because there’s a lot of challenges,” Foster said.

Providing their own challenges are Goodspeed’s famously tiny stage and backstage area.

“Goodspeed has a small stage, has very little offstage space. You have this big show — because it is a big show — and you have dogs backstage, children backstage,” Foster said. “My stage management team has been really on top of it. Backstage is going to be a whole choreography of making sure the kids are ready, the dogs are ready, and the set. ... I mean, I don’t even want to think about what’s going to go on backstage.”

Casting about

The show has a lot of children in the cast. Foster acknowledged that a youngster can be more of a wild card than an adult, but he said, “This group has been exceptional, really exceptional. We do not have any problem kids. They’re just really good kids.”

He said that there are two great wranglers, Morgan Doyle and Willy Kinch, who help manage the children.

Christopher Riley, who was also in the off-Broadway show “The Hunt,” takes on the role of Ralphie.

The canines who portray the Bumpus hounds, who are comic terrors owned by the Parkers’ neighbors, are from legendary trainer Bill Berloni. Berloni started his career by training the original Sandy for “Annie” at Goodspeed. Every day, dogs Gus and Jethro come into Goodspeed for about half an hour and run through their scenes, usually with Jim Stanek, who plays Ralphie’s father.

Stanek and Jenn Gambatese, who plays Ralphie’s mother, are both longtime friends of Foster’s, and they each boast Broadway shows among their credits.

“When their names came up for this, I was like, ‘Absolutely,’” Foster said.

He said that, knowing the performers would be working with children and dogs, he wanted to make sure they were not only good actors but also good and kind people. They had to set an example as well. In addition, Gambatese and Stanek are both parents, which Foster thought was important.

“They are both so good with the kids,” he said.

Stanek and Gambatese have been at Goodspeed before, including Stanek in “James and the Giant Peach” in 2010 and “Passing Through” in 2019 at the Terris Theatre, and Gambatese in “Annie Get Your Gun” in 2010 and “Carousel” in 2012.

Rashidra Scott, who plays teacher Miss Shields in “A Christmas Story” and starred in Goodspeed’s “Anything Goes” in 2016 and “Christmas in Connecticut” in 2022, is “wonderful, so good,” Foster said.

John Scherer, who portrays Jean Shepherd, is one of Foster’s oldest friends. He has a Midwestern sensibility, which Foster thought was what the character needed. Scherer has been in other Goodspeed productions, most recently “The Drowsy Chaperone,” which Foster directed in 2018.

While a lot of the actors have worked at Goodspeed before, so has Foster. This is his seventh production at Goodspeed, his fifth as director. The other times were as a writer of shows including “The Summer of ’42” in 2000 at the Terris Theatre in Chester, which starred Idina Menzel.

Foster loves the area, especially at this time of the year, and he appreciates Goodspeed’s history and tradition. He has known a lot of the people who work at Goodspeed for years, including now-artistic director Donna Lynn Hilton.

He said of Goodspeed, “It always feels like home.”

If you go

What: “A Christmas Story, The Musical”

Where: The Goodspeed, 6 Main St., East Haddam

When: Through Dec. 29. Shows are at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wed., 7:30 p.m. Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 3 and 8 p.m. Sat., and 2 p.m. Sun.; also 2 p.m. on select Thursdays and 6:30 p.m. on select Sundays. There are special holiday schedules for Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks.

Tickets: $30 and up

Contact: (860) 873-8668, goodspeed.org