Can't comment on the stage version of Christmas Story as I've never seen or read it.  Love the movie, though.

If you haven't done it already, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a funny show that uses lots of kids and manages to sneak a "message" in without being even a little bit smarmy.

We did "A Christmas Story" this season and it was a HUGE hit.  Played to a nearly sold-out run.  It's very well written and in my opinion funnier than the movie and the characters actually have a little more depth.

A couple of words of caution though about the show.  The prop list is very long, and specialized (you need two leg lamps - one working the other broken) so get the list to your prop master early.  You'll also need two strong actors to play adult Ralph and young Ralphie.  Adult Ralph is on stage almost the entire show doing all the narration and young Ralphie has to be a strong non-verbal actor to show all the emotions and thoughts that the adult Ralph is talking about.  There's a lot of very fast scene changes too so design a flexible set and have a strong run crew to help with all the scene changes.

The cast can be expanded to add as many kids as you want in the school scenes and at the store to see Santa.  Adult Ralph steps in and plays some of the supporting adult roles, but those could be cast as seperate adults if you really wanted.

Overall it was a fun show for us to produce and we probably could have easily added another week to the show's run and still be sold out.  Just be warned that it's not a simple little Christmas play, it's a full fledged production so don't under estimate the challenges the show has.

I think you might be better off with Best Xmas pagaent.  I don't think there are alot of Christmas shows w/ lots of kids (I could be wrong)

P