It’s not necessarily a settled truth that life would be better if people broke into song every few moments. (As you will soon attest when I sing this review to you.)
But Lamb’s Players Theatre makes a pretty good case for the idea with the latest in its long-running “Festival of Christmas” series.
Of course, Lamb’s has loaded the deck, since a vocal group is built right into the plot of “It’s Christmas and It’s Live!,” an encore piece by Kerry Meads that’s set in a 1950s Manhattan television studio.
But the show, while shot through with songs, is not really a musical, which makes it all the more satisfying when one of its everyday, non-performer characters — a studio gofer, a TV director, the tech guy from up in the booth — pitches in on an impromptu holiday tune.
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And the show levitates to a whole new plane of enjoyment when Nicki Elledge applies her stirring voice (with its songbird vibrato) to “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”
Elledge’s character, Delores “Kitty"Bloom, is in New York as a member of a contest-winning Iowa vocal quartet that’s been invited to perform on a live variety show hosted by the self-consciously suave Steve Fairfield (a comically unctuous Brent Schindele, who not only plays a mean piano but is prone to checking his reflection in its lid).
But a Christmas Eve storm has kept the other guests from getting to the UBC-TV studio, so the Harmonaires — who also include the Harmon siblings Ronald (Michael Louis Cusimano) and Roseanne (Caitie Grady), plus “Wally” Beaman (Beau Brians) — are about all the show’s got.
That’s much to the distress of the terminally uptight director, Mr. Delmonico (David Cochran Heath) and his nervous, obsessive tech assistant, Frankie (Omri Schein). Delmonico’s assistant, Lacy (portrayed by playwright and Lamb’s principal Meads herself) tries to slow his roll, as does the chipper and on-the-spot studio apprentice Marcie Kramer (Sarah Errington).
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Also popping in is “Auntie” Opal Snowden, the wife of the show’s toothpaste-peddling sponsor; Eileen Bowman lends her offbeat comic presence and matchless pipes to the role, and manages to do it while toting around a sometimes scene-stealing little dog.
Deborah Gilmour Smyth — a Lamb’s associate artistic chief, as is Meads — directs with a loose-limbed feel, and Vanda Eggington’s original arrangements combine with G. Scott Lacy’s musical direction to make the harmonies sparkle on numbers such as a “Sleigh Bells” medley (with the ever-kinetic and funny Schein even snapping a belt in time to the music).
It’s also good to witness the return of Heath, a former Lamb’s mainstay, to the company, in a role that runs against the grain of his often more easygoing style; and a treat to see the sweet-voiced and versatile Errington make her Lamb’s debut.
The whole ensemble clicks together, even if the show has its lulls, as with the slow start to Act 2 and a recycled Burns-and-Allen bit that falls flat.
The spirit of the “Festival” is apparently contagious: On opening night, as the cast harmonized on an “Oh Come All Ye Faithful"-led medley, even the dog got in a yip.
“It’s Christmas and It’s Live!”
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through Dec. 29.
Where: Lamb’s Players Theatre, 1142 Orange Ave., Coronado.
Tickets: $24-$82 (discounts available).
Phone: (619) 437-6000
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Online: lambsplayers.org
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Review: Voices bring vibrancy to Lamb's Players Theatre's latest 'Festival of Christmas' show in Coronado - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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